I’ve been using my Apple Watch Series 9 for over a year now, and honestly, it’s one of the best choices I’ve made for my health. Before I got it, I wasn’t very active—I’d spend hours just sitting and working at my computer. But after getting the watch, I started moving more because of the activity rings. I even noticed my cardio fitness level go from below average to above average. I might write a separate post about how the Apple Watch helped me get fitter, but in this one, I want to talk about four really annoying problems in watchOS 11. Hopefully, someone at Apple sees this and fixes them in the next update, which should be announced in June.
Stand
One of the rings you need to close on the Apple Watch is the Stand ring. By default, you have to stand up for at least one minute every hour, and do this at least 12 times a day. I actually like this feature because I often forget to move when I’m deeply focused on work.
The problem is, it doesn’t always work right. The Apple Watch seems to only count it if your arm is hanging down, parallel to your body. So if I’m standing while cooking or doing the dishes, the watch doesn’t register it—even though I’ve been on my feet for 30 minutes. Then, as soon as I sit down to eat, I get a notification telling me to stand up. That’s frustrating.
Even worse, you can trick the watch into thinking you’re standing just by letting your arm hang while sitting on a chair. So the feature is easy to fool, but not reliable when you’re actually standing.
I hope the watchOS team can improve this so the Apple Watch can better detect if you’re really standing—not just judging based on your arm position.
NameDrop
One of my favorite features lately is NameDrop. It lets you share your contact info just by bringing your Apple Watch or iPhone close to someone else’s. It’s a really quick and easy way to exchange contacts.
For some reason, it doesn’t work properly on my iPhone. After I accept the contact, the Contacts app crashes and the new contact doesn’t get saved. Strangely, it works fine on my Apple Watch.
The annoying part is when my Apple Watch gets too close to my iPhone—NameDrop suddenly activates. I mean, why would I want to share my contact with myself? It seems like something the developer should’ve caught right away. But it looks like that part was either missed or ignored. So now, I’ll be watching something and suddenly feel a buzz on my wrist because NameDrop kicked in for no reason.
This seems like an easy fix—maybe even just a line or two of code.
Auto Unlock
When I’m using my MacBook and need to authenticate something, I usually just use Touch ID—it’s quick and right there. But for some reason, every time this happens, my Apple Watch vibrates to let me know I can also use it to authenticate.
That doesn’t really make sense. I’m already using the Mac, my hand is right there on the keyboard, and Touch ID is much easier. So why would I use my watch? It’s not just unnecessary—it’s distracting. This happens almost every time I need to log in to something, like when I want to access saved passwords.
It would be great if Apple could change this so the Watch only offers to help when Touch ID isn’t available. That way, I don’t get random vibrations every time I need to log in.
HomeKit
Last but not least, the Home app on watchOS has been so unreliable for me that I’ve stopped using it altogether.
I have a smart home setup, and I normally use my iPhone or Siri to control things like locking the door or turning lights on and off. But sometimes, I want to use my Apple Watch—especially when my phone isn’t nearby.
The problem is, when I open the Home app on the watch, it usually just freezes. It shows all my devices as “not responding” and doesn’t update. I wait over 30 seconds, but it still can’t load the current status of my devices, so I can’t control anything. And even when it does show the correct info, trying to do something simple like locking the door just triggers a loading spinner in the corner—and nothing happens.
It’s frustrating, because the Apple Watch should be perfect for these quick tasks when your phone isn’t around. But in this case, it just doesn’t deliver.
It’s no secret that the software quality on Apple devices has been slipping over the past few years. Based on the issues I’ve shared here, it really feels like the engineers at Apple either don’t use the Apple Watch as much as I do—or more likely, they just don’t have the time to fix these small but important bugs. Instead, they’re probably being pushed to focus on things like Apple Intelligence or other flashy features that look good in marketing but may not matter much to most people.
I’m really hoping that watchOS 12 will fix these problems, so I can keep enjoying my Apple Watch every day without getting frustrated by things that should just work.
