Where is the dock in watchOS 10?

That’s simply not true. I don’t why you would post something multiple times that isn’t factual. You’re referring to Smart Stack and that does not include an exhaustive list of all apps. In fact it’s relegated to a very select few.

A user doesn't get to dictate what other users can comment about in a thread, not the OP and certainly not a casual user who comes along late in the game.

If another user feels that the Smart Stack is similar to the deprecated Dock and wishes to state that and explain how it works and why they feel its a good substitute, no one gets to tell the user that they can't post their information.

As I recall a few of your comments have already been removed by the forum moderators.

The Apple Support Communities etiquette guidelines dictate such things. The moderators enforce the guidelines. Users here who reach a certain level can report comments to the moderators for their consideration.

I use the control center once in a blue to ping my phone. What do you use the control center for so often? And do you think there should be a dedicated button just for it with no option to change function of said button?

I too am very frustrated by all of this - and I'm in IT. Trying to explain it to my non-tech spouse is a mess when even I can't find stuff. There's also so much more buried under Settings than don't make sense.

I use the control center once in a blue to ping my phone. What do you use the control center for so often? And do you think there should be a dedicated button just for it with no option to change function of said button?

Regularly finding my phone (I don't carry it around the house with me!). At least every other day, Focus, Movie mode, Camera remote, mute. Flashlight is VERY helpful as well rather than trying to find my phone to do the same.

Less frequently but far easier to access through Control Center - Airplane mode & waterproof/expel.

The primary reason I got an Apple Watch for my spouse was because he'd constantly be looking for his phone and ask me to ping it from my MacBook, iPad, or iPhone. DROVE ME BATTY. That, and to get him to use it instead of his phone when he's biking. But primarily the Find iPhone feature.

I'd rather be able to set the side button to launch the Smart Stack or open apps or whatever I get now when I swipe up - and put the control center back to swipe up. The latter is much more intuitive and the new change adds no functionality.

WHAT a MESS! You turned a useful tool into something not recognizable. If Apple ever consulted its users, they

would have known not to remove or at the least make more difficult the watch's best features. How do I get my watch back to the old issue??

Who are the developers for this atrocity???

clervista wrote:

WHAT a MESS! You turned a useful tool into something not recognizable. If Apple ever consulted its users, they

would have known not to remove or at the least make more difficult the watch's best features. How do I get my watch back to the old issue??

Who are the developers for this atrocity???

Apple does in-house Alpha testing, developer Beta testing, and public beta testing, so, yes, they consult lots and lots of users. They also have access to huge amounts of anonymized data on how people actually use their phones.

It's useful to remember that not everyone has the same needs and preferences that you do.

Maybe the dock can be restored as an app? I don’t know if the development tools will allow for a “dock app” to take control of the dock side button. If an app can be called by that button as an interrupt, it seems the rest of what makes a dock would be a menu of aliases.

Thank you for your reply and helpful alternatives, but it seems you’re disregarding the consideration you present stated in your last paragraph. If something IS used by lots of people, it would find its way into their Dock.

Not everyone has the same needs or preferences, thus being able to tailor our view to only see the apps we use better caters to each person’s specific needs and preferences.

newappleguy2020 wrote:

Thank you for your reply and helpful alternatives, but it seems you’re disregarding the consideration you present stated in your last paragraph. If something IS used by lots of people, it would find its way into their Dock.

But we don't that lots of people used the Dock at all.

Not everyone has the same needs or preferences, thus being able to tailor our view to only see the apps we use better caters to each person’s specific needs and preferences.

Yes, but this is Apple we're talking about. Apple has a long and storied history of giving people what Apple believes they should have, not what people think they want. And Apple is right a surprising amount of the time. Nonetheless, not everyone likes the way Apple does (and has always done) things. That's why there is Android.

Goofy123 wrote:

I agree that it’s a darn shame that they have updated the watch and got rid of the dock station. I also agree that it appears they’re doing updates for the sake of updates. Very disappointing.

Tell Apple:

Product Feedback - Apple

The removal of functionality and ability to customise your watch is a massive error by the developers. The user should be able to choose gestures, button options and what’s in the dock. Instead we get unhelpful gestures and buttons and the removal of favourites. What planet are these people on? Change should be to correct faults and add functionality not break what worked and remove functionality. Who on earth signed this off at Apple?

I used to have the Reminders app pinned in the Dock. It wasn't ideal, as I still had to scroll down and tap on the Shopping list, but it worked.

The option to pin a shortcut to the Smart Stack only allows me to show the Due Today view, which means I now have to go back to the main list in Reminders before choosing Shopping.

Is there a way to get it to go straight there?

Thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately, that only shows the shopping list in a temporary list, rather than opening it in Reminders, and I can't actually mark items as completed from that view.

"Open Reminders" at least opens Reminders, so I can navigate from there. (It's an improvement from the last time I tried this commands a few watchOS versions ago, where it opened the shopping list… on the phone, leaving the Watch display unchanged!)

I was hoping to avoid having to do voice commands in the supermarket, TBH. That sort of thing still looks a bit odd in the UK :)