Circle of Friends

Same here.

That "direct contact" to me with heart pulse and scribbles was the only reason why my girlfriend wore the AppleWatch I gave her every day instead of her Rolex, which she wore only for special events in the last year. Now that it's gone, she took off the Apple Watch... iMessage works better from the iPhone.

Hopefully Apple will bring it back, soon! Otherways her AppleWatch may end up on eBay...

I would second this. It was each to send a very quick message. Also, you can quickly initiate a new conversation. The current way requires you to go into Messages and scroll all the way down to the last message you sent to a particular person. My example today is that I had to go 83 messages down to find someone that was in my top 10! Very painful without the Friends Circle or something like that.

Doesn't really help that much but force press on the messages and a New Message icon appears. You can choose from your recent people or add someone - or use Siri.

Thanks, this does work, but it still isn't as easy/convenient as just pushing on the button and having your favorites just pop up. As VSB mentioned, I am hoping for a dock app that replaces what was lost on the button.

Exactly. I know I can still accomplish the task, but it's much more cumbersome. It was very easy to initiate quick messages, and I'm not sure why that feature, which was highly promoted in the initial launch, has been removed.

Another idea would be to double tap the favorites button and have it bring up the old circle of friends app.

I also liked the circle of friends and miss it very much.

There may be hope, as I still see Friends as an entry in the list of apps in the iPhone Watch app. So perhaps it will return as an app!

I second that!!! My family miss it too, apple has to come up with a similar function.

This was billed as a huge use case for the Apple watch when it was introduced, I am surprised that it was taken away. while I appreciate the dock concept and the navigation that this allows, I agree that this option became one of the key elements for wearing/using the watch. The idea of a solo "app" to do this would make total sense. ...especially if I could make the decision to pin it as one of the 10 apps in the doc. I really hope they find a way to bring back the convenience of initiating quick messaging.

I agree the circle of Friends being taken away has already affected how much I use the watch, it's too hard to send a quick message when you have 4000 contacts.... I loved the ease of having key contacts available, even if they just added favorites to contacts, that would help! Come on Apple bring back the ease of use you had and are usually so good at!