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After WatchOS 10 update I cannot swipe between watch faces

Not sure if this is just me or did Apple just remove the ability to swipe between watch faces? After updating, the only way to get to the neighboring watch face is to long-press to (brings up the edit button) and then I can move to a neighboring watch face. If that's intentional, that sucks. I use four neighboring faces for different purposes and am swiping between them constantly. This will make using the watch very laborious for me.


If it is not an intentional removal of a critical feature, and it's just me. What do I do to restore that most basic of functions? The watch is a Series 5 white ceramic.


Thanks.


Apple Watch Series 5

Posted on Sep 18, 2023 8:58 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 11, 2023 10:38 AM

WatchOS 10.2 is out and the swipe to change the watch face is now an option to toggle on and off.


Go to Settings>Clock.

580 replies

Sep 18, 2023 11:50 PM in response to Vancouver22

"Accidental watch face changing???" You've gotta be kidding. How hard is it to swipe back to the right face? They tipped over the entire design and let it fall in the mud over that? If this stays permanent, I'm putting my Series 5 white ceramic on permanent battery life support (the reason my iPhone 1 still works) and wear it occasionally just for fashion reasons, and go back to analog watches for daily use. The loss of left/right swipe plus the loss of the crown interacting with faces like kaliedescope, solar dial, metropolitan, all three astronomy, etc means I lost my favorite fidget (the crown). Definitely going back to analog. No one wants to wear a source of frustration on their wrist.

Sep 19, 2023 8:16 AM in response to joecunningham_mpls

Major bummer, yes! I updated to 10 last night and was also shocked to find I had to long press, swipe and click to get to my other watch faces. Watch faces are my preselected groups of complications that I use throughout the day for different events and times of the day. A simple fun swipe that was replaced by multiple gyrations that will eventually drive me mad!!

i left feedback (10 is not there yet so I left the OS blank), they need to change this.

Feedback - Watch - Apple


Sep 20, 2023 6:45 AM in response to DreddMidas

It absolutely makes the watch unusable and it's frustrating that people are suggesting otherwise.


As I've written extensively here, this is more than 80% of my interaction with the device. Removing this user interface is removing the functionality of the device.


Prior to sending it back to revert to OS9, the only thing I was doing with it was putting it on to track fitness for an hour and a half a day. Then I would take the useless device off.


It's not crazy talk. It's FAR more than an annoyance. They have REMOVED THE USER INTERFACE. It's the same as if swiping home screens from iPhone or iPad were removed. Worse, really. It's like removing the Time from a watch.


If Apple doesn't listen to user feedback and revert the operating system to something that's functional, my current Series 8 on WatchOS 9 will be the last Apple Watch I own. This isn't a threat or a promise. It's not something I want. It's an inevitability that Apple has burdened users with. That's the part that hurts the most. Well, that and people claiming it's not unusable.


The more I consider it, the more I worry. Smart Stacks is supposedly the replacement for changing watch faces. Smart Stacks is a horrible design for people who want lots of information at a quick glance (this is what I thought all Apple Watch owners used their watches for). The crown is imprecise - it's wiggle-y. Not enough data is shown at once. It's cumbersome, inefficient, dynamic, and not predictable. It's a bad user interface for a smart watch. A smart watch should function primarily as a device to give you a lot of information as bold and efficiently as possible. WatchOS 10 fails on many accounts to do so. This is an observable and repeatable objective fact.

Sep 19, 2023 11:20 AM in response to joecunningham_mpls

We’re just assuming this was why. They will consider changing features if enough people complain about it. There’s always going to be things we don’t like. It’s frustrating if it was something you depended on and had got used to. On the introduction of WatchOS 9 last year, they changed how you snoozed or stopped an alarm - you had to tap the face. This was all fine and dandy if wearing short sleeves but to those of us in the northern hemisphere we are wearing long sleeves (or ski gear) and we had lost the ability to just put our hand up the sleeve to feel for the button to do it. A couple of updates later they put it back. We can assume again that enough people complained this was an inconvenience.

Sep 20, 2023 9:07 PM in response to joecunningham_mpls

This is such a bad change. I also normally would use multiple faces daily and just swiping to change it was quick, easy and convenient. But now I have found myself using the watch less and less.


Every single time I need to change the face it takes longer, is less user friendly and I am reminded of what has been taken away.


Yet again, the devs treat you like children trying to protect you from something that really didn't need to be changed. At least put it back and give us the option.


This desire to add function at the expense of usability, this "just one more click" mentality is counter to Steve Job's vision of make it work and make it simple.


Free the finger and bring back the swipe!

Nov 26, 2023 9:04 AM in response to joecunningham_mpls

I hate this new change as well.

I have the different Modular watch faces set up to show and access different apps and info.

now when I switch to my weather face, I have to wait for all the weather info to load first before I can see it. It’s no longer a quick check.

And there are lots of other apps I like to be able to get to quickly in certain combinations in certain situations.

it’s now crippled.


I submitted the Feedback as well

Sep 20, 2023 1:15 AM in response to CrazyGreggy

I agree (and I’ve already complained thru feedback), but Apple have redesigned the UI so that navigating to a complication on a watch face is no longer the primary route to information. Very disappointing if you used Infograph and Modular and carefully set up your complications I am disappointed there’s no way to set up the Smart Stack on the phone. Doing it on the watch is fiddly.

Sep 20, 2023 6:58 AM in response to Northern-Survivor

Know what's a great way to get "information at a glance"?


Effortlessly swiping watch faces that have been precisely configured to offer information at a glance.


I really tried using Smart Stacks. It's imprecise. It's dynamic. It doesn't know what's on your mind.


With watch faces, I can easily swipe from one to the next to get a ton of information - at a glance. I can even swipe faces and open apps all in one motion as I'm raising my wrist before I even look at the watch because I know how they're designed. A predictable user interface is superior to an unpredictable one.


Using the crown to select app parts in Smart Stacks is a bad experience. And I'm just realizing now why they're pushing for this - VISION PRO.


There's no way Apple is going to change back to the superior UX of WatchOS 9 because WatchOS 10 is integrating UX elements from VISION PRO.


I very well may end up switching to some other brand of smart watch. That's disappointment and hurtful because I love Apple Watch so much. I love it being the only device I need when I leave the house. I can do that, I can rely exclusively on Apple Watch for days, because OS 9 is an intuitive, ergonomic, and joyful user experience.

After WatchOS 10 update I cannot swipe between watch faces

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