I’ll be trustworthy: I’m an entire Apple Watch fanboy. I’ve been utilizing Apple’s wearable for near a decade, and I went from reluctant skeptic to whole convert the minute I first borrowed a good friend’s Watch to see what all of the fuss was about. The machine is, for my part, the most effective smartwatch cash can purchase.
That doesn’t imply it’s good, although. There are a number of elements of Apple’s machine that I’m much less eager on, from the single-day battery life to the eye-watering worth of its straps. And there are two Apple Watch annoyances that prime my listing of issues: the Wrist Flick gesture and Reside Actions. Each are constant sources of frustration in my day-to-day utilization.
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1. Wrist Flick
(Picture credit score: Apple)
When it was launched as a part of watchOS 26 in summer time 2025, the Apple Watch’s Wrist Flick gesture was pitched as a fast and handy method to dismiss notifications with one hand. All it took, Apple mentioned, was a speedy backwards flick of the wrist and any on-screen alert could be banished, all with out the necessity to do something together with your different hand.
But in observe, I’ve discovered this gesture to be frustratingly flaky. Typically it simply doesn’t register my motion, leaving my repeatedly rotating my wrist because the notification stays firmly in place, mocking my plaintive irritation. Different occasions, I’ll elevate my wrist to verify the alert, however my Watch interprets this motion itself as a wrist flick gesture, resulting in the notification being dismissed once I in actual fact needed to learn it.
In different phrases, I usually discover that wrist flick doesn’t work when it ought to and does work when it shouldn’t.
Including to the issue is its inconsistency. Wrist Flick isn’t at all times a difficulty for me – certainly, generally it really works completely. More often than not, elevating my wrist to verify a message doesn’t unintentionally invoke the gesture. But sometimes it does, with watchOS maddeningly misreading my intention.
That makes it very arduous to find out if I’m doing one thing incorrect or if the gesture is just a bit buggy. I can by no means inform when it’s going to work and when it’s not.
Regardless of that, I really like the thought behind it. Like watchOS’s Double Faucet gesture, Wrist Flick is a good addition for these occasions while you’ve solely acquired one free hand and nonetheless need to have the ability to carry out an motion in your Watch. Finally, although, it feels prefer it wants slightly extra time within the oven.
Hopefully, Apple will repair it up at WWDC. I don’t want a full-blown wrist flick overhaul. Just a bit consideration to make it extra constant.
What to learn subsequent
There are experiences that iOS 27 – coming at WWDC – shall be centered rather more on efficiency and stability enhancements fairly than new options. Hopefully that applies to watchOS 27, too, with wrist flick getting a spot of much-needed love.
Reside Actions
(Picture credit score: Apple)
Whereas I’m completely satisfied that my Apple Watch can ahead texts from my iPhone, document my exercises and begin timers on the go, a lot of the time I simply wish to use it as a daily, on a regular basis clock. But there’s one function that continuously will get in the way in which of this: Reside Actions.
In case you haven’t used Reside Actions in watchOS but, the function principally works like an automatic mini app that mirrors ongoing actions out of your different Apple units. So, if you happen to’re taking part in music in Spotify in your Mac, as an illustration, you’ll see slightly Spotify ‘now taking part in’ widget seem in your Apple Watch.
The concept is to provide you a method to management what you’re doing in your different units with out having to be bodily sat in entrance of them. Within the Spotify instance, you would pause your music out of your wrist, even if you happen to’re far away out of your Mac.
That seems like a fairly useful function, and it continuously is. However my downside is with how Reside Actions are likely to take over your watch face – usually with out you even realizing.
I exploit an Apple Watch face with 4 of my favourite issues round its edge: the date, my Watch’s battery stage, the temperature, and my exercise rings. Tapping a type of issues brings up extra detailed info. For that purpose, I prefer to have my Watch face displaying more often than not in order that I can rapidly use these issues in a frictionless means.
The widgets launched by Reside Actions, although, intervene with that. With a Reside Exercise taking up my Watch show, I’ve to dismiss it to get to my issues, then carry it again to get the added performance granted by Reside Actions. It’s disruptive for the way in which I wish to work.
In addition to that, Reside Actions launch themselves routinely – you don’t carry them up manually. Due to that, I usually neglect they’re there. I’ll elevate my wrist to verify the time or faucet a complication, solely to search out that the knowledge I would like is obscured by one thing that’s not even taking place on my Apple Watch, however is as an alternative going down on considered one of my different units. That makes it really feel like my Watch has prioritized one thing of much less significance and relevance to me.
(Picture credit score: Future)
I’m conscious that I can disable Reside Actions on my Apple Watch – I wrote a how-to information on disabling the function, in actual fact – however the issue is that your solely choices are severely restricted. Primarily, you’ll be able to both change off Reside Actions totally or depart them as they’re. Sure, you’ll be able to disable Reside Actions on a per-app foundation, however you’ll be able to’t actually change how they work. It’s an either-or, on-off state of affairs, with little center floor.
I would favor to have an possibility that sits someplace between full-blown display takeover territory and an entire absence of Reside Actions. And I’ve acquired an thought of how that might work.
Actually, that concept comes straight from Apple within the type of Sensible Stack hints. These are tiny icons that seem in your Watch when Apple thinks you may want them, akin to a exercise suggestion proper while you’re about to start out your each day 8am jog. It’s all organized via harnessing synthetic intelligence to foretell what you may wish to do together with your Watch.
Why not take out the AI guesswork and broaden these hints to Reside Actions? Once you begin taking part in music in your Mac, your Watch might present slightly Spotify icon on the backside of your display. One faucet and the total Reside Exercise would launch. That may be an excellent compromise, enabling you to nonetheless get Reside Exercise performance with out the function dominating your show.
(Picture credit score: Apple)
Now, earlier than you inform me this already exists, I do know that there’s a toggle referred to as Auto-Launch Reside Actions buried within the Apple Watch’s Settings app, and disabling this stops Reside Actions beginning by themselves. However if you happen to do that, the app that will in any other case set off the Reside Exercise is restricted to a tiny icon on the prime of your display – one which I battle to hit half the time. Sensible Stack hints, then again, are a contact bigger and subsequently a lot simpler to press.
In addition to that, the present state of affairs – tapping the minute icon on the prime of your show – launches the full-blown Watch app. A Sensible Stack trace, in the meantime, fires up a Reside Exercise, which frequently preserves vital watch face info just like the clock. Personally, I favor the latter.
Making that concept a actuality is one thing I’d like to see at WWDC. Apple has already laid the groundwork within the type of Sensible Stack hints. Now it simply must open the system as much as Reside Actions and tweak the function.
And who is aware of, maybe Apple will provide you with one thing even higher. For an organization well-known for its intuitive software program, I’m certain it may well rustle up one thing spectacular. I’ll be watching with bated breath.
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