In this brief tutorial, we’ll show you how to access the notifications pane and Control Center on your Apple Watch when you’re not on the watch face but inside other apps.
Like other Apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro, your Apple Watch also has a Notification Center and a Control Center.
As you may have figured out, Notification Center is the dedicated place that stacks all your new app notifications. And
Control Center has quick buttons to turn on and off handy features like Wi-Fi, Airplane mode, cellular connections, Theater Mode, Flashlight, Focus modes, and such.
You can open both of them irrespective of where you are in the watchOS interface.
Open Notification Center
If you’re on the watch face, swipe down from the top of the Apple Watch screen to see your pending notifications.
If you’re on a newer version of watchOS, you can also rotate the Digital Crown down on the watch face to open the Notification Center.
If you’re not on the watch face but inside another app, touch and hold the top edge of the display; as the handle appears under your finger near the top, swipe down to open Notification Center.
Open Control Center
The process for this differs based on the watchOS version running on your Apple Watch.
watchOS 10 and later
Simply press the side button once to open Control Center on your Apple Watch. It works irrespective of whether you’re on the watch face or inside an app.
watchOS 9 and earlier
Swipe up from the bottom of the watch face to open Control Center.
However, if you’re inside an app, tap and hold the bottom edge of the display. When the handle appears under your finger near the bottom edge of the display, simply pull up to drag the Control Center overlay into full view.
Do more on your Apple Watch: