I’ve only had an Apple Watch for a little more than a month, but already it’s made a big difference in my life. You know, notifications, call making and receiving, fitness monitoring (which I generally never use, but the Apple Watch makes it much more enjoyable to be active), and so on. Heck, I now use WhatsApp on my Apple Watch. However, some elements of watchOS 6, such as specific symbols and icons, might occasionally become grating. A classic example is the minuscule red dot at the top of the screen.
What is the Red Dot on Apple Watch?
So what exactly is the red dot on the Apple Watch? In essence, it is a notification informing you that you have unread messages. This tiny red dot basically indicates that there are outstanding alerts on your Apple Watch that may require your attention if you haven’t read, responded to, or ignored one. It displays on the top of the watch face, above where the 12-mark is on the clock.
How to Remove the Red Dot from Apple Watch
Now, as for me, I don’t mind if a red dot appears on my watch. Fortunately, there is a simple method to get rid of the red dot with watchOS 6 if you want to get the little icon out of the way permanently. What you must do is as follows.
On your iPhone, open the Watch app and tap on Notifications. Toggle the Notifications Indicator switch to off.
That’s it; going forward, your Apple Watch won’t indicate unread alerts via a red dot on the watch face. Don’t worry; you can simply enable the Notifications Indicator toggle to get the red dot back if you decide later that you would prefer to have it.
Bonus: Accessing Notification Center from Different Places
Since we’re already discussing notifications and how to better manage them, you might find it interesting to know that, in contrast to watchOS 5, which only allowed you to access the Notification Center while you were on the watch face, watchOS 6 allows you to do so wherever you are.
To access the notification centre while on the watch face, simply swipe down from the top. You just need to tap and hold on the top edge of the screen until a handle appears if you’re inside an app, such as WatchChat, a third-party Apple Watch app. The Apple Watch’s notification centre will then just appear when you drag it down. Pretty cool, no?
By the way, if you ever need to, you can access the Control Center from within apps as well because this also applies to it.
Keep Your Watch Face Clear of Clutter
Now that you are aware of the significance of the red dot on your Apple Watch, you can choose to disable it if you think it is adding extra information to the watch face. Do you find the red dot that occasionally appears on your Apple Watch screen annoying, or do you want it there as I do? Did you know that you may access the control centre and notification centre by holding down the button for a long time? Because I didn’t and accidentally learned about it while playing Dare the Monkey, one of my all-time favourite Apple Watch games.
