Apple today debuted watchOS 10, its upcoming update to the Apple Watch operating system. The update brings plenty of new and improved features, including redesigned apps, mood tracking, new watch faces, and more.
watchOS 10 brings a new design language, with redesigned apps that provide more information at a glance, as well as new ways to navigate and quickly access content.
Apple Watch apps, such as Home, Maps, Messages, Weather, Stocks, World Clock, and others, now use more of the Apple Watch display, providing more “glanceable” information.
The Apple Watch Activity app and the iPhone Fitness app make it easier to track daily movement, providing additional details, sharing improvements, a redesigned trophy case area, and Apple Fitness+ trainer tips.
A new Smart Stack feature provides widgets displaying timely information that can be revealed with a turn of the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown from any watch face. For instance, Weather shows the forecast. When you’re traveling, the Smart Stack will show your boarding passes from the Wallet app. Using Smart Stack, users can enjoy the watch face of their choice, while still providing quick access to information.
watchOS 10 also includes two new watch faces: “Palette” and an animated “Peanuts” face with Snoopy and Woodstock. The Palette face shows the time in a wide variety of colors in three overlapping layers, and the colors on the display also shift as time changes. The Peanuts watch face features Snoopy and Woodstock, who interact and play with the watch hands, react to weather conditions, or become active when the user performs a workout.
World Clock now features background colors reflecting the time of day for different time zones.
New cycling workout features include new metrics like Functional Threshold Power, Power Zones, a full-screen view on the iPhone, and more. Hiking now includes Compass and Maps.
The watchOS 10 Mindfulness app allows users to log their emotions and daily moods. Using the Digital Crown, users can scroll through shapes to designate how they are feeling, select what is having the biggest impact on them, and describe their feelings.
A new feature seeks to decrease the risk of myopia using the Apple Watch’s ambient light sensor to show Time in Daylight, which is also displayed in the Health app.
Additional watchOS 10 updates include:
- NameDrop allows users to easily share contact information by bringing Apple Watch close to someone else’s iPhone. Apple Watch users can also use NameDrop by tapping the Share button in My Card in the Contacts app, or by tapping the My Card watch face complication, and then bringing Apple Watch face to face with someone else’s Apple Watch.
- Offline maps on iPhone provide access to turn-by-turn navigation, estimated time of arrival, places in Maps, and more while away from Wi-Fi or cellular services. These features can also be used on a paired Apple Watch that is in range of its companion iPhone.
- Users can now initiate playback of a FaceTime video message and view it directly on Apple Watch. Additionally, Group FaceTime audio is now supported on Apple Watch.
- The Medications app can send follow-up reminders if a medication hasn’t been logged 30 minutes after the scheduled time.
- Apple Fitness+ introduces Custom Plans, a new way to receive a custom workout or meditation schedule based on day, duration, workout type, and more; Stacks, which allows users to select multiple workouts and meditations to do seamlessly back-to-back; and Audio Focus, which gives users the ability to prioritize the volume of the music or the trainers’ voices.
Availability
The developer beta of watchOS 10 is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com starting today. A public beta will be available to watchOS users next month at beta.apple.com. watchOS 10 will be available this fall as a free software update for Apple Watch Series 4 or later paired with iPhone Xs or later, running iOS 17.
