Following last week’s release of watchOS 9.5, some Apple Watch users say their display has a newfound green tint discoloration. Images posted to Reddit by these users show Apple Watch displays with noticeably different color profiles than before, replacing the traditional OLED black levels with a more washed-out green/gray tint instead.
Apple Watch users affected by this bug have taken to Reddit and the MacRumors forums to complain of the problem. The vast majority of complaints are from users with an Apple Watch Series 8 or earlier, suggesting that the Apple Watch Ultra is immune from the problem.
The problem also appears to vary from person to person. For some users, their Apple Watch display now features a distinct and noticeable green tint. Other users, however, see a far more subtle change to their Apple Watch display’s color profile. Some users say that their Apple Watch’s display is definitely lighter than it was prior to installing watchOS 9.5, but not necessarily “green.”
On Reddit, some Apple Watch users speculate that this was actually an intentional change by Apple, but that it may have overdone it in some cases. This seems unlikely, however, given just how wide the variation appears to be from one Apple Watch to another.
My guess is it’s supposed to happen. Maybe they updated it to look like you’re looking through frosted glass whenever you pull down or swipe up, since your face remains blurred in the background. It was already blurred before so maybe they thought it looked better this way.
Users say the new green tint is most notable on screens such as control center, notification center, and the passcode unlock screen. The Apple Watch uses OLED display technology, which means it can achieve close to pure black display color. This makes a change to the color profile like this one very noticeable, as what was once completely black now looks closer to gray or green.
The likely culprit here is some sort of bug affecting the Apple Watch’s background blur effect. This would explain why the issue is far more noticeable in things like the control center and notification center, where this is a slight blur that masks your watch face in the background.
Similar “Greengate” problems have affected different iPhone models over the years, including the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12.
Assuming Apple is able to resolve these Apple Watch display bugs via a software update, we expect the company to release watchOS 9.5.1 soon. iOS 16.5 also includes a bug impacting compatibility with Apple’s Lightning to USB 3 dongle that needs to be fixed.
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