WatchOS 27 dynamic app grid not working?

As a programmer, I'm sure you know that in something as complex as watchOS, if you change one thing, you have to change a bunch of others.

Actually, when adding a new feature that's almost never the case.

Or, the hundreds of thousands of people who participated in the public beta (not to mention the developer beta before that) like it the way it is. Given how few people have been complaining (and, yes, I've been watching for this subject specifically), I think that's a more likely explanation. Not everyone has the same needs, wants and desire. And you can develop new muscle memory.

To my understanding lots of beta testers told apple that removing app switching, especially on older models that now don't use the crown double-click to do anything at all was a bad idea. They didn't listen. hence my earlier point. And new muscle memory for what? That a single click of the crown and a double-click of the crown do the same thing?

All that said I do appreciate you being here to play devil's advocate, but there is no debate, at least in my mind, that this change is a bad one.

And here's what an AI search has to say in regard to beta feedback:

Yes, Apple received significant complaints regarding the removal of the app switcher in watchOS 27, and they were warned by users and tech journalists months before the official release. [1]

Apple officially eliminated the traditional App Switcher gesture (double-clicking the Digital Crown) in watchOS 27, replacing it with a single behavior that pulls up the new "dynamic app grid" launcher. On the newest Apple Watch models, the double-click gesture was repurposed for hardware features like "Live Rewind". [1, 2]

The Complaints & Warnings Timeline

• Early Warnings (June – July): As soon as the first watchOS 27 Developer Beta dropped in June, users filed reports via Apple's Feedback Assistant and posted on the Apple Developer Forumspointing out that losing the multitasking shortcut broke muscle memory. Tech outlets like 9to5Macexplicitly flagged the issue to Apple during the public beta phase, warning that removing a predictable button shortcut on a device with so few physical inputs was a massive UI mistake. [1, 2, 3, 4]
• Public Backlash: Despite the beta warnings, Apple went ahead with the change in the final release. Users complained heavily on platforms like Reddit and tech sites like Cult of Mac, calling the update "infuriating" because it forces users to navigate menus mid-workout or mid-task instead of seamlessly jumping between two active apps. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
• The "AI" Forced Mandate: A core source of frustration is that Apple removed the shortcut universally across older supported models (like the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2) to streamline UI consistency for newer intelligence-driven features—even though those older watches don't even get the hardware features utilizing the double-click. [1]

Did you submit feedback? The more people who do, the more likely you are to see change. A couple of years back when Apple changed the way you switched faces so that you had to press and hold (in response, no doubt, to a lot of people complaining about how easy it was to do by accident), there was a groundswell of protest. Apple added a switch so that you had the option to return it to a simple swipe. I honestly don't think you'll see that with this but you never know. I actually expected to see a lot more upset on this subject than I've seen. I would also point out that the feature is brand new. Apple is going to be watching that feedback (and the usage data many people allow their devices to send to Apple). It would not surprise me if they made a number of changes. And I still think that what appears may start to change given some time. It can take Optimized Battery Charging as long as a couple of weeks to determine your charing routine. It's only been four days since this was released.

Oh, yes, I've submitted feedback on the official channels. I'm here to see if others are having the same problem(s) and/or concerns and to also see if anyone has come up with any workarounds or ways to get the dynamic grid to actually be useful (as a start). If all the answers are "wait and see" well, that's all I can do anyway.

As far as it taking time,, as a programmer I know I could have made it work better from the get-go and if there is some "better" learning algorithm at work here that could kick-in later. Also, there seems to have been no UI testing done ahead of time at all or they wouldn't have gotten rid of what most people have come to use as a muscle-memory fast app switcher that didn't even require looking at the watch to do. This is bad design/testing/decision making through and through. It screams, "follow the agenda, not what's best for people."

When I'm flying is a completely different use case. For that the app switcher was very nice. I have a throttle and brake line in my left hand and another brake line in my right. I can let go of the brakes here and there but never the throttle. To switch between apps using the crown made it easy to do - especially back and forth between two, but even by scrolling to the one I wanted to look at.

Now, I have no choice but to click and scroll and or use a watch face and then try and click the correct app. While also paying attention to my surroundings at all times. Getting the correct one is much more difficult this way.

I really would have thought apple would have learned their lesson when they finally added a toggle to enable watch face swiping back again. It seems to me that it would have been very easy to make this new feature toggle-able.

Hi Idris, yes, I'm aware Apple doesn't read these. I was asking if the new dynamic app grid is doing what apple has advertised for anyone.

Let me give you an example, every morning I use waterminder to track my coffee/caffeine intake and then water throughout the rest of the day. I also check my schedule via the outlook app. Neither of those is shown in the grid after three days of using these at roughly the same times each morning. Instead I have the tv remote app shown (which I used the night I first installed watchOS 27), the music app (used once when I mowed the lawn) and the settings app from when I went looking for a way to toggle this thing off.

It would seem that it should be pretty easy to know that I've used the same two apps each morning for three days now. Which is why I'm wondering if something is wrong/buggy just for me somehow.

Oh, and in regard to Apple doesn't read these - You really think that a site run by apple is never seen by someone who works at Apple? They say they won't respond, but I'll bet you $100 that someone at Apple is watching over this website and sees at least some of the posts.

I'm a developer myself. I still look at websites I created for companies I worked at or consulted on from 15 years ago. Maybe I'm more curious than most, but I don't think so.