Quick access to app without a widget

[Just_Kevin]

AW7 WatchOS 11.2 iOS 18.1.1

From what I can tell, this isn’t possible, but maybe I’ve missed something.

I have an app on the phone & watch, but the app doesn’t show in the list when I try to add it to the Smart Stack. I’m assuming this means that the app developer didn’t create a widget for it. That means to view the app on the phone, I need to scroll through the full app list to find and select it.

Is there really no way to make this app easier/quicker to access?

 

[jz0309]

AW7 WatchOS 11.2 iOS 18.1.1

From what I can tell, this isn’t possible, but maybe I’ve missed something.

I have an app on the phone & watch, but the app doesn’t show in the list when I try to add it to the Smart Stack. I’m assuming this means that the app developer didn’t create a widget for it. That means to view the app on the phone, I need to scroll through the full app list to find and select it.

Is there really no way to make this app easier/quicker to access?

In the grid view you can re-arrange the apps to your liking, so just move that app somewhere to the top, use the watch app on the phone for that

 

[Just_Kevin]

That's a pretty good workaround. Once I remove some unused apps from the Watch, which I should have done long ago, it should be even better.

Thanks!

 

[Just_Kevin]

Typed too quickly. Most of the apps I want to get rid of, I cannot remove. Still too many there. The Grid view does make it a tad easier, though.

 

[Night Spring]

So one of the widgets in the Smart Stack is this thing where you can have 3 app icons. I don't know what it's called. It's shown in the picture above at the very right.

I think you can add any app icon here, and I've managed to pin this thing to the top of my Smart Stack. If you aren't already using all 3 spots for other apps, you could try adding your app here.

 

[Just_Kevin]

Thanks, but the app I’m after doesn’t show in that list either.

 

[Starfia]

I believe watch face complications, Smart Stack entries, and those three circular icons in that uppermost Smart Stack panel are all available to developers to support, but they have to explicitly provide that support. (It's not tremendously hard for developers to do that, but it's not one line of code either. I don't suppose you've considered contacting them? It's the kind of thing some developers might choose to take a little time for if they actually hear their users want it.)

In the meantime, the Shortcuts app is another option. On the iPhone, use the Shortcuts app to create a shortcut that has only the "Open App" action. Associate the app in question with the action. Make sure "Show on Apple Watch" is enabled for the shortcut. On the watch, the shortcut becomes available to add as a Smart Stack panel, a circular icon, and a watch face complication.

 

[Just_Kevin]

I believe watch face complications, Smart Stack entries, and those three circular icons in that uppermost Smart Stack panel are all available to developers to support, but they have to explicitly provide that support. (It's not tremendously hard for developers to do that, but it's not one line of code either. I don't suppose you've considered contacting them? It's the kind of thing some developers might choose to take a little time for if they actually hear their users want it.)

In the meantime, the Shortcuts app is another option. On the iPhone, use the Shortcuts app to create a shortcut that has only the "Open App" action. Associate the app in question with the action. Make sure "Show on Apple Watch" is enabled for the shortcut. On the watch, the shortcut becomes available to add as a Smart Stack panel, a circular icon, and a watch face complication.

This looks like it should work. I created the shortcut, ticked the option to show on watch, but it’s not showing on the watch yet. Interestingly enough other shortcuts do show. Including ones I’d set up nearly a year ago, they must have had show on watch enabled by default on a previous version?

I turned off show on watch for them, since I don’t need or want them on the watch. They still show on the watch, so this seems to be a sync issue. I’ve rebooted both the watch and phone. No luck yet. Hopefully it will sync up at some point.

I intend to reach out to the app developer after the Holidays.

Thank you for the help!

 

[Just_Kevin]

Well, my phone and watch refuse to sync the shortcuts. The ones I disabled still show up on the watch, the one I want will not.

Searches show this to be a common issue. I’ve toggled the iCloud/shortcut backup off and on and both devices multiple times. I read uninstalling and reinstalling the shortcuts app might help, but I’d lose my automations and have to recreate them. Shortcut on the watch isn’t important enough for me to go through that hassle.

Hopefully the app developer will create the widget, that would be best case. Who knows, my request could be the one that brings the total number to what they need to take action.

 

[Starfia]

Kevin –

Well, I'm sorry to hear about the obstacle with Shortcuts. I found the same solution you did to that new issue, but I suppose you're right about losing the on-device automations. That sounds like a really unfortunate bug if there's really no other solution at the moment.