Apple Watch showcasing watchOS 10’s many updates and changes
Your Apple Watch’s Control Center is a powerful tool for customizing and taking full advantage of its core features. However, it was reworked into watchOS 10 and how you get the most out of it has subtly changed.
Control Center has been around as long as the Apple Watch, but in watchOS 10, Apple changed how you access it on the watch itself. Previously, you simply swiped up from the bottom. Now you press the flat button on the right side to access it.
Swiping up from the bottom now shows widgets. It’s a bit of a relearning for experienced Apple Watch users, but with practice, the side button becomes a natural gesture.
Another much smaller change in watchOS 10 was moving the “connected” icon – a small iPhone symbol in green – from the upper left corner to the upper center. This allows other icons to join it to quickly show you which Control Center items are currently active.
Access Control Center options
One thing you probably shouldn’t do is hold down the side button for too long when accessing Control Center. If you do so, the options for Medical ID, Backward Compass, and Emergency SOS will appear.
If you do this by accident, just press the key Cancel option at the top left of the screen. You can also press the side button again to return to the Control Center.
Double-tapping the side button still brings up Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, just like before. To skip these options if you accidentally invoked them, simply press the side button again.
Aside from these changes, the icons themselves in the Control Center are largely the same. If you’re not sure what a given icon does, long-pressing a given Control Center icon will bring up other options, if available.
For example, holding the alarm icon – which looks like a bell – offers to turn it on (or off), turn it on or off for an hour, or turn it on or off. turn it off until evening or morning. Holding the Wi-Fi icon will display all available networks, as well as the one you’re connected to.
Customizing the Control Center
Typically, most of the available Control Center icons are displayed by default. However, you can remove icons that you are sure you don’t use, rearrange the icon layout, and add new ones.
To do this, open Control Center and scroll to the bottom of the list. At the bottom, press the button Modifier bouton.
Scroll up to see the “wiggle” icons and you’ll see that some have a minus icon in the corner. This mimics the behavior of iPhone apps in edit mode, and you can press the red minus button to remove an icon from Control Center.
Likewise, you can long-press a Control Center icon in edit mode to move it. Once you’re where you want it, let go, then press the side button again to exit.
Remove, rearrange, or add icons to Control Center
At the bottom of the list in edit mode, you will also see any Control Center icons that are not currently installed. You can tap and drag these items if you want to add them.
Two of the most useful features of the Control Center
Only the first six icons will be visible immediately upon entering Control Center, so move the ones you tend to use most often to one of these six locations for easy access. To see the rest, use the Digital Crown to scroll down.
One of the most useful icons in Control Center looks like a vibrating iPhone, which activates a “ping” sound on the paired iPhone to help you find it. On the latest Apple Watch Series 9, a screen will appear on the watch guiding you to its location.
Using your Apple Watch to find your lost iPhone got a big upgrade in watchOS 10
Another icon you might want in your “top six” is the Theater Mode icon, which looks like two masks. Enabling it before any event is an easy way to avoid unwanted lighting, or audible sounds and alerts, on the watch.
In this mode, it prevents the screen from activating even if you raise your wrist. An emergency notification will always alert you with a near-silent haptic buzz.
If you need to check the time or a notification, simply tap the watch screen to bring it up. Once the event is over, don’t forget to turn off Theater Mode.
You should open Control Center if you haven’t already – or haven’t in a while – and check all the icons and what they do. Chances are you’ll find a few that add features you want or didn’t even know you had.
