Apple Bringing New Portrait Mode Photo Watch Face to watchOS 8 - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Apple Bringing New Portrait Mode Photo Watch Face to watchOS 8

In watchOS 8, Apple has redesigned the Photos watch face on Apple Watch, adding a special layout that generates a more depth-like, layered look when viewing Portrait Mode pictures.

watch face watchos8
When viewing photos shot in Portrait Mode on iPhone, the new ‌Photos‌ watch face can generate an animated three-dimensional effect, activated by turning the Digital Crown on Apple Watch.

Related Roundups: watchOS 26, watchOS 27

Popular Stories

watchos 27

Apple Seeds watchOS 27 Beta 2 to Developers

Tuesday June 23, 2026 11:18 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second beta of watchOS 27 to developers, with the update coming two weeks after the launch of the first beta. The beta can be downloaded through the Watch app on the iPhone with a free developer account. The Apple Watch will need to be on the charger, connected to Wi-Fi, and have a battery level of 50 percent or above for new software to be installed. The beta is...
General visionOS watchOS and tvOS Betas Feature Redux

Apple Releases Third watchOS 26.6, tvOS 26.6 and visionOS 26.6 Betas

Monday June 29, 2026 10:08 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with the third betas of upcoming watchOS 26.6, tvOS 26.6, and visionOS 26.6 betas for testing purposes. The software comes two weeks after Apple seeded the second betas. The software updates are available through the Settings app on each device, and because these are developer betas, a free developer account is required. There's no word on what's in the...
watchos 27

watchOS 27 Is Wiping Four Apps From Your Apple Watch

Monday June 22, 2026 8:17 am PDT by
Apple's watchOS 27, previewed at this month's WWDC, removes four built-in apps from all supported Apple Watch models, folding three of them into a single Find My app and dropping Walkie-Talkie entirely, based on the first developer beta released this month. The largest change affects Find My. watchOS 27 developer beta 1 replaces the separate Find Devices, Find People, and Find Items apps...

Top Rated Comments

67 months ago
Almost feels like they mailed this entire presentation in. Completely unexciting. For watchOS, they need more and better watch faces. An option to temporarily lock digital crown on interactive watch faces would help a lot for those who wear on right arm with crown to the fingers.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple Knowledge Navigator Avatar
67 months ago
I can't believe the length of time they spent talking about this...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
67 months ago
How about making the digital crown do something useful?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
67 months ago
8 watchOS versions and we *still* don’t have a Weather watch face.

Seriously, it makes so much sense. They already have the concept of the beautiful weather renders in the Weather app on iPhone. Why can’t I get an animated watch face that shows the current weather when I raise my wrist?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
szw-mapple fan Avatar
67 months ago

How about making the digital crown do something useful?
Using it as a cursor for text input was pretty neat imo.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
67 months ago
interesting statement that the photo watch face is the most popular one - how do they know that?
Personally, I have tested it when I got my 1st AW in 2015 but never used it ...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)