can you swipe right to bring up the activity

Can't on my SE and they use the same OS. Anyway if you can't do it now then it probably confirms it.

You can swipe during workouts and in some other apps. If an app screen is swipeable there will usually be some dots at the bottom.

Swiping on a watch face can only bring up another watch face.

Please explain exactly what you want to do.?l