With the release of watchOS 7, Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, Apple has discontinued support for the Force Touch feature. This “strong pressure” gave us access to many options and functions within the Apple Watch apps that we will now access in another way. Actions as simple as send a new email, delete all notifications or change our movement target now have a different access.
Force Touch gave us access to various functions. Looking at the update it seems that Apple has wanted these actions to be more visible and easier to find. So the general rule is that new access is via a button at the top or bottom of the screen, although in some cases you have to go to the app Settings. Let’s look at some of the most common examples:
Clear all notifications with one touch
When we have many notifications in the notification center, even if they are grouped together, deleting them all is much easier with a simple gesture. The process is simple: we go up to the top of the list of notifications and touch Erase everything.
Create a new message or email
To write a new message or a new email, the system is very similar to the one we have just seen. In both cases we have to scroll to the top of the message list and tap on the blue button New message.
Change your movement goal and view your weekly activity summary
We’ve already talked about how to adjust our movement goal in the Activity app. We have also seen that we can now adjust the target for exercise and “standing”. Now the process is like this: we enter the health app and we scroll to the bottom of the tab Exercise and we played on Weekly summary or in Change goals.
Send the location or view contact details in an iMessage conversation
Within an iMessage conversation in the app Messages the options to submit our location, as well as to view the details of the contact we are talking to, have also been relocated. Now appear at the bottom of the screen, under the title Plus after suggestions of responses.
Switch to icon view or list view for our apps
We can choose between seeing our apps in mosaic form or in list form. Now, with watchOS 7 we must choose it in the app Settings, within the section App layout.
Change the view of events in the app Calendar
Similar to the previous setting, if we want to toggle between Soon, List or Day we will go to the app Settings. Specifically, we must enter the section Calendar where we can choose one of the three options.
Toggle between condition, rain and temperature in the app Weather
In the app Weather we can alternate between the weather condition for the next few hours, the probability of expected rain, as well as the expected temperature. Toggling between the three information modes is as easy as tapping on the screen.
Edit, share or trade spheres
Exchanging spheres on our Apple Watch is as easy as sliding from right to left or vice versa on the time of day screen, but when we have many, being able to move faster is useful. In watchOS 7 to edit, share or change the sphere we must do a long touch on it, just like we would Force Touch. From here we can touch Edit, the share button or use the digital crown to move between all our spheres.
That easy. For some functions, although we do not need to adjust them too many times, now we will have to go to the app Settings. In many situations, however, the design change will give us faster and easier access to functions.