This year, widgets will likely be the most noticeable improvement to watchOS (as they really should!). Customizing watch faces is no longer a barrier to providing quick access to the information we desire. With the introduction of widgets in watchOS 10, navigation has been smoothly rearranged, and even certain watch faces have been modified. So, here’s what you should know about watchOS 10 at a glance:
- If you want to access the “Dock,” you have to double-click the Digital Crown
- If you swipe up from the bottom of a watch face, you may access several widgets
- A motion graphic plays when you activate the side button in Settings (that’s probably one of the coolest things!)
However, in watchOS, the Dock is no longer mentioned, and it no longer appears to be modifiable. Swiping from right to left reveals an “X” button, which you may use to exit any tasks. The edge-to-edge swipe to change watch faces has also been removed from watchOS 10 beta 1.
The Apple Watch Ultra has a special face built into the hardware dubbed Wayfinder. Quite impressive, isn’t it?! Night Mode is definitely going to be one of its distinguishing characteristics. This swaps out the original watch face color for a nighttime-friendly red and black design. And the best part is that your eyes won’t have to adapt as much as usual if you look up from your watch to admire the stars. There is now essentially no danger of unintentionally activating or deactivating Night Mode.
Siri also has her own watch face (finally!). And if you scroll up and down, you may navigate between tiles and modify data sources as needed.
Some other nice watchOS 10 and widgets features:
- There is a digital clock widget on top of the widget stack in digital clock watch faces, whereas an analog clock is used in analog watch faces
- You may pin, add, or delete widgets by tapping and holding on to the watch face
- Widgets are not yet equipped with an always-on display mode like watch faces and applications; by lowering your wrist, you may access your watch’s always-on display
watchOS 10 is now available in beta for developers. You should know that any of these characteristics could be modified in subsequent beta releases before the final launch.