Apple has made many changes to the Apple Watch operating system interface with watchOS 10. Among these changes, watchOS 10 no longer lets users quickly swipe between different watch faces, frustrating some users. Luckily, this gesture is back with the latest beta of watchOS 10.2.

Swipe to switch Apple Watch faces with watchOS 10.2

As noted by Aaron on X (formerly Twitter), watchOS 10.2 beta 3, released earlier this week to developers and public beta testers, brings back the option to swipe on the Apple Watch screen to switch between watch faces. In previous versions, changing the watch face requires pressing the screen for a second and then scrolling through the list using the Digital Crown.

I was upset that Apple had removed this gesture – I even filled out a radar during the first watchOS 10 betas, and the company told me this was an intentional change. However, it seems that more users missed this gesture on the Apple Watch.

But there are a few things to keep in mind. At least in this beta, the gesture is not enabled by default. Instead, it requires you to enable it manually in the Clock settings. The toggle is also only available on the Apple Watch – you can’t find it using the Watch app on the iPhone. At least it’s back and working like it used to.

More about watchOS 10.2 and iOS 17.2

The current version, watchOS 10.1, was released last month and introduced NameDrop, which lets users share their contact details with other people simply by holding their Apple Watch near another Apple Watch or iPhone. watchOS 10.1 also enables the Double Tap gesture for the latest Apple Watch models.

However, the watchOS 10.2 update comes along with iOS 17.2, which brings some nice improvements for iPhone users.

iOS 17.2 includes Apple’s new Journal app, first announced at WWDC. There’s also support for collaborative playlists in Apple Music, changes to Tapback reactions, and new widgets for Clock and Weather. The update also enables recording Spatial Videos for Apple Vision Pro using iPhone 15 Pro.

Apple is expected to release iOS 17.2 and watchOS 10.2 to the public by the end of the year.

Source: 9to5mac