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You may have missed it, but select Apple Watch models are gaining a new Wrist Flick gesture in watchOS 26 that allows users to dismiss notifications and return to their watch face with a simple wrist movement.

watchos-26-gradient-light.jpg

The gesture works by turning your wrist over and back, using the accelerometer and gyroscope to detect the motion. With the gesture, you can dismiss incoming notifications, mute calls, silence alarms and alerts, and return to the watch face without needing to use your other hand.

Wrist Flick joins the existing Double Tap gesture as another one-handed control option for Apple Watch users. The feature can be toggled on or off in Settings ➝ Gestures ➝ Wrist Flick.

The new gesture is only available on Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 – the same models that support the Double Tap gesture.

Apple doesn't say exactly why older models don't support the feature, despite having the same sensors, but it does use a new machine learning model, suggesting that only the newer chips found in recent Apple Watch models are powerful enough to handle it.

wrist-flick-watchos-26.gif

The watchOS 26 beta is currently available through the Apple Developer Program, with a public beta coming later this month, followed by a general release in the fall.


Article Link: New Apple Watch Gesture in watchOS 26 Limited to Newer Models
New watchOS features are getting boring.
 
The CPU and RAM haven the same since S6!
Just planned obsolescence…
Not true. S6/7/8 are using small cores (Thunder) of A13 Bionic. S9/10 are based on the small cores (Sawtooth) of A16 Bionic. With that you inherit the NPU features of each generation. Also they have much faster LPDDR5 memory.

But yeah, sadly it's probably software decision and that was the case with other features even on iPhone.
 
Are they going to hide all new basic features that they limit to newer devices behind AI? Older models can't even use an accelerometer anymore without AI apparently.
Or maybe running anything at all. Idk, maybe older models aren’t possible to be booted without the power of AI chips. Maybe powering the screen needs AI chips too.

At least Apple can limit this on software update. Right?
 
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Like a blood glucose monitor.

Apple. The new king of planned obsolescence. This company becomes more like Sears, GM, and Kodak every day. Innovation? Naa, hubris and the failure to recognize their main products have become commoditized. New features? Sure. Only if you buy a new one even though the old one can support the new features. This is the antithesis of what Apple used to be.
Hallelujah!!

I gave away my Apple Watch 8 because every time I wanted to know the time, it was telling me to "stand-up", heart-rates, notification from scammers, reminders, step-count, etc.

I "JUST WANTED TO KNOW THE DAMN FREAKING TIME!!"

So, I bought a cheap Timex.

These were like SO EASY to turn off. I turned off most of the notifications on my iPhone as well. No screen notifications, no fitness notifications, no step counts or rings or reminders. I still get text messages and emergency alerts.

I paid for it, I pay for the service. The device is meant to serve ME. If the notification doesn't serve my interests I don't want to see it I turn it off. It wasn't terribly complicated to do so.

My AWU works great for me. I love that it has Apple Pay and I can use it for calls and messages when I leave my phone behind (either on purpose so I don't have to carry it or by accident). But it's not constantly bugging me with fitness updates.

I also use it for weather information (sunset time, humidity, temp, AQI and wind). It's much more useful to me than a Timex ever could be.
 
Even cheaper would have been to turn off the notifications you didn't want to see.
Absolutely! That is, if you can locate the Notification options after a iOS update. Apple has added so many features and apps into their watch that it has become exasperating to control and modify. There was no way to delete unwanted apps and functions. Yes, Apple Watch is impressive an impressively engineered device that has many benefits but it has become the equivalent to this....
WR16999a.jpg

It's kinda hard to find the function you want to use when you have so many functions to navigate through.
 
Absolutely! That is, if you can locate the Notification options after a iOS update. Apple has added so many features and apps into their watch that it has become exasperating to control and modify. There was no way to delete unwanted apps and functions. Yes, Apple Watch is impressive an impressively engineered device that has many benefits but it has become the equivalent to this....View attachment 2529465
It's kinda hard to find the function you want to use when you have so many functions to navigate through.
Link to buy! It’s a must have.😅 I know it is a made up image but would be awesome to flip up that next time someone want to show off their new knife. ”You call that a knife?”
 
While it’s good to have it, the hand needs to be in a specific position to work. The same with the pinch gesture. Good idea, bad implementation.
 
Funny how I can do double tap on my series one using accessibility features, but I can't do 'officially' that has to be AWP series 2. Now my gyros don't work for wrist flick either? Er, ok........
 
Not sure where you were getting your news, but Stagemanager doesn't work on any Apple Watch.

I think he is referencing when Apple said Stage Manager would only work on iPad Pro's, but after backlash from users on forums like this and other places, they "magically" added other iPads!!!

I think most everyone knows this feature could work on AWU & other older watches, but Apple is simply blocking it hoping people will upgrade! Absolutely ridiculous! This is the part of Apple I hate.

:apple:
 
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Not surprised to see that it is limited to only the newer watches. That being said, I am very happy that it will be available on my new Series 10.
 
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Dear Apple, this won’t encourage people to upgrade their watches. New health sensors will.

This article isn't about upgrading, but rather supporting a newer feature on older watches.

Apple isn't artificially limiting this new feature to encourage upgrading. The feature physically won't run on the older watches. Not enough processing power and/or RAM and/or battery capacity.
 
The CPU and RAM haven the same since S6!
Just planned obsolescence…
No. The S9/S10 use a different SIP. Do a little work before ya complain, which might still do, saying that they should find a way to make new features work on all devices, regardless of whether it sucks in practice.
 
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