watchOS 7 is one of those software updates that will make your Apple Watch feel faster without upgrading to a new model. Subtle improvements to how apps launch work on watchOS 7 contribute to this effect. These include changes to the Dock and Apple Pay on all Apple Watch models with watchOS 7 and the always-on display on Apple Watch Series 5.
Always on, always decreasing
Apple Watch Series 5 is the first model to introduce an always-on display. Earlier models turned off the display to save battery life, but a new display controller in Apple Watch Series 5 keeps the screen on without turning off the battery.
In watchOS 6, Apple Watch Series 5 has two display modes: an active mode just like all Apple Watch models, and a sleep mode that dims the screen and lowers the refresh rate.
When the screen is off, you need to wake up the display with a tap, click, or wake up to keep the watch face active. For example, if you tap a Weather complication on watchOS 6 while the screen is dimmed, the watch interprets the tap as a screen alarm, just as if you tap anywhere on the display.
This behavior reflects what was happening on Apple Watch Series 4 and earlier when the display was off and it made no sense to interpret where you tapped.
Launched in watchOS 7 beta, Apple Watch Series 5 now lets you launch apps from complications on the watch face, even when the display is inactive. This may sound like an extremely subtle change, but the impact on how responsive the watch feels is significant.
watchOS 7 beta eliminates the need to determine if the watch face is “awake” or “asleep”, which is especially useful for versions of watch faces that do not dramatically change the appearances between states. you can to look the complication when the watch face is inactive, and now there is no cognitive load to determine if you need one tap or two taps.
This also works to swipe to Notification Center, swipe up for Control Center, or swipe left or right to change guard faces.
Dock on turbo
watchOS 7 also speeds up the Dock for launching recently used or favorite apps when you click the side button.
That’s because it now prioritizes launching the Dock with one click instead of waiting for a second click to activate Apple Pay. The cost is a little less visual animation when you double-click to launch Apple Pay, but it’s the speed boost it’s worth if you want to launch an app quickly.
Function requests
watchOS 7 addresses no other perpetual display capabilities, such as providing a state-of-the-art API for third-party apps or even extending ever-on-mode to more built-in apps than just Workout.
Always-in mode could also benefit from an inactive display of analog clocks for display when using apps (the current one is digital only, even if you use an analog watch face). Apps like Now Playing and Maps could also benefit greatly from supporting the always-on display, but we’ll have to wait for future watchOS updates for those features.
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