Renaming Your Apple Watch Faces

[Apple_Robert]

Unless I have missed the option somewhere, one doesn’t have the ability to label different watch face complication setups for different tasks like running, sleep, work, etc.

When setting up watch faces, Apple should give us the ability to label each one accordingly, so that it would be easier to find and switch to the watch face you want. I would also like to see Apple integrate Siri usage in this area (eg. hey, Siri change watch face to running).

 

[TheSkywalker77]

YES! This is an amazing idea.

 

[brian017]

I’ve been saying this for a long time now. I have different infograph faces for different activities/time of day and it would make it so much easier to distinguish between them if I could give them labels eg. Work, Gym, Home etc..

 

[Sirious]

I didn't think I needed this feature until I clicked on this thread. 😄

 

[toxtrepla]

Awesome QOL idea! Rename faces alongside with setting faces for the time of the day would solve for most of my asks.

 

[skillets]

I completely agree I would really like to be able to name them what the tasks are for.

 

[Itinj24]

I realized how useful this would be when trying to setup a watch face Shortcuts automation and then trying to figure out which of the 10 Inforgraph faces was the one with my workout complications.

 

[GioStefani]

It is a very simple and amazing idea, but here we are almost two years later and nothing has changed. I just came from the Android world; Samsung Galaxy phone and Watch to iPhone 12 and Apple Watch Series 7. I too agree with ITinj24 about using Shortcuts for personal automations and not knowing which Watchface to choose since they are all the same name. I don’t think Apple Support monitors this forum.

 

[Itinj24]

It is a very simple and amazing idea, but here we are almost two years later and nothing has changed. I just came from the Android world; Samsung Galaxy phone and Watch to iPhone 12 and Apple Watch Series 7. I too agree with ITinj24 about using Shortcuts for personal automations and not knowing which Watchface to choose since they are all the same name. I don’t think Apple Support monitors this forum.

Nah, Apple support has better things to do like designing new emojis lol. They should have a small Department that peruses these forums to see what issues users are having and features could be looked into. I’m losing faith though. The software has been crappy at best for the past few years. They can’t fix something without breaking three other features.

 

[GioStefani]

Haha, been in IT for 47 years before M$ and Apple. I’m an MCSE/MCT and had to deal with Microsoft doing the same thing releasing buggy software. They still do ?. I moved to Apple mainly because I use it in music, but also trust Apple protecting my information more than Google. At least Apple products integrate well. More locked down though.

 

[Itinj24]

Haha, been in IT for 47 years before M$ and Apple. I’m an MCSE/MCT and had to deal with Microsoft doing the same thing releasing buggy software. They still do ?. I moved to Apple mainly because I use it in music, but also trust Apple protecting my information more than Google. At least Apple products integrate well. More locked down though.

Apple is definitely the best of the bunch but they can be very frustrating at times. When the eco system works as it should, in perfect harmony, it’s unmatched. I too moved from Apple with the original iPhone to Samsung after the iPhone 4S (because they were too locked down) and back with the iPhone X because of the ecosystem.

 

[NoBoMac]

using Shortcuts for personal automations and not knowing which Watchface to choose since they are all the same name

I have "constant" Shortcuts that store the index into the watch face list and name the Shortcuts for "type" of watch face (eg. workout, night time, day time, etc). Simple example on how this can work. And also a real "constant" of mine (my real Shortcuts for watch face setting are dynamic, based on day-of-week, calendar events, so extra "constants" needed to build a lookup table).

But, yeah, would be nice to be able to assign a name to the faces.

 

[GioStefani]

Apple is definitely the best of the bunch but they can be very frustrating at times. When the eco system works as it should, in perfect harmony, it’s unmatched. I too moved from Apple with the original iPhone to Samsung after the iPhone 4S (because they were too locked down) and back with the iPhone X because of the ecosystem.

I would have probably stayed with Samsung, but I needed a 512G device (upgrading my S10+ to the S21+) and they never had stock. I take a lot of videos and photos and need the storage. Also, I do like the feature when you install 3rd party apps whether you want your information kept private. Android (Google) products don’t ask. I recently purchased the AirPods Pro as well and really like them over any other buds (including Samsung).

 

[GioStefani]

I have "constant" Shortcuts that store the index into the watch face list and name the Shortcuts for "type" of watch face (eg. workout, night time, day time, etc). Simple example on how this can work. And also a real "constant" of mine (my real Shortcuts for watch face setting are dynamic, based on day-of-week, calendar events, so extra "constants" needed to build a lookup table).

But, yeah, would be nice to be able to assign a name to the faces.

That's a good workaround, but involves more work than the average person would (or could) do. I've posted a "Feature Request" for Apple Development, but they probably won't do anything unless more people request the same feature.

 

[NoBoMac]

True re: more work.

An easier, but still more work option, is create single Action Shortcuts to set a specific Watch face. Only have to remember once that, say, "California" face #3 is "workout", "California" 2 is "normal". So when one has an Automation (be it location/Focus/time triggered), simple Action of "Run Shortcut: SetFaceShortcut<Type/Role>.

That said, I too would love to be able to name Watch faces, it's just that (for me) a minor issue vs 14 years later still cannot add more than two alerts to a Calendar event via stock Calendar app (more useful for me).

 

[Night Spring]

While I kind of understand why people want to rename watch faces, practically speaking, what would we use the different face names for, other than creating shortcuts? When swiping on the watch to find a face, no face name is visible anyway. In the watch app, you see the faces as they appear on the watch, including all the complications, and that's what I'm looking at when picking a face, not the face names.

 

[Howard2k]

While I kind of understand why people want to rename watch faces, practically speaking, what would we use the different face names for, other than creating shortcuts? When swiping on the watch to find a face, no face name is visible anyway. In the watch app, you see the faces as they appear on the watch, including all the complications, and that's what I'm looking at when picking a face, not the face names.

Agreed. I’d use it for shortcuts. I can’t think of any other reason. I do have shortcuts to set watch faces for different reasons and it’s a bit inconvenient when setting up new automations. I’m not emailing Tim Cook or anything, but since they seem to be building upon the shortcut automation options they probably expect to see an increase in the use of the shortcut feature too so maybe it makes sense to include it now.

@NoBoMac - thats a great suggestion - thanks.

 

[Arran]

Sounds like a logical extension of focus mode, yes?

Just like how you can assign a different home screen to each focus mode on iPhone.