After watchOS 10 side button opens control center and not my recent apps

It's a terrible update that made me stop using it because of how inconvenient it is to have to scroll all the way down to find your recent apps. I wonder what kind of genius had this idea...

Functionally, swapping the right button with the swipe up function has made multitasking between apps much more difficult.

Since you cannot swipe up from within an app, first you have to return to the main watch face via the Digital Crown, then swipe up to get to recent apps, which are now at the bottom of the list, and there are only three. Having an Ultra and using it for workouts, I can no longer go from an active workout to a timer, stopwatch, or whatever with one click. Now it’s click for the main screen, then swipe up and scroll, then click. Worse is to go to the full app list and try to find your app while running, biking, whatever.

in my opinion, this change is a fail. Apple has taken a useful button for many apps and converted it to a quick method to change a few settings. Do people really need a button for airplane mode and silence? Please rethink this, Apple.

Very frustrating! This may be tin foil hat stuff, but I think this is a ploy to get me to buy an Apple Watch Ultra. The old, take away a feature that works and only make it available on newer devices.

From the Apple support page, "Use the buttons and screen on your Apple Watch":

Press the side button...

"If you have Apple Watch Ultra or later, you can customize the Action button to access your favorite features quickly."

Thank you, that’s correct. Double click the crown and you will see your recent apps.

Point this out to Apple https://apple.com/feedback

nothing anyone here can do.

To multitask...DOUBLE CLICK THE CROWN...but I like the previous version of pressing the side button.

I agree with you all. I use the control center all the time and having to push that side button all the time is annoying. Pushing a button in is much harder than swiping down a screen when you have arthritis. Hopefully they change this in the next update.

I agree that it's a horrible update. What a fiasco! I hate it!! It's inconvenient, awkward and much more difficult to use the side button than it was to just swipe up. I'm not sure what good this discussion board does if Apple doesn't read it. Too bad we can't send this whole thread to someone in Apple support. Maybe we'll have to go to social media in case that would work. I did send feedback directly to them about this recent disastrous change. It probably won't do any good though, but I tried. That's all we can do.

Getting n ultra isn’t by better. I loathe my Apple Watch now. Simple things that worked one way for years are no longer there. It is literally the entire reason I use my watch. It has been months and while I wear my watch every day still I use it’s functions less and less and I still try to go to short cuts the old way first every single time and then give n Ugh when I’m reminded it’s different lol. I have owned the 3,6, and now ultra and when it goes I think I will go. At the very least no more Apple Watch. If the y don’t work well together any more then I don’t need it.

I guess you now quickly double click the Digital Crown instead 🤷🏻

daisy0 wrote:

I'm so sad they did this. I can't find a fix for it and I liked my apple watch for my heart issues. I may switch to a Garmin instead at this point.

Apple does not read this user-to-user technical support forum for feedback.

But you can send Apple feedback via:

Feedback - Watch - Apple

If enough users send feedback, it is more likely a decision maker will see it, and maybe take action.

Unfortunately this only displays recently used applications and does not have the "Dock"/"Favorites" feature that is present in previous versions of watchOS.

100%. Even trying to fix this change I get top google results about how to customize the ultra watch. It’s clearly a feature removal to force an upgrade.

Absolutely horrible!! I hate it. What was the purpose? I can never get the double click. The button was just not designed for that. Come on Apple!