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Question for watchOS 10 users: Getting used to no Dock?

vjl323

vjl323

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 7, 2005
378
342
Western North Carolina
Hi all,

This post is a long time coming. It's not meant to be a complaint [there's plenty of that I am sure!], but rather a "how did you do it?" kinda thing. I have a Series 7 running watchOS 9 and my iPhone 13 mini still has 17.3.1 on it. But as soon as I upgrade iOS or give my watch to get an under-warranty new battery, I will be "stuck" with watchOS 10.

I have a Series 6 which I did upgrade to watchOS 10 [I never buy every year, but due to a 9-month long hike in 2022, and my Series 6 battery at 82%, I opted to get a new watch for the thru hike]. I intend to hand me down the Series 6 to family, but I have set it up for my own use to try out a Dock-less watch. I stuck with it for a few weeks and just couldn't get used to it. I use the Dock so so sooo often - not for recently opened apps, but for 8 "sticky" apps I put in the Dock. They are always in the same order and easy to tap quickly.

As one of the last people in these forums to make the switch to watchOS 10, I figure some of you have found ways to manage without the Dock - would anyone be kind enough to share some tips with me? I've been a Watch owner since the first generation [series 0] and this is the 2nd major change they've made to the OS, but one I am struggling to get used to. I'm not against change, but for me, they took a very useful feature, and removed it, so finding a good workaround is paramount for me.

I don't have beta watchOS 11, but it would be spectacular if they reintroduced the Dock in version 11. :)

Thanks in advance!
 
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vjl323 said:
Hi all,

This post is a long time coming. It's not meant to be a complaint [there's plenty of that I am sure!], but rather a "how did you do it?" kinda thing. I have a Series 7 running watchOS 9 and my iPhone 13 mini still has 17.3.1 on it. But as soon as I upgrade iOS or give my watch to get an under-warranty new battery, I will be "stuck" with watchOS 10.

I have a Series 6 which I did upgrade to watchOS 10 [I never buy every year, but due to a 9-month long hike in 2022, and my Series 6 battery at 82%, I opted to get a new watch for the thru hike]. I intend to hand me down the Series 6 to family, but I have set it up for my own use to try out a Dock-less watch. I stuck with it for a few weeks and just couldn't get used to it. I use the Dock so so sooo often - not for recently opened apps, but for 8 "sticky" apps I put in the Dock. They are always in the same order and easy to tap quickly.

As one of the last people in these forums to make the switch to watchOS 10, I figure some of you have found ways to manage without the Dock - would anyone be kind enough to share some tips with me? I've been a Watch owner since the first generation [series 0] and this is the 2nd major change they've made to the OS, but one I am struggling to get used to. I'm not against change, but for me, they took a very useful feature, and removed it, so finding a good workaround is paramount for me.

I don't have beta watchOS 11, but it would be spectacular if they reintroduced the Dock in version 11. :)

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat as you. Phone on 17.3.1 and watch on Watch OS9. My S6 has been showing 80% for months so I figure either the replacement watch I get using AppleCare+ for battery replacement or iOS18 will force me to Watch OS10. I use the dock all the time so I'm sure I'll miss it just as much as I miss 3D Touch. I hope they re-introduce the dock in version 11 also
 
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BugeyeSTI said:
I'm in the same boat as you. Phone on 17.3.1 and watch on Watch OS9. My S6 has been showing 80% for months so I figure either the replacement watch I get using AppleCare+ for battery replacement or iOS18 will force me to Watch OS10. I use the dock all the time so I'm sure I'll miss it just as much as I miss 3D Touch. I hope they re-introduce the dock in version 11 also
Click to expand...
Be aware if you update to iOS 17.4 or higher, the Apple Watch will constantly insist on being updated to watchOS 10 as certain functions won't work unless it does [I believe Messages being the big one].

I've not been keeping up on what's new with watchOS 11 [I did watch the keynote, but did not see anything about the Dock coming back - one can hope though!].
 
vjl323 said:
Hi all,

This post is a long time coming. It's not meant to be a complaint [there's plenty of that I am sure!], but rather a "how did you do it?" kinda thing. I have a Series 7 running watchOS 9 and my iPhone 13 mini still has 17.3.1 on it. But as soon as I upgrade iOS or give my watch to get an under-warranty new battery, I will be "stuck" with watchOS 10.

I have a Series 6 which I did upgrade to watchOS 10 [I never buy every year, but due to a 9-month long hike in 2022, and my Series 6 battery at 82%, I opted to get a new watch for the thru hike]. I intend to hand me down the Series 6 to family, but I have set it up for my own use to try out a Dock-less watch. I stuck with it for a few weeks and just couldn't get used to it. I use the Dock so so sooo often - not for recently opened apps, but for 8 "sticky" apps I put in the Dock. They are always in the same order and easy to tap quickly.

As one of the last people in these forums to make the switch to watchOS 10, I figure some of you have found ways to manage without the Dock - would anyone be kind enough to share some tips with me? I've been a Watch owner since the first generation [series 0] and this is the 2nd major change they've made to the OS, but one I am struggling to get used to. I'm not against change, but for me, they took a very useful feature, and removed it, so finding a good workaround is paramount for me.

I don't have beta watchOS 11, but it would be spectacular if they reintroduced the Dock in version 11. :)

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
When 10 was announced I was skeptical but then purchased an Ultra2 so no choice.
The “App view” is what makes me forget about the dock, choose “grid view” and re-organize the apps that you use most to the top of that view (easier to do on the watch app on the phone). Now when I press the crown it pops up with 17 app icons, much more than your 8, always in that order.

It’s been obviously 9+ months for me, but I do not miss watchos9.
My only complaint about 10 is that I cannot turn widgets off, I do not have use for that feature.

And as far as watchos11 goes, have not seen any comments about dock being back…
 
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is this "dock" feature the same thing you get with a double-press of the crown? __sort of__ like the iPhone app switcher?
 
jz0309 said:
When 10 was announced I was skeptical but then purchased an Ultra2 so no choice.
The “App view” is what makes me forget about the dock, choose “grid view” and re-organize the apps that you use most to the top of that view (easier to do on the watch app on the phone). Now when I press the crown it pops up with 17 app icons, much more than your 8, always in that order.

It’s been obviously 9+ months for me, but I do not miss watchos9.
My only complaint about 10 is that I cannot turn widgets off, I do not have use for that feature.

And as far as watchos11 goes, have not seen any comments about dock being back…
Click to expand...
IMG_6012.jpeg


This is what app view looks like on my U2.

And re widgets, I rarely use timers, but recently I did and it was actually nice to use double-tap to quickly show the timer…
 
Last edited:
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Without the dock, I switched from Grid view to List view for the menu. It was just taking too long to remember an app icon and spot it in the grid.

Instead, I just have to scroll through the alphabetised list more than I used to.

I also use the multitasking view a lot more (double-press of the crown) and have widgets set for my most common tasks.
 
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mblm85 said:
Without the dock, I switched from Grid view to List view for the menu. It was just taking too long to remember an app icon and spot it in the grid.

Instead, I just have to scroll through the alphabetised list more than I used to.

I also use the multitasking view a lot more (double-press of the crown) and have widgets set for my most common tasks.
Click to expand...
Sadly a lot of the apps I use via the Dock do not have widgets. I currently use List View, and I don't have that many apps installed, but still enough to be a long bit of scrolling...
 
jz0309 said:
When 10 was announced I was skeptical but then purchased an Ultra2 so no choice.
The “App view” is what makes me forget about the dock, choose “grid view” and re-organize the apps that you use most to the top of that view (easier to do on the watch app on the phone). Now when I press the crown it pops up with 17 app icons, much more than your 8, always in that order.

It’s been obviously 9+ months for me, but I do not miss watchos9.
My only complaint about 10 is that I cannot turn widgets off, I do not have use for that feature.

And as far as watchos11 goes, have not seen any comments about dock being back…
Click to expand...
This is something I definitely need to try. I've been a List View person since it was first offered. But you're right - if you can easily position apps at the top of the grid in Grid View, that is nearly the same as to what the Dock did [though I loved the preview of the app in Dock view - I could see if I had a new Message without even having to open the Messages app for instance]. But yeah, I got turned off on Grid View long ago as positioning them was a pain, but if one can do it in the iPhone app now - huzzah! I will give this a try on my Series 6 this week and see how it goes.

Thank you very, very much for this tip.
 
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jz0309 said:
View attachment 2393086

This is what app view looks like on my U2.

And re widgets, I rarely use timers, but recently I did and it was actually nice to use double-tap to quickly show the timer…
Click to expand...
Wow! It has been a while for me since I last used Grid Mode - the icons are much more spaced out then they used to be! I know this is an Ultra 2, but still, that is much better than what I remember Grid View being. Thank you again for this tip. This may in fact help me fully migrate to watchOS 10 [just in time for version 11 to come out! ;) ].

If they make an Ultra in black, I'll be joining you as an Ultra owner, as I like the feature set a lot. I'm just a fan of darker body colors.

Again thanks for taking the time to share this info and photo. You give me hope! :)
 
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