The Honeycomb Maze
By default, when you press the Digital Crown on the side of your Apple Watch, you are presented with the “Grid View.” This is a massive, zooming honeycomb cluster of tiny, circular, completely unlabeled icons. While this looks incredibly futuristic in a television commercial, it is notoriously difficult to use in real life. Finding a specific application (like a third-party calculator) requires you to blindly memorize exactly what the tiny icon looks like, and then carefully drag your finger around the screen hoping you tap the right circle. If you prefer to simply read the names of your applications, you must switch to the traditional List View.
How to Change to List View
You can instantly destroy the honeycomb grid directly from the watch face.
- Press the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch to open the app launcher.
- While staring at the confusing honeycomb Grid View, press and hold your finger firmly anywhere on the glass screen.
- A hidden menu will pop up offering two options: “Grid View” and “List View.”
- Tap List View.
The Alphabetical Solution
The change is instantaneous. The tiny floating circles will vanish, replaced by a simple, elegant, vertically scrolling list. Every single application installed on your watch is now clearly labeled with its full English name and sorted in perfect alphabetical order. To find an app, simply spin the Digital Crown to scroll down the list. If you ever want the honeycomb grid back, just press and hold the screen again to reverse the process.