Bring iPhone Gesture Navigation to watchOS

[symphony]

Hear me out, I know the display is rather small, but it would make navigating between the watch face and apps much more faster.

I use the Meridian watch face a lot, and I wanna open all four complications to see a summary of information from each, however I would have to keep leaving the display and press the crown repeatedly.

Pressing the crown on the side can be annoying at times, it’s dependent on the band and how tight you wear them.

A loose band is enough to shift your watch and unstraighten it’s position. Sometimes even moving it up your wrist.

Bands like the Milanese loop easily lose their tightness, so when you do press the crown you might need to grip the body of the watch with two fingers to push the crown.

Having gesture navigations on the watch would mean we wouldn’t have this, you don’t gotta apply any pressure, it’s just gentle swipes on the display. Also, your finger remains near the display, so you can close apps quickly.

It’s the same convenience as having a trackpad on an iPad, you don’t need to reach out to the display since your hands can rest near the trackpad and keyboard.

Since most people scroll with the Digital Crown, I don’t think the display would be too small.

Having gesture navigation would be great for switching between apps like we do on iPhones.


And we don’t get to smudge the side of the watch body anymore. Gesture navigation would improve the ‘quality of life’ imo

 

[SarahTX]

Nevermind.

 

[Night Spring]

Um, no... You don't like pressing the crown, so you want to use swipe up to close apps, but that would force us to use the crown to scroll, since swiping up would now close the app. You still have to involve the crown in one way or other. You say it's easier for you to scroll the crown than to press it, but for me it's the other way around. So for me, this is a complete NO.

 

[symphony]

Um, no... You don't like pressing the crown, so you want to use swipe up to close apps, but that would force us to use the crown to scroll, since swiping up would now close the app. You still have to involve the crown in one way or other. You say it's easier for you to scroll the crown than to press it, but for me it's the other way around. So for me, this is a complete NO.

How fat are your fingers that you keep swiping from the edge? I never had issues swiping just from the display either.

I don’t think what I said anyway, meant you are forced to use the crown. You could still swipe from the display. It ain’t hard to train yourself to not drag your finger from one edge to the other when you can use momentum to fling yourself.

And I am clearly referring to the iPhone gesture navigation, so you swipe from the edge. Not a swipe up from anywhere to close the app.

 

[edhchoe]

 

[Night Spring]

How fat are your fingers that you keep swiping from the edge? I never had issues swiping just from the display either.

I don’t think what I said anyway, meant you are forced to use the crown. You could still swipe from the display. It ain’t hard to train yourself to not drag your finger from one edge to the other when you can use momentum to fling yourself.

And I am clearly referring to the iPhone gesture navigation, so you swipe from the edge. Not a swipe up from anywhere to close the app.

My fingers aren't fat, but I do have some mobility impairment due to cerebral palsy. I think elderly people might also have problems with inadvertently swiping from the edge when they mean to swipe from the middle of the screen. I think Apple has thought it through to make the Watch usable for the greatest number of people.

 

[symphony]

My fingers aren't fat, but I do have some mobility impairment due to cerebral palsy. I think elderly people might also have problems with inadvertently swiping from the edge when they mean to swipe from the middle of the screen. I think Apple has thought it through to make the Watch usable for the greatest number of people.

I would hope for an accessibility feature for your impairment then

 

[Night Spring]

I would hope for an accessibility feature for your impairment then

Why change what works? If Apple switches to the way you want, they'd need to add an accessibility feature to make the watch work for me. Right now, it works fine for me the way it is, and it works for you, too, though perhaps a second slower than you would like it.

 

[symphony]

Why change what works? If Apple switches to the way you want, they'd need to add an accessibility feature to make the watch work for me. Right now, it works fine for me the way it is, and it works for you, too, though perhaps a second slower than you would like it.

They both work. Gesture navigation is better, which is why Apple moved to it with iPhone and iPad. Apple shouldn’t have to be held back by impaired people, that’s why there’s an accessibility features for people like you. And, you can use the home button and use swipe navigation on iPad. So that’s a hint for you. Whatever I’m suggesting is not set in stone, gesture navigation is just the future for touch screens

 

[Night Spring]

Gesture navigation is better, which is why Apple moved to it with iPhone and iPad.

I disagree. It might be better on a screen the size of the iPhone and bigger, but not for something small like the watch. The number of people who will have problems with it increases as the screen size decreases.

 

[symphony]

I disagree. It might be better on a screen the size of the iPhone and bigger, but not for something small like the watch. The number of people who will have problems with it increases as the screen size decreases.

Yeah, well more often the people who dislike change are the most wrong.

No point in trying to persuade me, plus from my experience this is no different than people disagreeing with me that iPads shouldn’t have cursors 🤷🏻 It was a brilliant change when it eventually happened

I played with the idea of gesture navigation on my watch, and it isn’t actually all that cramped. It would be difficult for you to understand as you mentioned earlier because of your impairment.

 

[Night Spring]

I played with the idea of gesture navigation on my watch, and it isn’t actually all that cramped. It would be difficult for you to understand as you mentioned earlier because of your impairment.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. Who knows, maybe someday Apple would implement your idea, and then we would be able to actually test who was right.

BTW, I haven't tried the cursor on the iPad thing, because just not interested. That kind of change, I don't mind, because it doesn't affect me if I'm not interested.