As a result of the recent addition of new innovative Apple Watch gestures in the watchOS 5, users are now able to pull down the Notification Center panel or even bring up Control Center when using both 1st or 3rd party watchOS applications.
Older watchOS versions allowed you to swipe up or down to open the Notification or Control Center; however, you could only do so from watch face itself โ which wasnโt all that convenient. To put it in perspective, users couldnโt simply swipe in an application because that would interfere with other user interface gestures such as scrolling due to the limited screen real estate on the device itself.
Just before the WatchOS 5 release you actually needed to use a multi-step procedure to access Control Center from within an app. First of all, you would press the Digital Crown to return to the Watch Face, after that youโd swipe from top to gain access to the alerts. Not to mention once you were done reading them, youโd need to repeat the aforementioned process to return to whatever you were doing previously.
While WatchOS 5 still allows you to swipe down or up from watch face as if you would normally, the new way of doing things is much more convenient.
How to Open Notification Center:
For accessing the Notification Center while in application, you will need to do the following:
โข Wake your Apple Watchโs display.
โข Tap & hold on the top edge of display.
โข Once the UI element appear near top edge of display just below where your finger would be, simply swipe right down to bring Notification Center panel down as well as see your current alerts.
โข The sole place this particular gesture does not work is the Watchโs Home Screen and Dock area.
How to Access Control Center
Now, in order to open Control Center while using an app, youโll need to do the following:
โข Wake your Apple Watchโs display.
โข Tap & hold on the top edge of display.
โข Once the UI element appear near top edge of display just below where your finger would be, simply pull up to drag the Control Center overlay into the full view.
โข Once again, this particular gesture doesn't work on your deviceโs Home screen or even while utilizing the Dock.
Now you can access the Control Center and Notification Center panes from everywhere in watchOS interface.
For accompanying the latest system wide gestures, the Apple has included some delicate animations to โsupplementโ the interactions in the WatchOS 5. Whenever you accomplish a long press, the paneโs background will become slightly opaque and let you preview what is โunderโ it. Itโs important to note, however, that the gray will fade to transparent once the swipe gesture is done. In case you swipe more quickly, the panes will hit a โroad blockโ and end up bouncing back along with all the appropriate physics that weโve come to expect from Apple software.
Alternatively, the individual Control Center toggles seem to bounce a little bit as they go reach their final locations. This pane content is itself a bit translucent now; allow you to get a feel of the context from blurred background of application underneath.
So, how do you like the the new gestures? Exactly what are your own thoughts the new ways of accessing Notification and Control Center gestures? Chime along with your own thoughts in comment section below.