watchOS 10 is only a few days away, and the replace appears like an enormous deal for large Apple Watch screens. A brand new widget overlay and apps optimized for Apple Watch Extremely? Let’s go!
Not a lot else has been rumored for watchOS 10, nevertheless, and that’s in all probability as a result of the Apple Watch software program is pretty mature now. Seems you may knock out of lot of nice options in 9 years. That’s had me eager about some reasonably outdated characteristic requests which have by no means materialized – options I actually thought we’d have by now.
Management notifications
Apple Watch notifications ought to be opt-in, not opt-out and all or nothing. There’s a toggle to activate alerts for all apps. There’s no button for turning off alerts for all apps. The most effective resolution requires going via a listing of toggles for every app put in in your iPhone. Even in case you toggle all of them off, it’s important to bear in mind to manually flip off watch alerts for future app installs.
The present mannequin assumes that if an app can alert your iPhone, you’ll need it to alert your Apple Watch as an alternative whilst you’re carrying it. Saving most app alerts for iPhone enables you to use the Apple Look ahead to what you contemplate VIP app alerts. Simply the vital stuff faucets your wrist.
Customized tones
After I printed my evaluate of the primary Apple Watch eight years in the past, I used to be fairly optimistic about one characteristic I thought-about lacking: setting customized alert tones for various contacts. I wrote this in 2015, not realizing it might nonetheless be related in 2023:
You’ll be able to toggle sounds on or off, however you may’t customise tones for particular alerts. On my iPhone, I’ve a special tone if both my girlfriend or my mother texts me so I do know I ought to learn it quickly. Apple Watch has the identical tone and the identical faucet for all messages from all contacts. That is kind of a set again functionally for me, however hopefully this modifications in future software program updates.
…hopefully this modifications in future software program updates. Ouch.
Severely, does nobody else need this characteristic? Even in case you’re not enthusiastic about setting tones for various contacts, I’m assured folks would really like the choice to vary tones for message alerts. On the very least, Mail and Messages may use two completely different sounds.
I do know this level is moot as most individuals preserve their Apple Watch on mute. It’s simply bizarre to me that setting ringtones, textual content tones, and mail notification sounds hasn’t come to watchOS but.
Utilizing your watch on a cellphone name
with watchOS 10 across the nook, I’m beginning to see myself telling my nice grandkids about this some day. In case you’re on a cellphone name from the watch, you may’t go away the Telephone app. Effectively, you may, however it’s important to cling up first. This was a bizarre limitation when the Collection 3 was new. Frankly, I used to be shocked and didn’t to see the scenario unchanged when the Collection 4 got here out. Quoting myself from 2018:
After a full yr of having the ability to make cellphone calls on the Apple Watch with out an iPhone close by, you continue to can’t go away the Telephone app throughout a name.
I’m undecided how time works anymore, however in some way this was nonetheless a obvious omission to me two years in the past:
Think about utilizing your iPhone and never having the ability to verify your calendar or e-mail to reference one thing related to your name. We’d all chuckle if our iPhones requested us to finish a cellphone name earlier than switching to a different app. That’s precisely the state of watchOS at present. Will watchOS 8 subsequent week change it? Perhaps 5G will save us all.
What can I say? Will watchOS 10 subsequent week change it? If it did, that may be like Climate app on the iPad massive. Perhaps larger than Instagram for iPad. The reply to the issue all alongside has been to simply use an iPhone.
Simply realizing this limitation exists on the watch makes it unnecessarily inferior as a voice communicator. Actually, it appears like dial-up web. You should utilize your cellphone, or you should use the web. You’ll be able to’t do each.
Watch alerts on iPhone
Most notifications come from the iPhone and get mirrored to the Apple Watch. In case you verify alerts in your Lock Display and Notification Heart, you might not be within the behavior of checking missed notifications on the watch. That’s extra in step with how I exploit the watch as of late.
The issue is that there are choose alerts that come from the Apple Watch. These don’t get mirrored to the iPhone. The mirror is one-sided. Telephone to observe: cool. Watch to cellphone: nope. Alerts on this class embrace the occasional new watch face, new Exercise problem, or new watchOS updates.
Extra widespread are Exercise Sharing notifications. In case you don’t have an Apple Watch, Exercise Sharing notifications will seem on the iPhone as of iOS 16. In case you do have an Apple Watch, nevertheless, your cellphone won’t show Health notifications.
Will watchOS 10 tackle any of those characteristic requests which have spanned the lifetime of the Apple Watch class? It wouldn’t be a watchOS replace if it didn’t ignore customized tones and utilizing the watch throughout a cellphone name! After all, I might like to be shocked by any of those modifications in watchOS 10.
What about you? Is there a characteristic request you’ve had for years that also hasn’t been addressed? Share you concepts with us within the feedback.
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