watchOS 10.4 released

[Annie_M]

 

[Just_Me_D]

Already installed and running smoothly on my Watch Ultra 2…

 

[EdwinG]

I’m downloading right now. It

 

[phessler]

Thanks for the tip! Downloading now...

 

[11B1P]

Downloading to my Ultra 1. It's about a 2hr install so plan accordingly

 

[EdwinG]

I’m downloading right now. It

It took my watch over 6 hours to download the update. It installed while charging.

 

[Annie_M]

I installed it at work, and it took about 76 minutes from start to finish.

 

[tcuprof]

Thanks for the notice Annie.

 

[doogald]

I've had the optimized battery charge limit option (e.g., charging to 80% and hold) turned on since it was an option (watchOS 10.0 I believe), but it wasn't until this update was installed the other day that my watch first did it.

 

[doogald]

Another change that I noticed is that the Timer app is different. From 10.0 to 10.3, the timers listed on the app were listed this way: 1:00, 2:00, 5:00, 7:30, 30:00, 1:00:00.

Now they say instead 1 min, 2 min, 5 min, 7:30 min, 30 min, and 1 hour.

Also when a timer is complete the background is a brighter color. Before it was a light brown color - now it appears to me to be much yellower.

 

[doogald]

Ok, two more changes I've noticed, and one that is definitely new with 10.4

First, this is new with 10.4. Starting with 10.0, if you used list view for your apps, pressing the crown to show the list of apps always brought you to the top of the list, rather than to the last place you left the list, as with all versions that supported list view prior to 10.0. 10.4 now remembers where you were in the list when you press the crown.

New to 10.4 (I think) is the behavior of a double-press of the crown. Prior to 10.0, double-pressing the crown brought you automatically to the last app you opened, and doing it again brought you to the app you just left. It was an easy way to switch between two apps.

10.0 changed this, A double-press of the crown brought you to the multitasking screen, showing thumbnail cards of the apps that you've opened in reverse chronological order, similar to swiping up halfway on a FaceID iPhone or double-clicking the home button on a home button iOS/iPadOS device. From here you could swipe left and tap a control to force-quit an app, or tap an app to go right back. Starting with 10.4, double-clicking with 10.4 brings you to the list, but after about a second it brings you directly to the last opened app. So double-clicking the crown is back to switching between two apps, with a slight delay on the multi-tasking screen.

 

[doogald]

New to 10.4 (I think) is the behavior of a double-press of the crown. Prior to 10.0, double-pressing the crown brought you automatically to the last app you opened, and doing it again brought you to the app you just left. It was an easy way to switch between two apps.

After some spelunking of settings I found that this is now in the settings. On the watch, Settings app; or on the phone, Watch app. Tap Accessibility. It’s a new setting under “App Switcher” - “Auto-Select Focused App” with the explanation text saying, “After 1 second of inactivity the App Switcher can automatically open the focused app”.

And now I know that the screen that opens when you double-click the crown is called the App Switcher.

 

[m3ach]

Ok, two more changes I've noticed, and one that is definitely new with 10.4

First, this is new with 10.4. Starting with 10.0, if you used list view for your apps, pressing the crown to show the list of apps always brought you to the top of the list, rather than to the last place you left the list, as with all versions that supported list view prior to 10.0. 10.4 now remembers where you were in the list when you press the crown.

This is how it used to work prior to the release of 10.0, something I used to use that was a pain when it changed.

I am very happy now they changed it back especially as they got rid of the dock at the same time.