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WatchOS 7 Eliminates Force Contact Support Here's All That's Changed From Your Apple Watch

Apple has introduced some new features to compatible Apple Watch models with the introduction of watchOS 7, such as new watch faces and sleep tracking, but it also removes support for the gesture of Force Contact that some users may have come to think of on their wrist as a second nature interaction.

As users pressed their Apple Watch screen tightly, Force Touch technology will sense the extra pressure effort and, depending on the context, display additional content and controls. But Apple removed all Force Touch interactions from the UI in watchOS 7, rendering the Force Touch sensor gasket essentially superfluous in Apple Watch Series 5 and earlier versions.

Below, in watchOS 7, we have compiled 10 new features that replace our favourite Force Touch features on Apple's digital watch. Others are better known than others, so hopefully you'll at least understand one thing about what your Apple Watch screen used to do with a firm click, and what you need to do now that it's gone.

1. Clear All Notifications

The notification dropdown of the Apple Watch can get busy pretty quickly , particularly if after reading it you sometimes forget to dismiss an incoming alert. A Force Touch gesture lets you clear them all with a tap instead of removing alerts one by one.

Now you have to swipe down to scroll to the top of your notifications and then tap the Clear All button.

2. Create and Delete Faces for Watch

To create a custom watch face with a background picture, you still open the Apple Watch Photos app and select a photo.

Tap the Build Watch Face icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen instead of pressing firmly on the display as you used to, and then choose Kaleidoscope or Images.

3. Compose a New Message

Upon opening the Mail and Messages app, the ability to write a new message with a Force Touch gesture was discovered.

You need to swipe down to show the New Message button at the top of your message list, now that it's gone.

4. Adjust Step Target and get a rundown of weekly activities

Using Force Touch on the main screen of the Activity app to reveal a weekly rundown showing how many times this week you have beaten your daily movement target. A Change Step Target button to alter the amount of calories you are trying to burn was revealed by pressing down on this screen again.

Both of these options have been replaced by individual buttons that you can find right below today's activity stats at the bottom of the main screen of the Activity app.

5. Share Your Location With a Contact

Using Force Touch helps you to easily share your location with the message sender or display further contact information while opening a message in the Messages app.

These options can now be found at the very bottom of the message screen, directly below the Instant Replies.

6. Turn to App Grid View and List View between

In the App View, Force Touch can switch between the default Grid layout in the honeycomb design and the alternative List View.

In ‌watchOS 7‌, you can find both options in the Settings app under App View

7. Forecast of hourly temperature and chance of rain

On the stock Weather app of the Apple Watch, the regular forecast indicator displays the general weather conditions for the day ahead. Before watchOS 7, Force Touch showed buttons in the app to switch between weather conditions, rain likelihood, and temperature.

Fortunately, you can still access these views just as easily by tapping the 12-hour forecast to cycle through them.

8. Control Camera Settings Remotely

Opening the Apple Watch Camera screen, Force Touch will display a secret submenu that gives access to the HDR, Flash, Live Picture, and Flip controls of your iPhone.

In ‌watchOS 7‌, all of these controls are accessed by tapping the three dots in the bottom-right of the screen, which reveal a vertical scrolling menu.

9. Switch Calendar View

Prior to ‌watchOS 7‌, changing view options within the Calendar app could be done using Force Touch.

These options are now found in the Settings app under Calendar -> View Options.

10. Switch and Edit Watch Faces

Out of all the changes following the removal of Force Touch, this is almost certainly the least abrasive, and involves an almost identical gesture.

Long press on the watch screen to invoke the watch face selector to switch between watch faces or customize the currently selected one.

Final Thoughts

Force Touch was one of those features of the Apple Watch that was so discreet and unassuming that in the long run this arguably worked against it. In watchOS 7, Apple did not state why it disabled the firm-press gesture, but it may be because not enough users were aware of it to be truly useful.

That's a shame, because Apple introduced the haptic feedback technology across the entire watchOS interface, much like 3D Touch on the iPhone, placing additional features at your fingertips. Of course, when the iPhone XR was launched, the 3D Touch went the same way as Force Touch on Apple Watch, which some would say suffered from the same lack of discoverability.

To replace the 3D Touch, the iPhone XR introduced the Haptic Touch. Although Haptic Touch (aka long press) is basically a feedback mechanism, true input options such as Peek and Pop were given by 3D Touch. Since then, this transition has extended to the entire iPhone lineup, which has allowed Apple to drop the integrated capacitive layer into the iPhone display.