Apple execs discuss third-party watch faces and watchOS 10 design decisions in new interview

Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger today published an interesting and expansive interview with Apple VPs Kevin Lynch and Deidre Caldbeck, discussing all the changes in the upcoming watchOS 10 update.

Asked about the possibility of third-party watch faces on Apple Watch, Lynch says that the watch face is the home screen of the watch and they want everything to work reliably and consistently.

As Apple controls all the faces the user can choose, Caldbeck adds that users “don’t have to worry about the watch face still working when there’s a major watchOS update. We’ll take care of that.”

(Please note the quotes below are machine-translated from German)

If third-party faces were available, Apple argues it wouldn’t be able to ensure that the watch faces keep working if they change something in the operating system, like this year’s watchOS 10 redesign that includes a new swipe up gesture to reveal a tray of user-selectable widgets.

The execs also argue that Apple already gives users a lot of flexibility to customize their watch faces, and enhance them with complications from third-party apps.

Elsewhere in the interview, Lynch and Caldbeck explain how the new widgets system is the natural evolution of the Glances concept from watchOS 1.0. Users wanted access to information quickly, and the widgets system makes that data readily accessible, without the layering complexity of the Glances system:

In conversations, I am always amazed at how often Lynch and Caldbeck return to user feedback. Be it from e-mails or via forms from beta tests. “In particular, the repurposing of the button with watchOS 10 is based on a lot of this feedback,” explains Caldbeck.

But the new mini widgets at the bottom of each watch face are also due to this. People wanted more information easily and quickly. This is exactly what this innovation offers. “We already had Glances and other variants that do something similar. But now it’s really, really easy and intuitive. We’re extremely optimistic about that.”

The aforementioned button change is referring to the fact that a press of the Digital Crown on watchOS 10 opens Control Center, rather than the multitasking app switcher. The app switcher is now accessible via a double-click of the crown, something that the execs say is even more logical: “because if you press the crown once, you get to the apps.” Plus, it makes the popular Control Center toggles available with a single button press from anywhere in the operating system.

Lynch also discusses the design decisions behind Force Touch in the original Apple Watch and its later removal. Lynch says the larger Apple Watch screens have allowed them to expose actions without requiring complicated hidden gestures.

“Because the screen is so small, we wanted a way to add features that you only need occasionally without taking up valuable screen real estate,” explains Lynch. “So we came up with the idea that you can press harder to access additional functions. That solved our problem. But it created a new one: you didn’t see where to call more functions with it, and you had to know exactly what you were doing. That’s why we looked for alternatives. And now that the screens are significantly larger, we have a lot more ways to display information and additional features.”

You can read the full interview here on the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper’s website (published in German).