Some time has now passed and watchOS10 was from what I read here on reddit probably the most controversial Apple OS update for this year.
It brought many changes and removed and added features that required some getting used to.
So after all this time, how happy are you with it?
Do you regret updating? What do you really like and what do you (still) dislike?
My Apple SE (96% battery health) was on WatchOS 9.6 and I was afraid of updating
I switched from Iphone 12 to Iphone 15 Plus, unpair/pair the watch and I don’t know why I was forced to update to WatchOs 10.
Then I decided to leave it on charger for 2-3 hours on charger then shut it off.
I turn it on to try Watch OS 10 : good battery life, animations are smooth !
WatchOS 10 is fine. Remember that reddit is not real life and people that don’t have problems dont often post “everything is fine”.
I don’t have a negative prejudice against it, if it seemed that way. Just heard a lot negative stuff about it and wanted to hear if people still feel that way.
I think its fine.
I’ve learned how to customize the new interface to work for me.
It’s also very nice that the newest beta build bright back swipe to change watch faces.
I just upgraded to 10.1.1. It seems to have fixed the weather complication and the battery seemed to be better yesterday. I still don’t like that I can’t swipe to change watch faces and I still think the weather app is far worse (do we really need to know visibility? Well , I have to tap past it to get back to temp…) I also don’t see the advantage of how they’ve changed functionality of the side button and scroll button but I’ll get used to it eventually. Seems unnecessary to me.
I don’t regret updatting, I do miss a few feature that they removed/changed like the new control center and the clock face swiping gestures. I do like the new aesthetic more because it’s definitely prettier. However, the biggest issue was battery life. I updated my SE 2 immediately the moment it came out and my Watch started draining like madness. Barely lasted 16 hours in regular mode and can’t go pass 24 hours with Low Power Mode on. Was a total nightmare and it gets even worse when I’m doing workout. A 1 hour workout would drain 50% battery off the watch, therefore I wouldn’t dare bringing it to the gym without fully charged it beforehand.
However with the recent 10.1.1, the firmware has been drastically better. The watch tend to last over 24 hours for whatever mode I use, up to 1.5 day with Low Power Mode on. Which is absolutely amazing! But did left my watch with 90% battery health now, quite a pity…
The widget screen NEEDS third party apps! It’s completely useless to me right now, if it had sports I’d love it. Aside from having to relearn how to bring up control center I’m largely happy with it.
Reddit is not an accurate gauge for how normal users feel about an update. You hear from the loudest children in the room.
I’ve noticed almost no difference in any functionality that I use since updating.
10.2 will bring back swipe to change watch face for those who hate its absence.
And it works perfectly now on 10.2 with the option to turn it off for those who don’t like it
I think it’s great and most of the complaints can be chalked up to folks needing to get used to change.
A vocal minority is upset about the loss of the Dock, but that was an objectively shitty way of accessing your most used apps. A clunky vertical scrolling list where only 1-3 apps can be seen or launched at a time just doesn’t come close to the Home Screen where you can launch as many as 17 with just one press of the Digital Crown.
My only real critique was the loss of the ability to swipe between faces, but Apple is adding a toggle for that so all good there.
they’re adding a toggle!? Awesome
Took me a day or so to get used to the new UI.
But then, it becomes natural after that.
Pretty happy with it so far.
I still find it is slower to access the infomation I want most of the time, though the fix to the temp complication at least made me stop wanting to smash my watch every time I used it. Some examples:
I prefered the scrolling interface to the screen by screen. I use the temperature complication rather than conditions for the Weather app. To then get to conditions, it is multiple taps rather than a quick swipe.
Activity is a mixed bag–with swiping/scrolling I’d often overshoot what I was looking for, and need to go back. Now it’s multiple actions or getting used to using the digital crown, which I basically never did before.
I understand why they made the changes they did, and for many use-cases it will likely be easier. But for some (e.g. Weather app), it’s more work. Hopefully continued refinements will help. I wish I had been able to wait to upgrade to 10 for another couple months, but upgraded my X to an 15 Pro so was pretty much forced to upgrade.
My Series 4 is still on OS 9, after seeing the negative reviews on 10. Watch OS 10.2 looks promising with the changes they are bringing back, might finally take the plunge.
I like it. It took some getting used to (as is the case with any change) but now prefer it.
Batteries die much faster on my old s4
The weather widget is useless now; used to have high contrast readable display, now it has lots of ‘faces’ to tap through and a lot of splashy colour and smaller fonts … you can’t glance to see what you want anymore. It takes focus.
Swapping button assignments is weird but … okay. Breaking user memory not ideal.
Changing the bubble me u to a vertical only scroll method … same boat. Okay not bad, but again disregard for years of user experience.
OS10 likely fine for new players but pretty trash for an long time user :/