Open apps on Apple Watch Ultra

The Home Screen lets you open any app on your Apple Watch Ultra. The App Switcher gives you quick access to the apps you’ve most recently used.

Display your apps on a grid or in a list

The Home Screen can display apps in a grid or list view. When you first set up your Apple Watch, you choose the view you want. To change it later, follow these steps:

From the watch face, press the Digital Crown to show the Home screen.
Turn the Digital Crown to scroll to the bottom of the screen, then choose Grid View or List View.

You can also open the Settings app , tap App View, then choose Grid View or List View.

Open apps from the Home Screen

How you open an app depends on which view you choose.

Grid view: Tap the app icon. Turn the Digital Crown to see more apps.
List view: Turn the Digital Crown, then tap an app.

To return to the Home Screen from an app, press the Digital Crown once, then press it again to switch to the watch face.

Use the Action button on Apple Watch Ultra

The Action button provides a quick physical control for initiating a range of functions. For example, press the Action button on the left side of Apple Watch Ultra to open apps and trigger features suited to a favorite activity. You can also assign a Siri Shortcut to the Action button.

Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch Ultra.
Tap Action Button, then tap Action to choose an action, such as Workout, Backtrack, or Dive.
Tap , then choose other options, if available.
For example, if you choose Workout, tap to return to the list of actions, then tap First Press to choose a specific workout to launch when pressing the Action button.

Some apps perform additional actions when you press the Action and side buttons at the same time. For example, if you set up the Action button to start the stopwatch, press both buttons to pause.

Open an app from the App Switcher

Double-click the Digital Crown, then turn the Digital Crown to scroll through your most recently used apps.
Note: Apps that are currently running a session—a Maps navigation session or a Workout session, for example—appear at the top of the list of apps.
Tap an app to open it.