9 Things That Work Differently Now That Force Touch Is Gone in watchOS 7
Credit: Jesse Hollington
We've known for a while that Apple was planning to remove Force Touch in its watchOS 7 update — it was gone even before the first public beta finally appeared last month, but it still seems pretty likely at least a few users have been taken by surprise by this change after installing watchOS 7 on their devices.
To be clear, Force Touch gestures were never the most discoverable way of interacting with an Apple Watch, and many users probably never even realized that some functionality was hidden behind a firm press on their display. Still, it's been a part of the Apple Watch experience since the very first model debuted back in 2015, and actually served as the inspiration for the iPhone's 3D Touch feature that first came to the iPhone 6s around the same time.
However, with Apple having abandoned 3D Touch, it's probably no big surprise that the Apple Watch is also losing Force Touch.
There's a good chance that the new Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 6 don't even include the necessary hardware to support it, as that also allows Apple to manufacture its devices more cheaply and saves a bit of space inside by removing the extra screen layer required to sense these firmer presses.
Unlike 3D Touch, however, which has been replaced by a new Haptic Touch system that mirrors most of the same functionality using long presses, with watchOS 7 Apple has moved away from the gesture entirely within the core Apple Watch experience, preferring instead to place controls where they can be more prominently accessed.
This is probably going to be a great thing for new Apple Watch users, since it really is far more intuitive, but it will probably leave many Apple Watch power users scratching their heads for how to access features that they've taken for granted as hiding behind a Force Touch gesture.
While almost all of Apple's watchOS-level controls and first-party apps have removed the need for Force Touch gestures, a long-press can still be used for third-party apps that still require them, but Apple is encouraging all third-party developers to follow its lead in abandoning this gesture in favour of more discoverable controls.
Read on for how to access your favourite Force Touch features in watchOS 7.
Editing Watch Faces
Firstly, there's one Force Touch-esque gesture that still remains, and that's for switching and editing watch faces, since there's really no other way to do this.
In watchOS 7, however, it doesn't require any extra pressure — it's a long press rather than a Force Touch, so simply holding your finger on your watch face will bring up the screen for making changes, but it otherwise works much like it did before, with the only real change now being the addition of a second step required to actually begin editing, since you can alternatively choose to just share your watch face instead.
Changing App Views
This was arguably one of the least discoverable features in prior versions of watchOS, since it required a Force Touch on the actual app list or grid view, while many expected that it would instead be something that you could tweak in the main Apple Watch Settings app.
So this is exactly where Apple has put it now — in a new App View section of the Settings app. This does mean that you won't be able to change it on the fly nearly as easily as you could before, but we don't suspect many people did that often.
Changing Calendar Views
Unlike the App View, which users generally don't switch around all that often, the watchOS 7 Calendar app may now be more of an exercise in frustration, since you'll need to take a trip into the Settings app to switch between views.
There are three views in the Calendar app — Up Next, List view, and Day view — and frankly all of them can be useful at different times, so it was really handy to be able to switch between them with a Force Touch gesture. Sadly, however, this is no longer the case, and instead you'll need to go all the way over to the Settings app and look for the view options in the Calendar section, which now seems to exist solely for this purpose.
Calculator Modes
In another example of a situation where changing modes is now a bit more cumbersome, the Apple Watch Calculator app now requires that you take a visit to the Settings app to decide whether you want to use the Tip function, or simply have a percentage calculation button in its place instead.
You could previously switch this on-the-fly using a Force Touch gesture, and while we appreciate that the Apple Watch screen has limited space for buttons, we're still not convinced that Apple needed to make it quite so complicated.
Clearing All Notifications
After you had collected a lot of notifications on your Apple Watch, a Force Touch gesture offered a handy way to clear them all out simply by pressing firmly on any one of them to reveal a "Clear All" button.
In watchOS 7, of course, the gesture no longer works, but you can find the "Clear All" button by scrolling to the top of your notifications screen. It's less convenient, especially for those who have developed muscle memory for clearing notifications, but at least it's still there.
You can also still clear individual notifications by swiping to the left on a single notification and tapping the X that appears.
Changing Move Goals
Another commonly-used Force Touch gesture was the one for switching out your Activity Goals — a Force Touch on the Activity ring would immediately take you to a screen allowing you to see a weekly summary or adjust your move goals.
Fortunately, these options remain fairly convenient in watchOS 7, having been replaced by two buttons that can be found by scrolling down to the bottom of the main screen in the Activity app. As an added bonus, you can also now change all three of your goals too; previously only the Move goal was editable, while the Exercise and Stand goals remained fixed at 30 minutes and 12 hours, respectively.
Messages and Emails
Both the Messages and Mail apps previously allowed you to compose new messages using a Force Touch gesture, in addition to offering other options like deleting messages or flagging emails and marking them as unread.
Both of these apps now include a "New Message" button prominently at the top for composing either a new text message or email. For Messages, a series of buttons found below the list of quick replies offers the ability to share your location or get contact details, while email messages offer a list of options for replying, marking as unread, deleting, or flagging the current message.
Swipe gestures can also be used in the watchOS 7 Mail app to archive, delete, or flag, or simply to delete a conversation thread in the Messages app.
Creating Watch Faces from Photos
It's perhaps a lesser-known feature of the Apple Watch, but if you've synced photos to your wearable, you can turn any one of them into a watch face directly from the watchOS Photos app.
This was previously accomplished using a Force Touch gesture, but now it's even more obvious, with a small watch icon appearing in the bottom-left corner of the screen by your photo. Tapping on that will prompt you to create either a Kaleidoscope watch face or just a normal Photos face, after which you'll be taken straight to your new watch face.
Changing Weather
The built-in Weather app on the Apple Watch has always offered up three views in its weather circle, allowing you to choose between conditions, temperatures, or chance of rain.
A menu to switch between these views previously hid behind a Force Touch gesture, but in an example of how Apple has actually made things easier in watchOS 7, you can now simply cycle through all three by tapping on the screen.