Infographic face missing Mail and Messages complcation

b4ssebus wrote:

Can someone try explain the reason for not allowing all complications on all faces?

Only Apple can explain that and they have not done so. You can let them know how you feel here:

Product Feedback - Apple

You're not addressing Apple on this user to user only forum. So, your comment will go nowhere.

If you want to let Apple know your thoughts, use this link: https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

I don't quite understand why you don't have these complications using 5.1.2. Were you by any chance using Beta software on your iPhone? If you were/are, that could be the problem.

Great find, I would have never tried this. I am once again a happy man! Thanks

It would help if you identify the model of phone you are referring to. You post this in the Watch forum, and there are no indication what Apple Watch you may or may not have. Additional information is necessary to answer your question. Please provide all information about the device you are referring to, since your profile refers to the iPhone 4.

Just confirming I also have no messages or mail complications under the new Infographic faces.

I also don't have any third party complication options for my apps (Omnifocus etc). That's very understandable that they would still just be being developed but it is weird that Apple did not get these obvious ones ready in time.

To be honest I feel a bit annoyed this has not been mentioned in a single review I have seen of the Series 4.

Likewise I will have just use an old watch face for now and try to be patient.

Hey Chris: the issue is that with WatchOS 5 on the Series 4 devices which introduce the new "Infograph" and "Infograph Modular" faces, the list of complications you can select for use on those faces is severely limited compared to the list of complications you could select for use on older traditional faces on WatchOS 4. For example, the native  "telephone" and "messages" complications are not available on those new faces, but on those very same devices those complications are still available on the older faces such as the traditional "Modular" face and the "Explorer" face. I strongly suspect that what is going on is that the new faces require/define a new type of complication (for example, it needs to be able to be put diagonally in a corner) and many of the apps have not had their complications updated yet (even native ones, which is flabbergasting). As I stated in a reply to this thread,  Engineering is apparently working on it, but it is a really frustrating out of box experience for new Series 4 customers. Thanks!

Thank you, but my response to the OP was that they had not provided any pertinent information, since their profile is terribly out of date and there was no mention of a watch, although they had posted in one of the watch forums. To make it easier when others start searching the forum, we try to get as much information in the original questions to make things easier. While I have an Apple Watch, I only use Notifications for Messages and Mail, and do not use any complications for those apps, but I appreciate your details.

So nice to see someone talking about this. Have not seen it anywhere else. And I agree-what a joke. The infographic watch faces are great-but rendered basically useless by these glaring flaws. And I also am using one of the older faces so that I can access mail, messaging and a couple of the older complications I used on the series 3. Hurry up Apple

This is disheartening, but the document does say that we should look for software updates. I have to believe that some of the core complications like messages will be updated to work with the two new faces. It would not be technically difficult and there is clearly demand for it, so I have to hope it gets sorted. I know 3rd party developers are hustling to update their complications - Marco Arment, maker of the Overcast podcast app, was tweeting yesterday that he’ll have his new overcast complication in WatchOS 5.0.2, and that he expects that to be out this week. If I can get Overcast, that is 50% of my problem licked, and for the missing messages, I can get a little bit of the missing functionality by putting the portrait of a favorite contact on the face. It does not give me the counter of new messages (!?!), but it does at least give quick access to the messages app. Agree that this is frustrating send disappointing - never crossed my mind that this would be an issue when I plunked down $500 to upgrade a perfectly good series 3 cellular - caveat emptor I guess.

Agree. It's disheartening, perhaps mildly irritating even. This is a (probably temporary) issue with being able to access some data in a specific way on a device that, until a few years ago would have seemed pure science fiction.

So perhaps a little perspective required? It isn't really 'insane' is it? I suspect that no-one else is talking about it because they may consider there are more important things to talk about. And I don't think it's 'the dumbest oversight by Apple'. I'd venture they've made some bigger mistakes in their time. As to it being 'a joke'...not really, at least not compared to what the UN were laughing at yesterday.

Point taken...but, at the risk of being no fun, you CAN use the watch faces you see in the ad. You just need to additionally press a button to access your mail/messages/whatever...for now. Not really a massive issue, I should have thought. However, there is an opportunity for an automated Hyperbole Reduction app, I think, along with a fully configurable Watch 4 complication...

As someone said above, if enough people complain then all the complications that were missed can be added with a software update - we just need to convince Apple these complications are necessary and relevant for the Series 4 watches - I’m of the opinion that the reason why they omitted mail and messages is because on the infograph faces they would make the faces look too ’busy’ and cluttered you can still add mail and messages apps in the watches dock and access them that way

"One extra button press" plays it down in my opinion.

I used to use the mail complication as a shortcut to easily and discreetly check my mail while in a seminar or meeting. Pressing one of the side buttons then opening the app is not discreet so I can no longer do it.

I am certain though the missing functionality is just because it is not yet ready.

Of course there are more important things in life than technical support requests, but then we are in a technical support forum. I don't think it's fair to pick people up on using hyperbole. Anybody who has an account here is an Apple enthusiast. Let us enthuse! :-)

I think I may have attended those same seminars and meetings... Trouble is that looking at a watch looks like looking at a watch - however discrete you are - implying that you're trying to figure out how much longer this nonsense is going on, even if you're in fact checking messages.

Agree that technical support requests can be important, particularly on a technical support forum...but hyperbole doesn't magnify importance, it diminishes credibility. Again, as the UN will testify.

The point is user experience consistency. There is no reason for any restrictions for which Complications can be used on which watch faces, from the user's point of view. Watch Faces and Complications are a big selling point for Apple Watch, especially series 4. So not being able to create the watch face configuration you want in conjunction with the Complications you want due to some arbitrary behind-the-scenes rules that we aren't privy to is very unhelpful to the user experience. And I'm fairly sure Apple places a lot of importance on user experience.

Dismissing this topic because you can't see the point or that there are greater issues in the world doesn't help anyone, and I would suggest for those people it would be better to avoid reading the topic altogether. We could all spend our time answering every posted question on the forums stating our indifference to topics we don't agree with, but that really would be pointless.

Personally, I think every complication should support all possible presentation formats to present their data, so every complication can be used in any slot. Even if it's simply to put the app icon in a circle, or the name of the app in a large rectangle. Seems straight forward to me.