Neil Hughes
After being introduced in watchOS 3, the app dock for Apple Watch has already been redesigned in watchOS 4, with a new ferris wheel-like vertical scrolling interface that lets users view multiple apps at once.
Upon updating to watchOS 4, users can find the new dock as before, by simply pressing the side button next to the Digital Crown. One pressed, users are greeted with the new design, which scrolls up and down rather than left to right.
The new scrolling method matches the way users rotate the digital crown to sort through apps stored in the dock.
By default, the first slot in the dock is occupied by the most recently opened app. The rest are apps pinned in the dock by the user.
Users can press and hold on the most recently opened app to pin it to the dock. Sliding a pinned app to the left offers a "remove" icon as well.
There is not a way to reorder items in the dock directly from the watch — for this, users must open the "Watch" app on their iPhone, choose "Dock," then "Edit," which allows pinned items to be dragged into a new order.
Scrolling down to the bottom of the dock offers a new "All Apps" button that jumps to the app home screen (which can now be viewed as the traditional honeycomb layout or in an alphabetical list).
watchOS 4 is a free download for all Apple Watch models, and it's available now.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
William Gallagher
5 Comments
I have an issue that started when I upgraded to watchOS4. When I get in my car the my iPhone automatically connects to bluetooth and starts playing whatever audio was active the last time it connected. This is expected behavior, however the Now Playing app is always open and active on the watch and takes over the watch face. I repeatedly have to close it just to get to my standard watch face. This is also killing my battery on the watch. I can usually get through a whole day and still have about 30-40% left, now I can barely make it to lunch.
I have even tried using the USB cable and not connecting via bluetooth, but it still kills the battery.
I have turned off background app refresh for all apps as well, no change. The Now Playing app just takes over.
The even weirder thing is that once it starts for the day, say I connect on my way in to work, it continues the batter drain until the watch is either dead or I have to do a hard reset. I have charged it back up at my desk during lunch only to see it drain down to 30% again before I get in my car to go home.
I can repeat this every day.
If I don't let my iPhone connect to the car and listen to FM radio the watch battery lasts all day like it normally would.
Vertical dock seems like no-brainer. I always use the screen to navigate the dock because I always guess wrong on correct direction to spin crown. (Which also proves I'm a dumbbuttocks, I s'pose. Or just not committed to learning an unnatural interface.)
Only when Verizon corrects the nationwide glitch which prevents the AW3 from joining one's iPhone billing plan, will I be able to comfortably leave my phone at home. Until then, the Watch can't be a standalone device.