In WatchOS 10, side button now useless

[dsteve]

I wish it was possible to customise the buttons so they functioned as previously, and not fan of a lot of the changes. Mostly i hate that it's not possible to access control center with an "up swipe", i do not like using the side button for that. Why make this change?

Just my take, but I think they had a few design goals in mind:
- They want Control Center to be available within apps
- They didn’t need widgets to be available within apps
- They want apps to be able to swipe up, and they didn't want people to have to differentiate between swipe from edge and swipe from middle.

So, they needed a place for widgets, and decided to put them on bottom swipe, moving CC to the lower button. The dock then moves to crown double tap, with grid view being the closest option to favorites mode of dock - reducing the number of buttons used specifically for app launching to one.

Notice that swiping down from top edge doesn’t bring down notifications within apps (Ex: weather, fitness)? That’s a reason why I infer the italicized part above.

edit: I guess nowadays I have to say it: I’m not devaluing anyone’s opinion, I totally get people being upset about this and it’s just as valid as mine or anyone else’s. I just spend some time thinking “WTF apple?”, came to this, and sharing my thoughts.

 

[JulianL]

If you’d be willing to do that so you can do one swipe long press/swipe and one two taps for 2x9 apps, why not use the grid view and manually sort it by importance?

That is a button push and a tap for 17 apps (45mm series 7 sized screen), and scroll access to all others.

My reply was expressing agreement with someone who was mourning the removal of the left and right swipes so I think your introduction of ”long press/swipe and two taps is a bit disingenuous since it ignores the context of my comment. It was pretty clear my suggestion was in the context of left/right swipe still existing so on that basis it simply becomes a choice between press and tap or swipe and tap and I find swipes more convenient than button pushes because I wear my watch quite loose so I have to grab both sides to do a press. The point I was making was that rather than remove the swipes I wish that Apple had built on the concept. I agree that now the swipes are gone the concept of a launcher face doesn’t make sense any more since long-press a swipe and two taps to launch something makes no sense.

It’s a shame though that Apple has also, in my opinion, reduced the utility of the launcher’s grid view by moving away from the honeycomb layout. Currently on my honeycomb grid I can launch 27 apps on my 41mm watch with no scrolling required because I find even the very smallest 10 icons right on the edges of the screen are still big enough for me to know what is what and to accurately tap on them. I wish that rather than replacing the honeycomb grid with the linear grid Apple had added the linear grid as a third option.

 

[dsteve]

My reply was expressing agreement with someone who was mourning the removal of the left and right swipes so I think your introduction of ”long press/swipe and two taps is a bit disingenuous since it ignores the context of my comment. It was pretty clear my suggestion was in the context of left/right swipe still existing so on that basis it simply becomes a choice between press and tap or swipe and tap and I find swipes more convenient than button pushes because I wear my watch quite loose so I have to grab both sides to do a press. The point I was making was that rather than remove the swipes I wish that Apple had built on the concept. I agree that now the swipes are gone the concept of a launcher face doesn’t make sense any more since long-press a swipe and two taps to launch something makes no sense.

It’s a shame though that Apple has also, in my opinion, reduced the utility of the launcher’s grid view by moving away from the honeycomb layout. Currently on my honeycomb grid I can launch 27 apps on my 41mm watch with no scrolling required because I find even the very smallest 10 icons right on the edges of the screen are still big enough for me to know what is what and to accurately tap on them. I wish that rather than replacing the honeycomb grid with the linear grid Apple had added the linear grid as a third option.

Nothing disingenuous intended about it, no need to try to discredit me or read something into this beyond what I wrote.

edit: deleted sentence meant in jest as I discovered it can be interpreted as against forum rules.

FWIW, I absolutely agree with you about the swipe change...I absolutely hate the change away from a simple swiping to switch faces.

 

[CharlesShaw]

Just my take, but I think they had a few design goals in mind:
- They want Control Center to be available within apps
- They didn’t need widgets to be available within apps
- They want apps to be able to swipe up, and they didn't want people to have to differentiate between swipe from edge and swipe from middle.

So, they needed a place for widgets, and decided to put them on bottom swipe, moving CC to the lower button. The dock then moves to crown double tap, with grid view being the closest option to favorites mode of dock - reducing the number of buttons used specifically for app launching to one.

Notice that swiping down from top edge doesn’t bring down notifications within apps (Ex: weather, fitness)? That’s a reason why I infer the italicized part above.

edit: I guess nowadays I have to say it: I’m not devaluing anyone’s opinion, I totally get people being upset about this and it’s just as valid as mine or anyone else’s. I just spend some time thinking “WTF apple?”, came to this, and sharing my thoughts.

Of course there were reasons, and I learned long ago that it’s pointless to battle the windmills of Apple’s decisions, so I’m re-training my muscle memory and changing up my complications, and will probably make some more changes to the “workflow” before settling into something that I leave the same for years.

But I was HAPPY with what I had. And we use these devices in situations where we do not want to be distracted and fumbling with screens and buttons, so yes, I’m annoyed that I have to change how I use my Watch.

 

[JulianL]

Nothing disingenuous intended about it, no need to try to discredit me or read something into this beyond what I wrote.

edit: deleted sentence meant in jest as I discovered it can be interpreted as against forum rules.

FWIW, I absolutely agree with you about the swipe change...I absolutely hate the change away from a simple swiping to switch faces.

No problem. I was probably - ok, certainly- a pit too prickly in my reply. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to imply any malice on your part.

I liked your post on the different issue of moving the control panel to the side button and the way you tried to put yourself into the mind of Apple as to why they did what they did. Any similar thoughts on possible rationale for why Apple has done away with the swiping between watch faces?

 

[dsteve]

...Any similar thoughts on possible rationale for why Apple has done away with the swiping between watch faces?

All good. So I didn't think much on this and just assumed it was because of concern on their part over accidental face changes for some users.

As swipe from top and swipe from bottom are both things, there's seemingly no explicit reason to not be able to have left and right swipes, too.

It's entirely possible that they bring it back one day for some other purpose, I guess.

 

[JulianL]

All good. So I didn't think much on this and just assumed it was because of concern on their part over accidental face changes for some users.

As swipe from top and swipe from bottom are both things, there's seemingly no explicit reason to not be able to have left and right swipes, too.

It's entirely possible that they bring it back one day for some other purpose, I guess.

I‘ve been trying to fathom Apple’s thinking on the left/right swipe removal for a while. Apple have people paid big salaries to look at this stuff, who probably also have significant stock options so a way bigger vested interest in making the right calls than the rest of us, so I‘m sure it was a much-discussed decision with rationale that was compelling enough for Apple to do it but I can’t for the life of me think what it was.

Maybe it was because of complaints about accidental face changes but it that was the sole reason then personally I would have added an option in settings to disable them so that people could have them or not. Ironically I have pretty much never changed watch face accidentally with the swipes but I have very frequently, sometimes multiple times an hour, accidentally done a long-press on my active watch face and gone into edit mode. When I’m curled up on my couch reading something on my iPad my wrist seems to naturally rest face down on the top of my thigh and that triggers edit mode quite frequently until I manage to get into a slightly less comfortable position that orients my wrist differently.

Yes, maybe it Is something that Apple might u-turn on. They have done that a couple of times that I can think of. A long time ago on the iPad they changed the slider button that was on older iPads from orientation lock to something else (I forget what - mute?) and after customer feedback made the behaviour customisable between the two alternatives. And then there’s the more recent Safari top/bottom address bar thing.

I ended up with my most likely hypothesis being your closing thought - they have other uses in mind for those swipes. If that is the reason then that’s quite intriguing because I can’t imagine what those alternative uses might be.

 

[Zahni]

My workout workflow:

Start Spotify from dock, start the workout and lock the scree from the workout app.

Both this is not longer possible. Why has the screen lock button in the workout app disappeared?

 

[spinedoc77]

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!

I don't get this either, but I've grown accustomed to Apple's taking away of choices in their quest to satisfy the least intelligent people in the world who need something dirt simple in order not to get confused.

 

[spinedoc77]

Double press the crown my friend, you will have your dock back.

You do realize there is a marked difference between "recent" apps and the dock which was a customizable place for your favorite apps?

 

[spinedoc77]

Agree, except for those watch apps without widgets. Can't put 'em in the smart stack. So, for now any way, you have to choose between scrolling through the app list or using the grid view.

Not only apps with no widgets, which are pretty much all of my old docked apps, but also apps with multiple functions like the multitimer. Now you have to make a widget for EACH timer, which means 4 or 5 widgets for me just for multitimer. This is a classic example of Apple making things more complicated in trying to make them more simple.

 

[spinedoc77]

why doesn't apple give people the choice of what they want actions/buttons to do ? how hard could that be, I mean its all code so give Joe the option to swipe for the dock, and Jack the option to quadruple click while holding left button for three seconds to change watch face. maybe it will be a feature in a new OS and chip only upgrade

Because Apple's not about choice (cue the 1984 superbowl ad but Apple is now big brother), it's about you using your devices how they want you to use them.

 

[spinedoc77]

To be clear, the dock still exists. Double click the crown to access it.

Uh, no that's not the same thing. Double click is "recent" apps, you can't modify that list at all. The dock was a modifiable list of apps you specified, read: favorite apps. Huge difference.

 

[spinedoc77]

I‘ve been trying to fathom Apple’s thinking on the left/right swipe removal for a while. Apple have people paid big salaries to look at this stuff, who probably also have significant stock options so a way bigger vested interest in making the right calls than the rest of us, so I‘m sure it was a much-discussed decision with rationale that was compelling enough for Apple to do it but I can’t for the life of me think what it was.

Maybe it was because of complaints about accidental face changes but it that was the sole reason then personally I would have added an option in settings to disable them so that people could have them or not. Ironically I have pretty much never changed watch face accidentally with the swipes but I have very frequently, sometimes multiple times an hour, accidentally done a long-press on my active watch face and gone into edit mode. When I’m curled up on my couch reading something on my iPad my wrist seems to naturally rest face down on the top of my thigh and that triggers edit mode quite frequently until I manage to get into a slightly less comfortable position that orients my wrist differently.

Yes, maybe it Is something that Apple might u-turn on. They have done that a couple of times that I can think of. A long time ago on the iPad they changed the slider button that was on older iPads from orientation lock to something else (I forget what - mute?) and after customer feedback made the behaviour customisable between the two alternatives. And then there’s the more recent Safari top/bottom address bar thing.

I ended up with my most likely hypothesis being your closing thought - they have other uses in mind for those swipes. If that is the reason then that’s quite intriguing because I can’t imagine what those alternative uses might be.

I don't think stuff like this should be overthought. I have a feeling that some management and departments have to justify their existence and they make radical "changes" like these in order to be able to make presentations with fancy charts and graphics and show they are actually working on something, something "big". It reminds me of the necessary bullet points every year going into detail about this year's "rounded corners" or slightly changed color schemes, or the extra 12 emojis added. Getting rid of the dock bar, to me, clearly smacks of exactly this, some department and/or management unit justifying their existence with the new widgets.

 

[Five_Oh]

I don't think stuff like this should be overthought. I have a feeling that some management and departments have to justify their existence and they make radical "changes" like these in order to be able to make presentations with fancy charts and graphics and show they are actually working on something, something "big". It reminds me of the necessary bullet points every year going into detail about this year's "rounded corners" or slightly changed color schemes, or the extra 12 emojis added. Getting rid of the dock bar, to me, clearly smacks of exactly this, some department and/or management unit justifying their existence with the new widgets.

I agree with you, but tbf, the crowd would be howling without "changes" or a "boring" update with little new features.

Kinda no win situation in a way.

 

[Five_Oh]

That was taken away years ago, not a watchOS 10 thing. I think it was watchOS 8 when they got rid of it, but I'm not sure

No it wasn't. You still had the option to use the dock as a favorite list in OS 9.