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Apple Watch app symbols replace red notification dot

Normally when there is a notification on my watch then the red dot appears at the top-middle of the watch face. Extremely useful for me as I often have my phone on silent at work. However, if there is any app symbol active, such as the orange "Timer" symbol, then it replaces / hides the red notification dot.


So if I've got a timer set for lets say an hour, any other notifications I won't be able to see during that time because there's no red dot showing. Not only that but at a glance, I can initially mistake the small orange timer symbol for a notification, especially if it's a bright day


Hopefully I'm missing the obvious here, but I'd either expect to be able to disable app symbols, or the red dot at least appears alongside them ?


I looked through settings but can't find any options which mention the app symbols.


Thanks in advance :-)


Apple Watch 9 - WatchOS 10.0.1

iOS 17.0.1

Posted on Sep 23, 2023 2:29 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Sep 23, 2023 2:58 AM

I set several functions which have indicators at top centre (water lock, timer, off-wrist lock, and a red notification for an unresponded message). When I raise my wrist the display unblanks and they all step through and display one after another, about 1/second.

3 replies

Apple Watch app symbols replace red notification dot

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