I cannot change watch face by swiping after upgrading to WatchOS 10

Simply press and hold the current watch face - from there you can edit the current face, swipe right to change to a different face in your face gallery, swipe left to add a new watch face. Apple did not remove this watch function - just gave it more functionality!

Completely agree. Watch OS 10 is, by far, the worst release ever for usability. That simple swipe was so convenient, replaced by a long press and swipe which is completely unintuitive. I hate this release so much I am very seriously considering not using the watch any more.

There is nothing to fix. In response to many complaints from users who suffered unexpected changes to their watch faces from accidental swipes (by clothing or during sleep?) the method to switch watch faces was made into an action with two deliberate steps.

1. A firm press about 1 second, until the face shrinks slightly.
2. Swipe as before then tap when the required face is displayed.

mamoon777 wrote:

Yeah that’s super bad

I can’t get to use lots of functions without face switching

pls bring it back

Watch face switching works just fine on watchOS 10. Better than it has ever worked.

How to switch watch faces? Press the face for about a second, and the available watch faces can then be slid right or left, or the current watch face can be edited.

This press-and-brief-hold prevents freely skidding through the available watch faces. On watchOS 9 and earlier, finding some random watch face selected was a common occurrence. At least, that was what was common around here. That hasn’t happened on watchOS 10; the selected watch face stays selected.

Here is the official how to: Change the watch face on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Don’t like the press-and-brief-hold on watchOS 10, send your feedback to Apple: https://apple.com/feedback

Press and hold the watch face, then you can swipe between them.

I learned from this post that now it’s a long press followed by a swipe. Thank you!

AngieKR wrote:

I don't think several of you realize you could change your watch face just by swiping left or right and don't understand. Here's an example: I have 3 different watch faces I switch(ed) between. One for every day that has weather, calendar, messages. A second for walking/running which has my rings, exercise app shortcut, and music shortcut. And a third for swimming, which has bigger rings so I can see in water, exercise app shortcut, and timer shortcut. It's a feature that was taken away. And yes, we all know how to change them the other ways, but it was so easy to just swipe left or right.

Yes, many of us volunteers have used the left/right swiping to switch watch faces. And we understand watchOS 10 has changed that to long press the watch face, swipe left or right, tap watch face use the watch face.

We also know from experience of these discussions there were less experienced users that kept finding the watch face changed, and did not know how to get back to their preferred watch face. And I'm sure the posts we saw was a fraction of the Apple Support calls, and the Apple Store visits to get the watch face back to where the user expected it.

This change did not occur in a vacuum.

If you want Apple to make left/right swipe an option, then send your feedback to Apple at:

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

Thanks for that nugget. Now I can change watch faces again, but I think they messed the user experience up. Like other users, I like to use multiple watch faces and “press, hold, swipe” is not as quick or easy as just swiping left or right. I’d prefer that they add an option to lock the face if people were bothered by inadvertently changing faces.

AngieKR wrote:

I don't think several of you realize you could change your watch face just by swiping left or right and don't understand. Here's an example: I have 3 different watch faces I switch(ed) between. One for every day that has weather, calendar, messages. A second for walking/running which has my rings, exercise app shortcut, and music shortcut. And a third for swimming, which has bigger rings so I can see in water, exercise app shortcut, and timer shortcut. It's a feature that was taken away. And yes, we all know how to change them the other ways, but it was so easy to just swipe left or right.

Press and swipe to change faces works fine. I use it heavily. The initial press is a bit longer than it once was.

See 2:30 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPN13ULL0k4

NO, it most definitely DOES NOT work the way it always has. It now requires a long press before swiping. The prior version did not require a long press or, in fact, any press at all, simply a swipe. That long press is a pain in the neck and makes my watch so unusable that if it's not changed back, I will stop using the watch completely as it's so frustrating to use as it stands today.

Hold your finger on face to get to exit mode for face and then swipe left or right to change faces.

So, Apple takes something simple like swiping left or right to change the watch face and adds an additional step of having to go into the face set up like you are going to change complications to swipe between faces. Come on man! What was wrong with the simple swipe?

Right, complications and apps. How do you look at complications and open apps?

I have several watch faces with numerous complications and app elements. I can easily swipe between four or five or six faces to get a ton of information at a glance. Now it's required that I tap, hold, swipe, select, review... tap, hold, swipe, select, review, tap to open app... exit, tap, hold, swipe, select, review...

Observing complications and opening apps is now more cumbersome and convoluted. They've handicapped the operating system to make things harder for no reason at all.

Well put! BTW, I’ve been using the “press - hold - swipe” for a day now… it’s no big deal and only takes a couple of seconds. If it’s taking someone 10 seconds to do that, then you’ve got bigger issues.

kontickle wrote:

Why over-complicate a simple procedure? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Press and hold and swipe, same as I’ve always done.

Works fine on 10.0 locally, too.

Documented here: Customize the watch face - Apple Support

It might take a slightly longer hold to start the face swiping, but that does mean fewer accidental face switches.