In WatchOS 10, side button now useless

[rweed]

I rarely use control center. The recent apps list I use all the time. So, naturally, Apple changed that.

Have to double-click the crown now to get the recent app list...and wear out that button, you know, so you have to buy a new watch.

FU Apple!

 

[xaqt93]

Ehhh. I highly doubt it is going to wear out that button the way you think it is going too. Haha. I have had my Series 5 now since the day it came out and it works fine. Works just like the day I got it. I don't even look at the battery because I charge it every night and it still lasts all day and my days can be extremely long. But I still have never seen the "Low battery" alert. Anyway...what I am saying is, I really don't think the Button is going to wear out just because you have to double press it now.

 

[Arctic Moose]

If you manage to wear out a button by using it normally I’ll buy you a new watch.

(Personally, I never ever use the side button, but I use control center at least twice daily, so now the button actually does something useful for me.)

 

[xaqt93]

If you manage to wear out a button by using it normally I’ll buy you a new watch.

But response ever! Exactly my thought!

 

[rKunda]

I don’t worry about wearing it out. I do miss the favorites dock though. I can’t seem to pin the apps I want to anymore

 

[rweed]

Thanks for the fanboi answers.

"Smart stacks" another pointless feature. That is why complications are there.

 

[dsteve]

I don’t worry about wearing it out. I do miss the favorites dock though. I can’t seem to pin the apps I want to anymore

I liked and used the favorites dock, too. But I like the new grid view app view and just moved my favorites to the top. I think I actually like it more this way.

 

[flybass]

Thanks for the fanboi answers.

"Smart stacks" another pointless feature. That is why complications are there.

I agree that so far it doesn’t seem useful. Having said that, usage still seems optional as you could have your usual watch face with complications.

 

[rKunda]

I liked and used the favorites dock, too. But I like the new grid view app view and just moved my favorites to the top. I think I actually like it more this way.

I hadn’t thought of this. I only ever used the list view.

This sounds great. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Asiatic Black Hebrew]

Thanks for the fanboi answers.

"Smart stacks" another pointless feature. That is why complications are there.

I'm assuming by "fanboi" answer, you mean common sense.

I'm not a fan of the change either, but as others have said, worrying about "wearing out" the button is certainly a non-issue.

 

[boss.king]

I originally didn't like that they moved the control centre to the button. I never used the dock/recent apps/whatever it was called, I was just used to swiping up to get to use CC. Now that I've been using it for a couple of weeks, I'm happy with the change and I really like the widget stack thing they've added.

 

[jz0309]

I used the control center multiple times per day, it was easier to swipe up vs the side button, but, as I am a creature of habit, I'll get used to it ... up until Apple decides to change it again ...
They could have assigned widgets to the side button, but they didn't ...

 

[BenGoren]

The “swipe from bottom” action never set all that well with me. I could certainly do without it. Why not also swipe from left / right? That used to change watch faces, which sometimes happened randomly as a result for no good reason.

I’m also not too fond of swiping down for the notifications — especially since that clears the red dot. For me, I want the dot to show whenever there are notifications, whether read or unread. And I’d be fine with rotating the crown down to view them.

I was skeptical of the descriptions I was hearing of the UI revamp … but I’m cool with it after only a day. The new widget stack, for example, has more promise than I was expecting. All in all, I’m cautiously optimistic.

Incidentally … double-clicking the side button for tap-to-pay isn’t “useless”; it’s close to the most useful feature of the watch. (For me, at least.) So the side button is pretty darned emphatically not “useless” in watchOS 10.

b&

 

[Debauch]

Here’s another one for you … if you use the Siri watch face then you don’t get widgets and you still lose access to favorites/recents. What the heck Apple?!?

 

[boss.king]

Incidentally … double-clicking the side button for tap-to-pay isn’t “useless”; it’s close to the most useful feature of the watch. (For me, at least.) So the side button is pretty darned emphatically not “useless” in watchOS 10.

100% agree. I do this so often that I didn't even think about it when typing my reply, it's just the instinctive way I pay for things now.

 

[CharlesShaw]

To paraphrase the old saying about the weather, if one doesn’t like the Apple Watch user interface, just wait five minutes until they change it again.

 

[NT1440]

Thanks for the fanboi answers.

"Smart stacks" another pointless feature. That is why complications are there.

It’s being a fanboy to laugh at the ridiculous notion of wearing out the button?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Change can be hard for some to get used to. I am not really bothered by WatchOS 10. After several days, it will seem like old hat.

 

[zach-coleman]

Thanks for the fanboi answers.

"Smart stacks" another pointless feature. That is why complications are there.

Not useless if you use the 1/3rd of the watch faces that have zero spaces for complications.

 

[boss.king]

Not useless if you use the 1/3rd of the watch faces that have zero spaces for complications.

Even if you use the fully-loaded faces they're not useless. I used to have 3 modular faces each set up for different purposes. Now I've gotten it down to one modular and one pretty basic face with a couple complications and everything I used to do from complications now lives in the widget stack. It's less cluttered, easier to find things, and I don't have to switch faces 10 times a day to find the thing I wanted to use.

I swear people are crapping on this feature before even giving it an honest chance.

 

[johannnn]

I rarely use control center. The recent apps list I use all the time. So, naturally, Apple changed that.

Have to double-click the crown now to get the recent app list...and wear out that button, you know, so you have to buy a new watch.

Same here. I used the recent app lists all the time to do basic "multitasking". The control center I used not even once per day...

 

[Monkswhiskers]

Works for me, never used the dock and hated swipe up for control centre (hit and miss with sweaty fingers.). I like smart stacks as I can now use watch faces that don't have complications whereas before I never did.
Horses for courses I guess. But for those missing the old way there should be the option to change back.

 

[KeanosMagicHat]

I rarely use control center. The recent apps list I use all the time. So, naturally, Apple changed that.

Have to double-click the crown now to get the recent app list...and wear out that button, you know, so you have to buy a new watch.

FU Apple!

Interestingly I completely agree that I do not like the change they have made to the side button in watchOS 10.

Whereas you're not a user of control panel,I use it all the time, but I preferred being able to just swipe up from the bottom of the watch screen to access it.

I also used the side button for the previous functionality so for me this is a downgrade.

It seems in this case Apple have been able to frustrate both you as a non-regular user of control centre and me as someone who uses it almost every day.

Sadly I did not take part in the beta this year even though I had access to it.

Had I done so, I would definitely have made this point during the programme for the development of watchOS 10.

---
Edit:

Just to give my opinion on the mechanical button aspect.

It's probably an extreme position to talk about wearing it out, but I can see the point that was being made in that if there is a software way of achieving something rather than using a mechanical button then that is potentially better because Mechanical buttons can break – that's a fact.

Now this may not be down to just repeated usage, there can be defects from manufacture on individual products, so if there's a way to avoid using that button through a software interface that minimises whatever (albeit potentially small) risk there may be.

 

[saintmac]

I slightly prefer having the side button trigger control center rather than the dock.
I wish Apple had gone a different route with the button remapping though.
Something like: pressing the crown validates (like the new snap fingers feature of S9) and side button goes back.
Having the ability to control most watch features without the screen would be useful in many cases such as:
- when running (pressing buttons is much less prone to error than tapping the screen)
- when swimming (screen is locked)
- without having to look at the screen.

If they don't do that, I would at least hope that they would give the option to remap the side button to any feature (like the action button). And that they make the digital crown control volume when the watch is idle without having to look at the watch.

 

[Fleetboy]

I miss the dock immensely. None of the new features can replace what the dock could do.

Apple fixed a problem that didn't exist in moving control panel over to the side button & eliminating the dock.

And why do away with the dock, anyway? The dock module surely took up little coding space, already existed, and could have easily been triggered some other way. Or as suggested above, allow remapping of the side button so we can decide for ourselves.

Apple: I want my dock back!