Apple Watch: Change your app layout

One of the neat things about the Apple Watch is how easy (and fun) it is to change the layout of app icons on the watch’s home screen. To access the home screen on the Apple Watch, press the Digital Crown after the time appears. You’ll see a jumble of different app icons that you can move around.

There are two different ways you can move the app icons on the Apple Watch:

1. Move them around on the Apple Watch itself.

2. Move them around via the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

In this tip I’ll show you how to do it both ways.

How to arrange app icons on the Apple Watch itself

Here’s how you can move app icons around to your liking right on the Apple Watch itself:

1. Raise your wrist to see the time on your Apple Watch.

2. Press the Digital Crown until you see the Apple Watch home screen.

3. Tap and hold any app icon until they all start jiggling like they do on your iPhone when you go to move them.

4. Tap and hold the app icon you want to move, and place it wherever you want.

5. When you are finished moving app icons around, press the Digital Crown again to stop them from jiggling.

How to arrange app icons in the iPhone’s Apple Watch app

Moving app icons around on the smaller screen of the Apple Watch might be a bit more difficult than simply using the Apple Watch app on the iPhone. The Apple Watch app has the advantage of the iPhone’s much larger screen, so it might be faster and easier to use the app to make your Apple Watch layout changes.

Here’s how you can change your Apple Watch’s app layout right on your iPhone:

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

2. Tap on App Layout.

3. You’ll see all of your app icons in their current layout.

4. Tap and hold the app icon(s) you want to move.

5. Note that app icons will not jiggle like they do on the Apple Watch.

Once you are done your changes will automatically sync back to the Apple Watch. And now your app layout on the Apple Watch will be exactly the way you want it. This can make it much easier and faster to find and use the Apple Watch apps that you use most frequently, while also moving apps you don’t use as often out of the way.

The best app layout for your Apple Watch?

App layouts on the Apple Watch are very much an individual thing. How you arrange yours will depend on which apps you use the most and how you want them displayed. But one redditor came up with a novel way of arranging his apps on the Apple Watch.

Here’s how Apple Watch redditor Frendargolargo did it:

Form circles of apps, leaving an empty space in the middle of every six. This will give you the least amount of accidental taps. Group your apps by ideas and keep your most frequently used apps closest to the center.

The inner six apps are my most used, the bottom two are my most most used (yeah, I know, myfitnesspal is pretty useless, but I use the second page to keep an eye on my macros). The second set of six surrounding them round out the twelve most used apps.

Beyond that, I haven’t completed it, but I’ve started organizing the apps partly by the category they belong in and partly by the frequency of use. The more I use it, the closer it is to the center. Clustering them around ideas/categories makes it easier for my brain to remember where the apps are.

More at Reddit

I have to give Frendargolargo much credit for coming up with a truly different way of arranging the apps on his Apple Watch. His method might work very well if you want to save time when accessing apps on your watch. It seems like a very efficient way to organize your app icons on the Apple Watch.

Changing your app layout on the Apple Watch can take some time, but it’s also rather fun to do. And once you get your apps arranged the way you want, you’ll find using the Apple Watch that much more of a pleasure.

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