Force Touch Is Gone
It’s probably not surprising since Apple has also abandoned 3D Touch on the iPhone, but watchOS 7 will also spell the end of Force Touch on the Apple Watch.
If you’re an Apple Watch power user, you probably already know that you can press more firmly on the display to access any number of additional menus and features in various apps, ranging from changing up your watch faces to switching your app viewer layout between grid and list view, and clearing all of your notifications. While these were useful for quick access, however, they were also pretty inscrutable and kind of went against Apple’s usual philosophy of designing user-friendly and discoverable interfaces.
So with watchOS 7, this has gone away entirely, and in fact the only pseudo-Force-Touch gesture that remains is the one for adjusting watch faces, which is now done simply with a long press, rather than a forceful one (although you’re still welcome to press harder if you like, it’s no longer necessary).
However, pretty much everywhere else in the watchOS 7 UI, buttons have been added for things that were previously hidden behind Force Touch gestures. For example, the Messages and Mail apps now offer prominent “New Message” buttons right at the top of the list, along with buttons for things like sending your location and contact details down at the very bottom of the list of canned responses. Changing your move goal in the Fitness (previously Activity) app is also now done from a button found by scrolling down from your rings.
This is generally reflected throughout all of Apple’s own apps, although third-party apps will have to be updated in order to catch up. For now at least, however, a long press can still be used to trigger options that previously required Force Touch, so you shouldn’t find yourself stuck in those apps that still expect Force Touch to be used to access some options.