Apps on the Apple Watch appear as a honeycomb on the Home Screen. It’s fun and easy to use, but it quickly fills up with a dizzying array of icons.
Here’s how to tame it.
The Home Screen is accessed by tapping the Digital Crown on the side of the Apple Watch. The Watch app itself sits in the center of the array, and can’t be moved or deleted; it’s always in the center of the array of apps. You navigate the Home Screen by touch, using a finger to pan around the icon honeycomb, or by rolling the Digital Crown to zoom in to a particular area.
Apps are launched by tapping on an individual icon with your finger or turning the Digital Crown, which zooms in and launches whatever app is in the center. Tapping the Digital Crown returns you to the Home Screen.
There are about a dozen default apps preinstalled for timekeeping, information and communication. But after you add some of your own apps, the Home Screen quickly fills up, and you might have a problem of finding the app you want.
Chances are, you’ll want to put your most-used apps in center of the Home Screen, next to the Watch app. This can be done on the Watch or in the iPhone’s Watch app.
Rearrange the Home Screen app icons
Here’s how you rearrange the icons directly on the Apple Watch:
- On the Apple Watch’s Home Screen, press and hold until the app icons begin to jiggle, just like when you’re moving icons on your iPhone’s home screen.
- Then simply drag apps to new locations.
- When you’re done, press the Digital Crown.
And here’s how you rearrange the icons directly using the Apple Watch app on your iPhone (see screengrabs below for illustrations):
- In the Apple Watch app on iPhone, select the “My Watch” tab at the bottom of the screen.
- Select “App Layout” (it’s the first setting).
- Touch and hold the icon for the app you want to move. It’ll pop up and increase in size.
- Drag the selected app to its new location.
Hide apps on Apple Watch
To make the Home Screen useable, it might be best to hide some apps. Again, this can be done on the Apple Watch or iPhone.
Here’s how you hide app icons directly on the Apple Watch:
- Go to the Apple Watch’s Home Screen by pressing the Digital Crown.
- Press and hold the app icons until they jiggle; a little X will appear on the left of apps that can be deleted.
- Tap the X to remove the app from Apple Watch.
Note: none of the preinstalled apps — like Watch, Photos and Passbook — can be removed. Also, apps that have been hidden on the Watch remain installed on your iPhone, unless you also delete them there.
To hide installed apps using the Apple Watch app:
- Open the Apple Watch app on iPhone.
- Select the “My Watch” tab at the bottom of the screen.
- Scroll down to see apps that have been installed.
- Select the app you want to hide.
- On the next screen, toggle the button that says “Show App on Apple Watch.”
Again, apps that came with the Apple Watch can’t be hidden.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
