Why some Amazfit watches got Zepp OS 6 without its new launcher

Several Amazfit watches have now received Zepp OS 6 without the new Launcher 2.0, creating some confusion over whether Zepp Health was deliberately holding back part of the update. The company has now explained what is going on, and it turns out the decision is mostly to do with user feedback.

The company makes that distinction clear in its official Zepp OS 6 compatibility chart. You can see the recap below.

User feedback put the launcher rollout on hold

An Amazfit spokesperson has now explained the thinking behind the decision. Zepp Health received plenty of feedback after Launcher 2.0 appeared on the first Zepp OS 6 watches, and one complaint kept coming up in particular.

Users missed the horizontal widgets.

Launcher 2.0 changes what happens when you swipe around the main watch face. It gives workouts and apps more clearly defined places in the interface, while health and activity information moves into the vertical Shortcut Cards.

That sounds fairly minor on paper, but the horizontal widgets were a big part of how many people used their Amazfit watches. Removing them changes the basic navigation quite a bit.

Zepp Health says its product team is now evaluating that feedback. Until it decides on the best approach, the company has chosen to continue rolling out Zepp OS 6 to existing watches without necessarily including Launcher 2.0.

I can see why Launcher 2.0 divided opinion

I tested the new Zepp OS 6 Motion UI and Launcher 2.0 on the Balance 3 earlier this summer. It did not take long to get used to, but I came away thinking it was more of a rearrangement than a major improvement.

The new layout is certainly tidy. Workouts and apps have obvious places, while health information is grouped into Shortcut Cards. Once you have used it for a few days, the logic makes sense.

But the old horizontal widgets were useful. You could swipe through full-screen panels showing things such as heart rate, BioCharge and activity without first going into a vertical list and opening individual cards.

That extra step is small, but it changes the feel of the watch. When I tested the Balance 3, I thought the new setup worked perfectly well, but I was not convinced it was clearly better than what came before.

The full watch itself remains one of the better examples of Zepp OS 6 in use, as I also found during my Amazfit Balance 3 review. But Launcher 2.0 was never the part of the update that impressed me most.

Judging by Zepp Health’s explanation, enough users felt similarly for the company to reconsider how aggressively it pushes the new interface.

Missing now does not mean missing forever

There is one important detail in the clarification. Zepp Health says that not receiving Launcher 2.0 with the initial Zepp OS 6 upgrade does not mean a watch will never support it.

The company also pushed back against the idea that it is deliberately keeping newer software features away from older watches to separate product generations. Its stated approach is to provide the same software capabilities across different models where the hardware can support them.

It will be interesting to see what Launcher 2.0 looks like by the time Zepp Health makes a decision on the way forward. The company could simply resume the rollout, but it could also tweak the navigation or find a way to bring horizontal widgets back in some form.