Apple brings back swipe to switch face to Apple Watch, here’s how to enable it
Apple Watch owners were once able to easily switch between active watch faces by swiping left or right on the device’s face. Apple removed this option in watchOS 10, making it a little harder to do so: you had to long press on the Watch’s display, then swipe to change faces.
Presumably, the change was made to prevent accidental changes to the active watch face, and I have to admit that this did happen quite often. However, an option to choose whether you want the feature or not would’ve been nice.
Well, in the latest watchOS beta, version 10.2 beta 3, Apple gave us exactly that (noticed first by Aaron on X). You can once again swipe left or right to change the active face on your Apple Watch.
Enabling the feature isn’t exactly straightforward. You have to update the Watch to the latest beta, and you cannot switch this option on from your iPhone. You have to open Settings on the Watch itself, scroll down to Clock, and turn on “Swipe to Switch Watch Face.”
If you’ve never used this feature, it can be a little tricky to get it right; I often mess it up and activate a complication on the Watch face instead. The best way to do it, I’ve found, is to gently press the very edge of your Watch’s display, and then scroll left or right, all the way to the other edge.
If you’re not brave (or foolish) enough to install the watchOS 10.2 beta, you can instead wait a little longer; the official, public version will likely become available in December.
