Apple Watch - Does Anyone Else Hate Having a Touch Screen?

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alasta

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#239508 21-Jul-2018 11:07

I have had my series II Apple Watch for nearly two years and over time I have found myself hating it more and more due to unintended activation of the touch screen. When the 'raise to wake' feature is enabled I find that the device frequently wakes while I am performing activities like cleaning or making the bed, and my sleeves start triggering all manner of features on the device.

I have ultimately resorted to turning off the 'raise to wake' and 'turn crown to wake' features but it doesn't seem to have entirely resolved the problem. This is very mysterious as I have conducted a number of experiments to try and simulate accidental waking with these features disabled, but with no success. Knocking the face of the watch against an object, wrapping my sleeves around it and tugging them, shaking or sharply bending my wrist - none of these actions wake the screen, yet it is still somehow waking unintentionally. I am starting to think there is some sort of software bug that is causing it to wake at random times for no reason.

Am I really the only person who thinks that a touch screen on a watch is a really, really dumb idea?

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#2059851 21-Jul-2018 11:12

smart watches are a bad idea in general

:-)

lxsw20

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#2059871 21-Jul-2018 11:30

I had an issue with audio randomly skipping tracks. Took me a while to figure out it was the audio controls coming up on my watch under my jacket sleeve. Disabled that and haven't had any other issues with it.

rugrat

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#2059875 21-Jul-2018 11:34

You could try wearing the watch upside down, I.e if you have the crown buttons on right side, wear watch so they’re on left side.

Then just go into settings, orientation and tell it hand, and which side you have buttons.

That will only help though if when you’re bending your wrist you are somehow knocking one of the buttons. Sleeves touching it doesn’t trigger it for me though.

If I have watch facing away from me raising hand does nothing, it only turns on if facing straight up, or tilted towards my face.

alasta

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#2059881 21-Jul-2018 11:51

lxsw20:

I had an issue with audio randomly skipping tracks. Took me a while to figure out it was the audio controls coming up on my watch under my jacket sleeve. Disabled that and haven't had any other issues with it.

Thanks. Maybe I should disable the audio controls and all complications on the main watch face. That way it would be impossible for accidental touches to do anything. I would still be slightly worried about an accidental swipe bringing up the control centre, but that is probably unlikely.

alasta

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#2059882 21-Jul-2018 11:54

rugrat: You could try wearing the watch upside down, I.e if you have the crown buttons on right side, wear watch so they’re on left side.

Then just go into settings, orientation and tell it hand, and which side you have buttons.

That will only help though if when you’re bending your wrist you are somehow knocking one of the buttons.

Thanks. Based on the testing I have done I am pretty convinced that it is impossible to accidentally press the side button or crown even with them facing outwards, but maybe I should try with them facing inwards and see if it helps.

If I have watch facing away from me raising hand does nothing, it only turns on if facing straight up, or tilted towards my face.

Yes, fortunately they seem to have designed it this way, but there are a lot of daily activities that involve rotating wrists - as I mentioned above cleaning the house and making the bed seem to be the two main ones for me.

Gideon99

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#2059902 21-Jul-2018 12:39

I have raise to wake on and my Apple watch sometimes activates when walking around but I haven't had any problems with clothing touching the screen. Perhaps your sleeves are more conductive than usual?

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gehenna

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#2059910 21-Jul-2018 12:58

I have no issue with the touch screen, I just hate the physical buttons. Every time I bend my wrist I either take a screenshot or Siri activates.

Benjip

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#2059913 21-Jul-2018 13:01

Can't say I've ever had this issue. The iPhone X however is a different story, I'm constantly accidentally activating the screen when I'm holding the phone (as tapping anywhere on the screen wakes it).

Item

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#2060916 23-Jul-2018 11:24

I have the most recent Apple Watch and can't say I have ever accidentally activated or pressed anything with it!

Not sure if they changed the tech or it is just the way I am/am not using it?

I don't see how brushing a sleeve on the screen would do anything though - it is a capacitive touch?

gehenna

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#2060974 23-Jul-2018 13:24

Item:

I have the most recent Apple Watch and can't say I have ever accidentally activated or pressed anything with it!

Yep it's capacitive. For me it's when I'm on all fours stretching or otherwise bending my wrist at an extreme angle (which is often given I am often on all fours - don't ask). Every time I open Photos on my Mac there's at least 2 or 3 new Watch screenshots :) I don't have any issues with the screen coming on at inopportune times though as I use the various DND settings depending on the situation.

mattwnz

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#2060999 23-Jul-2018 13:45

I don't use the raise to wake, because it is hopeless, and the screen turns on whenever you move your hand. Thus uses a lot of power. Since switching it off, I get 3+ days out of the battery. My major issue with the watch is having to type in the passcode each time I put it on in the morning. Then it just lacks features. What about a podcast app that plays the sound through the little speaker. There used to be a third party podcast app that did this, but it got blocked in newer watch OS updates.

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#2061108 23-Jul-2018 16:29

mattwnz:
I don't use the raise to wake, because it is hopeless, and the screen turns on whenever you move your hand. Thus uses a lot of power. Since switching it off, I get 3+ days out of the battery. My major issue with the watch is having to type in the passcode each time I put it on in the morning. Then it just lacks features. What about a podcast app that plays the sound through the little speaker. There used to be a third party podcast app that did this, but it got blocked in newer watch OS updates.

Once you put the watch on, it will unlock the first time you unlock your phone.

alasta

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#2061942 24-Jul-2018 20:43

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. Given that no-one else seems to have the same problem I have done some more testing and I am unable to activate the screen through contact with sleeves, so I am unsure now whether that is the cause of the accidental activations.

I have considered the possibly of the device being defective but it seems highly unlikely given that the display always performs fine with general use. At this point I wonder if static electricity might be the most likely cause given the type of clothing I tend to wear at this time of year.

For now I have disabled the 'auto-launch audio apps' feature as accidental activation of audio controls was my biggest annoyance. I have re-enabled 'raise to wake' but have set up the complications on the watch face to only feature apps that are read-only in nature. I will also make a habit of rolling up my sleeves when doing housework.

Let's see how that goes.

blakamin

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#2061947 24-Jul-2018 20:55

alasta:

Am I really the only person who thinks that a touch screen on a watch is a really, really dumb idea?

That's the reason I'm clinging to my 3 Pebbles.

mattwnz

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#2061948 24-Jul-2018 20:58

josephhinvest: Once you put the watch on, it will unlock the first time you unlock your phone.

The way I use it, I always tend to have airplane mode on unless I need to sync it. I always turn airplane mode on at night . ONce I have it on, it never needs me to enter the passcode again. I am guessing it is not really designed for airplane mode being on most of the time. I guess is also preserving battery life. Would be great if it had inscreen fingerprint scanning, which is now possible, but guess faceID maybe where they want to take it. It does seem a bit primative. The new model looks like it is getting a far better screen, so it looks more like the iphone X without the notch.

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