Apple watchOS 6 will finally let users delete stocks apps

Apple watchOS 6 will allow users to delete stock apps from their Apple Watches. These apps can be added back again from the App Store according to user's requirements, according to a report.

The upcoming watchOS 6 will allow users to delete stock apps from their Apple Watches.

Apple Watch users would have faced an issue of too many stock apps in their device in the past. These stock apps have so far not been able to get removed from the home screens or deleted and tend to eat up storage space. However, this may change with the launch of the public release of watchOS 6 later this year, TechCrunch reported.

So far, only third-party apps that are downloaded from the App store can be easily removed. Users can press and hold on the app and then click on X-mark once the app jiggles. Also if a user deletes an app on their iPhone, it would also erase from their Apple Watch. But there are many Apple stock apps (such as Timer or Radio) which are exclusively for watchOS and these apps do not have a corresponding variant for iPhones.

According to the report, this problem of stock apps sticking to the Apple Watch and not getting removed will change with the launch of watchOS 6 due out later this fall. Apple Watch apps such as Walkie-Talkie, Breathe, Radio, Timer, Stopwatch, Alarms and Remote will be removable by the user. Apple Watch users can also later re-download these apps from the App Store according to their need or requirements.

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The ability to remove stock apps will allow users to recover the storage space used by these apps and also clean up the honeycomb grid layout by removing unnecessary apps. However, not all built-in watchOS apps can be removed. The report said that some stock apps such as Heart Rate and Messages will remain.

The addition and removal of Apple Watch specific apps will allow them to work more independently from their iOS versions. These apps will no longer be required to be bundled with an iPhone/iPad app. App developers will not need to create an iOS version of the app in case there is no need.

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However, it must be noted that this feature is not currently seen in watchOS 6 beta. It is expected to be added ahead of the public release of watchOS 6 later in the fall season.