Hiding Sensitive Information
For both power conservation and privacy reasons, notifications do not appear on the always-on display — instead, you have to raise your wrist or tap just as you would have with prior Apple Watch models. This is a good thing, in our opinion, but it also took us a bit of getting used to, since the brain processes a dimmed screen differently from a completely black one.
However, this only affects notifications, and if you’re concerned about other people being able to see information from your watch face complications, such as upcoming calendar appointments or tasks, there’s actually another setting that you’ll need to enable. Simply head into your Apple Watch Settings app, select Display & Brightness, Always On, and then turn on Hide Sensitive Complications.
With this setting switched on, complications for things like calendar appointments, upcoming reminders, emails and messages, heart rate, and activity rings will be hidden when the screen goes into standby mode. The same applies for cards on the Siri watch face. In addition to protecting your privacy, this also has the added advantage making the screen seem a bit less cluttered when in standby mode.
It’s not totally clear how this works with third-party complications, however, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag right now. For example, the task manager Things fades out appropriately, yet the heart rate app Cardiogram remains visible.