In watchOS 3, Apple has rearranged the living room furniture. And they’ve thrown out things that didn’t make sense (like Glances and Friends circle). And now, the main way to interact with your favorite apps in Apple Watch is the Dock. And it’s a far superior way. Here’s how it works.
Access Your Favorite Apps From The Dock
The honeycomb app launcher isn’t going anywhere, it’s still accessible by pressing the Digital Crown.
But when you press the Side button, you’ll now get to the Dock.
The Dock is a horizontally scrolling list of your favorite apps, that are actually running in the background, refreshing their data from time to time.
And when you go to the Dock, you won’t see an app icon, you’ll see a preview of the app. So this is kind of like Glances. Except, because the app has been updated in the background, you’ll actually see almost live (it might be off by 5-10 minutes, both not by hours like it was in watchOS 2) data there. For example, your weather app will show updated data here.
And when you tap a preview, the app will launch – instantly.
As you keep using your Watch, it will learn and will keep adding your favorite apps in the list. There’s also a way to manually add an app to this list. We’ll talk about that below.
How To Remove and Rearrange Apps in Dock
The default apps are mostly stock. Apps you might not want in the Dock. To remove an app from the Dock, simply swipe up on it and tap “Remove”.
To rearrange an app, tap and hold on the preview, and then move your finger left/right to change its place. Drop it where you want.
How To Add An App To The Dock on Apple Watch
There’s no way to add multiple apps to the Dock.
Open the app you want to launch and then press the Side button.
You’ll be in the dock and you’ll see the preview of the current app and the button below that says “Keep in Dock”.
Tap it and it will be added to the Dock, at the end of the list.
Your Favorite watchOS 3 Apps?
What are your favorite apps in watchOS 3? The ones that sit in the Dock? Share with us in the comments below.
