Where is Circle of Friends on iWatch?

As I advised on the first page of this thread, under the latest version of watchOS, the Friends feature (which was available under some prior versions) is no longer included and there is neither a direct replacement for it nor a Contacts app on the watch.

When placing calls, sending new messages or sending emails, contacts can instead be selected:

From within the Phone, Messages and Mail apps:

• Calls: Make phone calls
• Messages: Send messages

Or, for calls and messages, by using Siri:

• Use Siri on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

If you would like to submit a feature request to Apple for the feature's reinstatement, then you can do so here:

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

(You are not talking to Apple here - this is a user-based technical support community).

Hi

Under watchOS 3, the Friends feature, which was available under prior versions, is no longer included and there is no direct replacement for it.

When placing calls or sending new messages, contacts can instead be selected via the Phone and Messages apps or by using Siri:

• Messages: https://help.apple.com/watch/#/apd92a90f882
• Calls: https://help.apple.com/watch/#/apdc38d7a95e

If you would like to request that Apple considers restoring Friends to watchOS, you can submit the form here, choosing "feature request" as the feedback type:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

BUT Siri is hopeless at identifying from a long list of contacts - it may recognise American English but its not very good with Australian English.

FROM APPLE WATCH MARKETING PERSPECTIVE: Not a good look for a watch when the user is heard to be repeating "PHONE Kate Mao" (who was in my Circle of Friends) and it comes up with Kate McKeag (not in close friends), repeat repeat it still chooses Kate McKeag, repeat repeat - ah a change it comes up with Kate McKinnon.... ending up shouting and arguing with Siri.. Then I thought maybe I could use contacts and scroll through to contact Kate Mao but CONTACTS although a Watch App is not available to use in the Dock or in the Map Layout Icons..

Apple you have made a HUGE mistake removing the popular Circle of Friends.. PLEASE reintroduce it or at least have CONTACTS as an accessible Watch App. I eventually had to find my iPhone and use recent calls or Favourites..

This is a detrimental step.. Watch OS2 was much better and I didn't know this change was going to be forced on me by just upgrading.

Charmian Gaud wrote:

.. Apple you have made a HUGE mistake removing the popular Circle of Friends.. PLEASE reintroduce it or at least have CONTACTS as an accessible Watch App. ..

This is a user-based community.

Be sure to submit your feedback to Apple using the link in my previous reply.

Have submitted on the form suggested ... NB you can't choose WatchOS3 on that form - it only goes up to WatchOS2.2

I know - you might want to send feedback about that, too 😉

Why can't Apple just give us the Friends app as an APP that we can put in the Dock? Using Siri to pull up a contact in a noisy environment is ridiculous - further, who wants to broadcast whom you are trying to contact and what you are saying to everyone when you are in a public place. Putting the Phone app in your Dock and choosing Favorites gives you the ability to make a phone call only. That's not nearly the convenience of the Friends app.

Further, being forced to use Siri to pull up a contact is not a good solution. In addition to be unworkable in a noisy place, Siri fails often at getting the name of someone whose name is difficult to pronounce. Lastly, while it's clear that Apple wants everything to go through Messages, they can still make the Friends app go through the iMessage service.

It's insane how many steps it takes now to get to a contact where you can then easily choose to send a digital touch message (drawing, heartbeat), an emoji, or a text message via voice. The Friends app was awesome and one of the more delightful things about the watch. We need to ask Apple to bring it back - at least some sort of Favorites app that plays well with the updated iMessage service. Right now the watch is fine for REPLYING to a message, but it is not as easy as it was with watchOS 2 for quickly contacting a "favorite" friend and then choosing to send a quick message or digital touch.

I wonder if a 3rd party can create an app that provides all the same features that we had with Friends. I haven't looked at the new API's. Anybody know?

Exactly the same as your issues

Siri is not the most suitable way of contacting regular contacts and is frustrating if it goes to the wrong person

This change has made to Watch less usable

Also the Dock will only accept 10 items which seems to be fewer than Glances used to accept and you have to start making choices as to what can be there. App layout is pretty but it's not exactly a very efficient way of calling up the apps and the previous Glances although not for all apps still gave you those quick choices better I suspect but I can't remember, that I had about 12 items in Glances

Using Siri to pull up a contact in a noisy environment is ridiculous -

Siri is awful at recognising spoken names (it may depend on the language) , and having to speak names is just too slow. Using the search field in Contacts is much quicker; usually one letter will suffice for me to find the contact I want, but it is hard to read the Contacts in glaring sunlight. We really need the Friends.app back to have the favorite contacts in one place.

I hope, many of us will send feedback to request the Frends to be restored.

I started writing something up on Apple's Feedback page. You can't yet choose watchOS 3 from the popup!

You may wish to mention that within your comments, along with referencing watchOS 3.

I did mention it first thing in the feedback. Feedback is limited to how much you can type (character limit). So I couldn't get in everything I wanted to say. Will probably do another feedback post.

If you want to send a detailed feedback, you could sign up for a free developer account and use the Bug Reporter to report this serious limitation and usuability problem. The Bug reporter allows to include screenshots and much more details, and you may even receive a reply to your report.

See this link: Detailed and Effective Bug Reporting | Apple Support Communities

Indeed. Yes, I am a registered Mac OS X and iOS developer and plan to post to Radar ASAP.