watchOS 11 remains to be lacking this one much-needed function

When new Apple merchandise are launched, the up to date software program is at all times an enormous deal. The thrill round iOS 18 this 12 months is targeted largely on the upcoming Apple Intelligence features, with macOS Sequoia additionally gaining some AI-powered instruments.

There’s one OS that by no means actually will get the identical stage of affection, nonetheless. On the Apple Watch, watchOS 11 provides some helpful new options, together with a brand-new Vitals app, coaching load evaluation, and sleep apnea detection, making some vital upgrades to watchOS 10. There’s one function that is nonetheless lacking, nonetheless, and it is one thing I have been wanting Apple so as to add for a very long time. This is the one factor that I actually want Apple had added to watchOS 11.

Opening the Exercises app makes me lose the need to dwell

There are two varieties of Apple Watch customers; those that use Grid View and those that use List View. In Grid View, all of your apps are displayed as a set of small icons that you may scroll by means of to search out the app you want. App View shows all your apps in a single lengthy, alphabetical listing.

Should you’re a Grid View fan, you might not even bear in mind that it is a downside. Positive, it’s a must to scrabble round making an attempt to identify an app you employ so little that you simply’re probably not certain what the icon seems like. You do not have to face the most important downside with Record View, nonetheless: the limitless scrolling.

You open Record View with a press of the digital crown. Thus far, so good. Flip the digital crown to begin scrolling by means of the alphabetical listing. After which preserve scrolling. And scroll a little bit extra. In case your Apple Watch is stacked with apps like mine is, yow will discover your self turning the digital crown greater than 30 instances earlier than you get to the Ws and may open the Workout app. It is a exercise in itself.

Swiping on the display is a little bit sooner however remains to be a severe effort, and once you’ve simply pressed the digital crown to open Record View, it feels extra pure to maintain turning it to scroll by means of the listing. No matter which technique you employ, choosing the app that you simply wish to open should not be this difficult. There’s a less complicated method, and Apple already is aware of the way to do it.

Different areas of watchOS present there is a easy answer

Choosing widgets requires far much less scrolling

Probably the most irritating factor is that the right answer to this downside already exists in your Apple Watch. If you wish to add a brand new widget to your Smart Stack, you may press and maintain any of your present widgets after which faucet the Plus button to pick out a brand new widget.

That is the place the magic occurs. Should you scroll at an affordable price by means of the listing of apps that provide widgets, it really works precisely the identical because it does in Record View. Nevertheless, in case you scroll sooner, your Apple Watch stops scrolling by means of the apps one by one and begins to scroll by means of the alphabet as an alternative.

You get a small icon on the prime proper of the display displaying the present letter. If you wish to choose the Drugs app, for instance, you shortly scroll by means of the letters till you attain M, pause for a second, after which you may keep it up scrolling by means of the apps that begin with the letter M.

Utilizing this technique is a lot sooner. I used to be in a position to get to the Exercise widget utilizing this technique in only a few scrolls of the digital crown, versus the greater than 30 it takes in Record View. The software program to make this occur already exists on the Apple Watch, so there’s actually no purpose why the identical perform cannot be utilized to choosing apps within the Record View.

Issues acquired even worse in watchOS 10 for some time

Record View would at all times return to the highest of the listing

Apple/Pocket-lint

The present state of Record View is unhealthy sufficient, however for some time it acquired even worse in watchOS 10. In watchOS 9, Record View was annoying to make use of, nevertheless it had a function that made it a little bit extra bearable. When you had scrolled by means of Record View and chosen an app, the subsequent time that you simply opened Record View, it might nonetheless present the identical app that you simply opened final. Should you opened the Exercise app, for instance, then the subsequent time you opened Record View, you’ll nonetheless be deep within the Ws within the alphabetical listing.

Nevertheless, with the discharge of watchOS 10, this function went away. As a substitute, each time you opened the Record View, it might be again to the beginning of the listing once more. Should you opened the Exercise app from the Record View, after which wished to open it once more later that day, the listing would have returned to the highest, and also you’d need to scroll the entire method by means of to the Exercise app once more.

Fortunately, this was mounted in watchOS 10.4, which returned to at all times displaying the final place that you simply had been within the listing. It was an enormous reduction to find that this was nonetheless the case in watchOS 11.

Record View remains to be my app view of alternative

It could possibly be so significantly better with only a single change

Record View has its issues, however I nonetheless favor it to Grid View just because it is easy to search out apps that you do not use as typically from an alphabetical listing than from a random structure of tiny app icons. If I solely ever used the identical few apps on a regular basis, the Grid View would permit me to maintain probably the most used apps on the prime, however after I’m utilizing completely different apps, having the ability to discover them alphabetically is way much less irritating.

What’s irritating is the quantity of pointless scrolling I’ve to do, and it is much more annoying realizing that Apple has already give you an answer for this downside elsewhere on the Apple Watch, and nonetheless hasn’t utilized it to the Record View. I hoped that watchOS 11 would possibly lastly be the time for the Apple Watch so as to add this much-needed function, however sadly my wait goes on.