When Apple previewed watchOS 8 at WWDC 2021, the Portraits watch face managed to catch my attention right away. As I have a penchant for trying out a variety of watch faces, I was curious to see how the new Portraits watch face works on my Apple Watch. Unfortunately, Apple didn’t introduce it in watchOS 8 beta 1. Now, with the release of watchOS 8 beta 2, the Cupertino giant has added this much-awaited feature that lets users set portrait photos as a watch face on Apple Watch. If you want to try out this exciting new feature, let me help you set a Portraits watch face in watchOS 8 on Apple Watch.
First off, let’s understand what makes Portraits watch face so exciting! And why is every Apple Watch user going gaga over this feature? Then, we will look at the steps to enable the Portraits watch face feature on Apple Watch.
- How to Set Portraits Watch Face in watchOS 8 on Apple Watch
- What Sort of Customization Does Portraits Watch Face Offer?
- Use Portraits Watch Face in watchOS 8 on Apple Watch
- Zoom In or Out Portraits Watch Face on Apple Watch
What is Portraits Watch Face and How It Works on Apple Watch?
The Portraits watch face is designed to let you view and engage with photos in an all-new way on Apple Watch. What makes it so fascinating is the ability to animate a portrait image with a multi-layered effect. Notably, it intelligently recognizes faces in photos and crops in to highlight the subject. Thus, the watch face appears pleasing to the eyes.
Just like the standard Photos watch face, Portraits also lets you select up to 24 portrait images. As for customization, you get to choose from three types of clock styles – Classic, Modern, and Rounded (more on this later). Besides, you can choose to show the date and pick any other complication for this watch face.
Note: I tried out the Portraits watch face feature on Apple Watch SE running watchOS 8 beta 2, and it worked perfectly fine. The latest watchOS update is also supported by Apple Watch 3 and above.
Up next, select the portrait images and then tap “Add” at the top right corner of the screen. You can then move around the image to adjust the crop and see how it would look on your Apple Watch’s screen.
Next, you can select complications. The date appears in the middle of the Portraits watch face. At the bottom, you can choose to show any other complications like moon phase, your schedule, activity, etc.
Zoom In or Out Portraits Watch Face on Apple Watch
Probably the best part about the Portraits watch face is the ability to zoom in or out of the portrait image. You can use the Digital Crown to zoom in or out of the portrait shot. Take a look at the GIF below to find out how it works.
That’s pretty much it! So, that’s how you can enable and use Portraits watch face on your Apple Watch. Now that you know how this cool feature works, you can make the most of it to jazz up the watch face in watchOS 8. While watchOS 8 might not be a huge upgrade, it has some notable features, including the ability to measure respiratory rate, an improved Home app, and a smarter Breathe app. So, share your thoughts about the latest iteration of watchOS and whether or not the Portraits has won you over.
