How to customize the new Smart Stack feature on your Apple Watch

How to Customize Smart Stack Feature on Apple Watch

The advent of watchOS 10 on the Apple Watch brought many new features and changes for users. One of the major changes to the Apple Watch interface is the new Smart Stack feature.

Designed to provide easy access to users, the Smart Stack feature on your Apple Watch helps you access various apps in the form of mini widgets with a quick rotation of the digital crown on the watch face.

When you initially download and install watchOS 10 on your Apple Watch, the Smart Stack feature leverages some of your most commonly used apps and auto-converts them into widgets to be available when you rotate the digital crown.

However, you can customize this feature only to show the apps you want and remove unwanted apps from the Smart Stack.

How to Customize Smart Stack on your Apple Watch

  1. Rotate the Digital crown upward on any watch face to bring up the Smart Stacks

    Apple Watch Smart Stack feature
    This is only available from the Apple Watch Face by rotating the digital crown upward on the screen.
  2. If you are on a nonwatch face screen, first press the digital crown to go to the Apple Watch Face screen and rotate the digital crown.
  3. The Smart Stack feature is only available from the Apple Watch face screen via the Digital Crown.
  4. Next, Press and hold the screen on the Smart Stack screen. This Brings up the ‘+’ and the ‘Done’ icons at the top of the screen

    Edit Smart Stack Feature
    Tap on the ‘-‘ icon to remove this widget or you can tap on the ‘Pin’ icon to pin it
  5. Tap on the ‘+’ icon and then choose the app from the ‘Featured’ section or from the ‘All Apps’ section to add it as a widget to the Smart Stack

    Adding Widgets to Smart Stack
    Choose the app or select widgets from the ‘Featured’ section.
  6. Please note that some apps have multiple widget views. For example, when you choose the activity app, you can use the ‘Rings’ view or the ‘Timeline View’
  7. Tap on the desired widget, and it is automatically added to your Smart Stack
  8. Tap ‘Done’ at the top of the screen once you have added your personalized widget

    Finish Customizing Smart Stack
    Tap on ‘Done’ to complete customizing and exit the Smart Stack Screen.

How to Remove Widgets from the Smart Stack

Removing Widgets from the Smart Stack on your Apple Watch is straightforward. Start by rotating the digital crown upwards on the Apple Watch face to bring up the Smart Stack.

  1. Press and hold on the Smart Stack screen to bring up the Edit functionality
  2. Once you are in the edit mode, you will find a red ‘-‘ icon on the left top corner of the widget and a yellow ‘Pin’ icon on the right top corner of it.
  3. Tapping on the Red ‘-‘ icon will remove the widget from the Smart Stack

    Remove a widget from Smart Stack
    Tap on the delete icon and it will remove the selected widget
  4. Once you have removed the widgets and added any new widgets according to your choice, tap on the ‘Done’ button on the top right corner of the screen to exit the Smart Stack

Finally, the Apple Watch software is intelligent enough to provide you with an option to Pin a widget at the top of the Smart Stack so that it is available as the first choice every time you access your widget. 

To Pin a widget, tap on the Yellow ‘Pin’ icon at the top right corner to Pin it. To move that widget to the top of the stack, unpin widgets above it by tapping on the Pin icon on the right side of each widget.

Once you are done with your customization, tap on ‘Done’ at the top right corner of the screen to exit Smart Stack.

We hope that you found these step-by-step methods to customize your Smart Stack handy and can take advantage of this nifty watchOS 10 feature. 

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Sudz Niel Kar
I am a technologist with years of experience with Apple and wearOS products, have a BS in Computer Science and an MBA specializing in emerging tech, and owned the popular site AppleToolBox. In my day job, I advise Fortune 500 companies with their digital transformation strategies and also consult with numerous digital health startups in an advisory capacity. I'm VERY interested in exploring the digital health and fitness-tech evolution and keeping a close eye on patents, FDA approvals, strategic partnerships, and developments happening in the wearables and digital health sector. When I'm not writing or presenting, I run with my Apple Watch Ultra or Samsung Galaxy Watch and closely monitor my HRV and other recovery metrics.

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