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Siri watch face removal from watchOS 11
- Thread starter macrem
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The writing was on the wall, with it seemingly not getting support for a lot of features and I was just using it as a calendar watch face. It was my favourite watch face too (you have to manually bring up Smart Stack by turning the Digital Crown), but it's pretty much dead.
Thanks, @Abazigal, using the crown makes it a little better than swiping up. With Siri watch face indeed the next appointment was often the top stack but it also on many occasions surprised me with its intuitive way of ranking items of importance across apps, perhaps because I had enabled options like those found here.
So far smart stacks has been completely underwhelming. I’ve gone into each app setting to have it display info intelligently but all I ever see is the same 4 stacks in the same order. It’s for instance not even informing me about task deadlines that came and went. the first thing it shows is 1/2 the screen showing time, but I just came from a time watch face, why would I need ½ the screen to show me the same time again in two different styles? Then at the bottom show all apps is redundant with pressing the crown to show all apps.
It looks as though someone from Marketing said we need X new features and a committee of peopale with no clue removed Siri watch face (instead of maintaining it) just so that they could say we invented smart stacks (which seems 1/2 baked), but also they could have just left Siri watch face in so users could decide if they want it or not as is. It was the only smart/intelligent watch face in a big collection. I still want it as my watch face, not something hidden, the look of Siri watch face was nicer imo, they could have removed it when you upgrade but left Siri watch face in the collection for users who want it.
So far smart stacks has been completely underwhelming. I’ve gone into each app setting to have it display info intelligently but all I ever see is the same 4 stacks in the same order. It’s for instance not even informing me about task deadlines that came and went. the first thing it shows is 1/2 the screen showing time, but I just came from a time watch face, why would I need ½ the screen to show me the same time again in two different styles? Then at the bottom show all apps is redundant with pressing the crown to show all apps.
It looks as though someone from Marketing said we need X new features and a committee of peopale with no clue removed Siri watch face (instead of maintaining it) just so that they could say we invented smart stacks (which seems 1/2 baked), but also they could have just left Siri watch face in so users could decide if they want it or not as is. It was the only smart/intelligent watch face in a big collection. I still want it as my watch face, not something hidden, the look of Siri watch face was nicer imo, they could have removed it when you upgrade but left Siri watch face in the collection for users who want it.
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@macrem The reality was that Siri watch face had largely stopped working for me over the years (it was pretty much the only watch face I used since I got my Series 5). Initially, it used to still surface photo albums and a "word of the day" widget courtesy of Lookup (a third party dictionary app). Then over time, they all went away, until I was left with just the calendar app showing me my daily schedule (which as a teacher was actually pretty handy for reminding me of my next class or meeting), the occasional prompt to start a workout and a reminder to breathe. But I liked its unique interface, it gave me a reason to play with the Digital Crown, and I wished it could have been better supported. 
Now I am using the modular watch face, with calendar as the middle widget, so it at least still shows me my next class, and I guess that's something? I don't really use smart stacks that much. I suppose there's a difference between a feature that's literally shoved into your face vs something you need to manually activate. That and on a Series 5, I was limited to 3 stacks.
Now I am using the modular watch face, with calendar as the middle widget, so it at least still shows me my next class, and I guess that's something? I don't really use smart stacks that much. I suppose there's a difference between a feature that's literally shoved into your face vs something you need to manually activate. That and on a Series 5, I was limited to 3 stacks.
I wish they would have updated the Siri watch face and decided that after a year of Smart Stack being redundant and not helpful, they would axe it. Nope. They axed the Siri watch face and kept the less-than-useless Smart Stack, but gave it live actions that essentially are not useful.
Take 'Home' for example. Only one Smart Stack option. Once any lights in your house are on, the only live-action available is to "Turn Off All Lights". You can't long press it to kick off the home app, nope. You just kill every smart light in the place, which is most of my home's ambient, night-time illumination.
And when the Live Action takes place on the Smart Stack it variably pauses my active timers and switches from the watch face that I was just looking at previously, to the Smart Stack screen, which I never invoke. It's not only less than useful, it actively has functional issues.
Take 'Home' for example. Only one Smart Stack option. Once any lights in your house are on, the only live-action available is to "Turn Off All Lights". You can't long press it to kick off the home app, nope. You just kill every smart light in the place, which is most of my home's ambient, night-time illumination.
And when the Live Action takes place on the Smart Stack it variably pauses my active timers and switches from the watch face that I was just looking at previously, to the Smart Stack screen, which I never invoke. It's not only less than useful, it actively has functional issues.
@Abazigal I appreciate the tip, I customized modular to have the calendar in the middle and top left there‘s space for a minimal widget where I put todo’s, which helps but still not the same. I went through the denial, anger, bargaining stages and am at depression now. During bargaining, I contacted Apple to see if they would offer a trade-in where I could get the same watch pre-upgrade with Siri watch face but there’s no way around a steep price penalty. This change really rubbed me the wrong way, there was no warning (somehow I missed the writing on the wall part), no way to downgrade. It sucked the joy out of my watch for me. It was the only smart watch face. It would not have been difficult to just leave it.
@dburkhanaev I agree Smart Stack seems not quite ready, Apple could have at least left Siri watch face until working out the Smart Stack kinks, then offer a Smart Stack watch face that looks like Siri watch face using functional Smart Stack technology.
@dburkhanaev I agree Smart Stack seems not quite ready, Apple could have at least left Siri watch face until working out the Smart Stack kinks, then offer a Smart Stack watch face that looks like Siri watch face using functional Smart Stack technology.
@macrem I always thought I was the outlier in loving the Siri Watch face (it was unique, and was a good example of how Apple could leverage its platform strength). Nice to see another fan here.
I just bought the Series 10 yesterday and set it up and yeah, smart stacks just doesn't feel the same, even though I can double-tap (pinch?) to bring it up.
I just bought the Series 10 yesterday and set it up and yeah, smart stacks just doesn't feel the same, even though I can double-tap (pinch?) to bring it up.
This really sucks. Siri face was the best by far. My watch upgraded to os11 overnight & this morning, Siri was replaced by Modular Pro or something like that, which looks the same, but has none of the functionality of the Siri Face. Seeing that you guys are of like mind, has anyone found any workarounds to get any of the Siri functionality back? I miss have all of those data sources on the face, and changing tiles as they felt I needed it. Over time, it was quite on the money.