“Apple will likely unveil watchOS 4 at WWDC next month which should bring new features and improvements to the Apple Watch,” Zac Hall writes for 9to5Mac. “I recently got my hands on an Apple Watch with the original Watch OS software which includes a few things I hope return with watchOS 4.”
“The first thing is… easier access to Now Playing controls through a reorganized Control Center,” Hall writes. ” It was originally a swipe up from the watch face when the original Watch OS featured Glances. These were quick functions that you pulled up from the watch face and swiped through… The obvious thing to do here is copy the model that iOS 10 introduced with a multi-panel Control Center. Swipe up and over then tap versus click, swipe or scroll, scroll, scroll, tap, tap. If you always use Now Playing, simply swipe up and tap without even swiping over.”
“Separately, the current Control Center on watchOS 3 requires scrolling to access the commonly used AirPlay button which could be moved to the new Now Playing section,” Hall writes. “The solution here is so obvious that I would be surprised if we don’t see this with watchOS 4 next month.”
Muchd more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: These are all good ideas. It’s funny because one of the very first things we did with watchOS 3 was swipe up for the Control Center and then tried to swipe for a second panel to no avail. We’d like to see that, and more, in watchOS 4 on June 5th!
That said, the improvement in usability between the original Apple Watch OS and watchOS 3 is massive. A few tweaks here and there are all that’s needed with the UI now.
I’d like to see the old weather controls again – 3 taps and you had your weather report. Now you need to force touch and then pick what you want to see – conditions, temp, precip.
I too preferred glances and found that the original OS was better for my uses. The newer OS focuses on making more features available, but more features means more complicated navigation. I also find that I very rarely turn the crown and don’t even use the buttons much, but prefer to tap and swipe. People who wanted more features and capabilities on the watch got them, but I preferred the more limited but easier to glance at OS1.
I’d get rid of the circular layout of apps. I just don’t use it and forget what is installed. I tend to just use the dock.
I have a number of watch faces that are broadly the same but have different complications depending on what I’m doing, media, travel/transport, work, etc. It would be cool to have the option to override your default dock apps per watch face or for different locales/modes.