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

Yes, I'm aware that Apple has made it difficult enough to change faces that it's now practically a useless feature.

Rather than create a burden for those who have been using the swipe gesture to change faces to obtain numerous data points in a second or two or to launch applications, Apple should instead give those who do not want this feature the ability to lock the face to what they want.

Otherwise, as you've suggested, an action that previously took less than two or three seconds now takes well over ten seconds.

Let's not forget that this is a watch. Its ability to present the user with a wealth of information should be intuitive and effortless. Instead, Apple has created an obstacle that hinders the wearer's ability to use it as it has been used for over seven years.

I sympathize with the person who said Apple deleted the "entire user experience," even though that is overstatement. Swiping between faces is an extremely central part of the user experience. My watch is actually five neighbopring watch faces. The center one is simple with no complications and probably color coordinated with the band. The two off to each side are information rich. Full of those ugly info-speedometers and such. I keep these busy looking screens out of sight. Where once I needed only to swipe, read, and swipe back, now to check the air quality, I have to long-press, swipe, tap, read, long-press, swipe back to my home face, and tap again (and feel mad at Apple instead of merely curious about the air quality). This takes even more steps if the info I seek is two screens over.

The loss of this feature is not something I will likely get used to since I do this action many times a day. I don't want to feel mad many times a day, so I will be switching back to my analog watches unless Apple comes to it's senses and fixes what they broke. I'll keep the Apple Watch on a charger to keep the battery healthy and occasionally use it (to the extent one would an analog watch). It'll be in the rotation of my many watches, instead of being on my wrist all the time. The watch isn't a critical piece of the ecosystem like the iPhone, it's just handy - until it isn't.

I think what you're missing here is the observation that Apple is not making intelligent decisions when it comes to the experience of all users.

They have crippled the operating system rendering the device useless for the sake of appeasing a minor annoyance.

There are other ways to resolve minor annoyances that do not cripple the underlying operation of the device. I know that. I presume you know that. Why is it that this multi-trillion dollar company is incapable of knowing what we know?

They should have added a lock-face function either in the settings or in the Edit menu. It's a simple change that everyone would be happy to see. Instead, they (Tim Cook and his multi-trillion dollar corporation) made a decision to render more-difficult-to-use a product people have spent hundreds of dollars on to make their lives more efficient, more informed, and more connected.

You and your accidental face changing friends are more than right to want a way to prevent accidents from happening. No one disagrees that your special wrists are capable of doing things that others have never experienced for nearly a decade. But do you feel that this change should come at the cost of rendering a device more complicated and practically useless for millions of others?

It's difficult to overstate how monumental this decision is.

The thing I dislike the most about this change is that there already was and is a feature to prevent accidental swipes that changed the watch face. You put the watch in theatre mode. This locks the face and requires you to tap the face to bring it out of lock mode. If you want to still have notifications you simply tap on the bell button after you put it in theatre mode. So the people who wanted to prevent accidental face changes already had a solution. Maybe the Apple engineers do not fully know how to use their product. #bringbackthe swipe

twg_1 wrote:

The thing I dislike the most about this change is that there already was and is a feature to prevent accidental swipes that changed the watch face. You put the watch in theatre mode. This locks the face and requires you to tap the face to bring it out of lock mode. If you want to still have notifications you simply tap on the bell button after you put it in theatre mode. So the people who wanted to prevent accidental face changes already had a solution. Maybe the Apple engineers do not fully know how to use their product.

The purpose of theatre mode is to prevent the glow of the watch from bothering other people. I think Apple engineers are well aware of that. It is not to prevent the watch face from being changed. I have a watch with AOD specifically so that I can always see the face. Putting in in theatre mode all the time so that I didn't accidentally swipe makes no sense to me. Maybe some users don't fully understand the purpose of Theatre Mode.

ilittlewood wrote:

That's exactly the point: it *DOES NOT* improve the user experience - it's a massive step backward, making the watch interface clunky and unpleasant to use. I really have to question if the person who made the decision to remove swipe left/right to change watch faces has ever actually used the device.

The old scheme was simply awful. Far too easy to swap faces. Far too often found Watch showing the wrong face. Since watchOS 10, the displayed face is actually stable. Watch stays on what was selected. The moment extra needed now when swapping faces is an investment. An investment in not skidding through random faces.

Sorry but I hate the new way, a great selling point of Watch was how easy it was to swipe between many faces. I only use one face now, too much bother to swipe.

https://apple.com/feedback

Better get used to it, it may take a few days, it’s not going to change.

Anthony Sbarro wrote:

Let's not forget that this is a watch. Its ability to present the user with a wealth of information should be intuitive and effortless.

The last watch I had before the Apple Watch showed me the time and date on the face.

Definitely submit feedback. But, also, explore some of the other options on how to use the watch. If I change my watch face once or twice a year (other than by accident), that's a lot. And yet, I easily get lots of information from my watch every day. Maybe you'll never find another way that's as comfortable but, you won't know until you try, with an open mind.

Anthony Sbarro wrote:

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...

Oh, my gosh, that sounds like a lot of work! I'd never remember which face I left which complication on. If I need an app, I tap the crown, tap the app and, viola, it opens! Or, I as Siri to open it. Also, as I wear reading glasses, which means I don't always have them on my face, apps are often just easier to read.

If I'm limited to only changing my watch face once an hour, it's not worth owning.

I would never suggest your methods or preferences are bad or wrong. However, I feel pretty strongly that however you are using your watch is not an efficient method for me. On an average day, I interact with my Apple Watch maybe a total of 10 minutes a day (more on weekends). Those 10 minutes are made up of looking at a face, swiping, looking at a face, swiping, opening an app, exiting, swiping. Etcetera. With these changes, this daily interaction would increase to well over an hour.

I've been using OS 10 since July. Trust me, I tried. And I've submitted over a dozen feedback reports. It's slow. It's burdensome. It gets in my way. I would much sooner go back to an analog watch than live with OS 10. The problem is that I LOVE my Apple Watch. I love leaving my phone at home most of the time I leave the house. There's so much this device has to offer and I rely on it. I really do not want to go back to carrying my phone around everywhere I go.

I've also explained like this; I bought a car from Apple and have been using it to my delight for the past seven years. Today, Apple has handed me a key that I now need to access the key to operate the vehicle.

I'm passionate about this device. And the ability to interact with it the way I do is practically the entire reason why I love it.

Anthony Sbarro wrote:

If I'm limited to only changing my watch face once an hour, it's not worth owning.

Technology is always going to keep changing. Getting too wedded to one way of doing things is always going to lead to frustration and heartbreak. But, that's just my perspective.

joecunningham_mpls wrote:

The loss of this feature is not something I will likely get used to since I do this action many times a day. I don't want to feel mad many times a day, so I will be switching back to my analog watches unless Apple comes to it's senses and fixes what they broke.

It's Apple. They don't do that. At least not often. Seems a bit baby/bathwater to me to stop using the watch but, yes, life is too short to be made angry by a piece of electronics

I didn’t say press, hold, swipe took me ten seconds. I said that the process of selecting multiple watch faces to get the data that used to take a couple seconds now takes at least ten seconds. Keep up and pay attention to the issue at hand.

This is literally like disabling the iPhone’s ability to swipe to change home screens. Sure, technology progresses, usually for the better, and usually not with handicapping the entire user experience overnight.

I don’t disagree with you. Of course if the Apple Watch remains convoluted and burdensome, I’m choosing not to be wedded to the eco system. There’s nothing else to discuss about this. The device has been updated in multiple ways to hinder operation. This is an observable, repeatable, and documented scientific fact.