After trying it out for a while I’ve decided the Smart Stack is useless to me. This feature was a huge step back in my opinion.

First off, I do NOT want the Now Playing card to be displayed EVER. It even pops up when I’m playing music on my HomePods instead of my phone. We should have the option to disable this widget.

Second, the stack is anything but smart. Shouldn’t the ‘Chance of Rain’ widget display at the top if it is going to rain soon? What about an alarm that is set to go off shortly? Why is it showing me multiple cards for upcoming meetings instead of just one? I just can open my calendar to see my schedule if I want. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the widgets dynamically change order.

I had hoped double-tap would make it a little better experience, but instead I’ve just deleted all the widgets. It’s sad because this idea had potential and I’m worried Apple will just abandon it like they do so many other ideas they have.

  • nephyxx@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I agree there are big improvements needed to be made and I hope they make them. But one thing I do like about the widgets is that I can use “nice looking” watch faces and just scroll up to get my information. Previously I never used nice clean faces because getting to quick info was always a pain without complications.

    We just need to be able to customize the stack more instead of relying on the (dumb) “smarts”.

  • treesalt617@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    The only thing I’ve found Smart Stack useful for is quickly navigating to Now Playing when I have music on.

  • Kimantha_Allerdings@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Literally the only thing I use smart stack for is seeing the date without having to waste a complication.

    I’ve been giving it a go, but I didn’t think it would be useful. Widgets aren’t as good as complications in terms of customisation or amount of information it’s possible to display on one screen. And as for the “smart” thing, I don’t use a smart stack on my phone, either, because it’s not smart and might as well just be showing me a random widget. I had no expectations that this would be any different.

    Also, the UX now feels inconsistent. If rotating the crown one way brings up the stuff that’s “under” the screen, then why can’t I rotate it the other way to bring down the notifications? The animation’s even different for the two actions.

    Such a shame. I’m open to changing the way I use my watch, but the new way has to be at least as good as the old way. This is not.