I started using an Apple Watch a little over a month ago and it has helped me in more ways than one. You know, notifications, fitness tracking (which I don’t normally use, but the Apple Watch makes being active so much more fun), making and receiving calls, all that. Heck these days I use WhatsApp on the Apple Watch. However, there are some things that sometimes get annoying in watchOS 6; such as certain symbols and icons. Case in point: The little red dot at the top of the screen.
What is the Red Dot on the Apple Watch?
So what is the red dot on the Apple Watch, you wonder? Well, it’s basically a notification telling you that you have unread notifications. Basically, if you haven’t read, replied to, or dismissed a notification on your Apple Watch, this little red dot will appear at the top of the watch face, above the 12 mark on the watch. pending notifications that you may need to deal with.
How to Remove Red Dot from Apple Watch
Now personally, I don’t really care about the red dot appearing on my watch. But if you’re looking for a way to get the little icon out of your way forever, luckily there’s an easy way to remove the red dot in watchOS 6. Here’s what you need to do.
Open the ‘Watch’ app on your iPhone and Tap on ‘Notifications’‘. Turn off the toggle next to ‘Notifications Indicator’.
That’s it, your Apple Watch will no longer show a red dot on the watch face when you have unread notifications. Don’t worry, later if you think the red dot is something you would prefer, you can activate the ‘Notification Indicator’ toggle and undo it.
Bonus: Accessing Notification Center from Different Places
Since we’ve already talked about notifications here and how to better manage them, you may be interested to know that in watchOS 5 Apple only lets you access the Notification Center on the watch face, whereas in watchOS 6 it only lets you access the notification center. You can access the notification pane wherever you are.
If you’re on the watch face, just swipe down from the top to go to the notification center. However, if you’re inside an app, such as a third-party Apple Watch app like WatchChat, all you have to do is touch and hold the top edge of the screen until a handle pops up. You can then drag it down to reveal the notification center on your Apple Watch. Pretty clean isn’t it?
By the way, this works for Control Center too, so you can access it from within apps if you need to.
Keep Your Watch Face Clutter Free
Now that you know the meaning of the red dot on your Apple Watch, you can go ahead and disable it if you think you are confusing your watch face with unnecessary information. So, are you bothered by the occasional red dot appearing on your Apple Watch screen, or are you like me and prefer it turned on? Also, did you know the long press feature to access notification center and control center? Because I didn’t and I discovered it by accident while playing Dare the Monkey, one of my all-time favorite Apple Watch games.
