WatchOS 10 Gets New Watch Faces, Redesigned Apps And More

Apple unveiled watchOS 10 today at its Worldwide Developer Conference, with new watch faces, updated apps, and a new Smart Stack that shows pertinent widgets only when they are required.

For bikers, there are new metrics, workout views, and Bluetooth connectivity for power meters, speed sensors, and cadence sensors. For hikers, there are new compass waypoints and maps features. The Mindfulness app provides extra resources to help with mental wellness. Currently available as a developer beta, watchOS 10 will become a free software update this autumn.

The Apple Watch display is being used more by apps like Weather, Stocks, Home, Maps, Messages, World Clock, and others to provide more glanceable information. According to Kevin Lynch, Apple's vice president of technology, the Activity app for Apple Watch and the Fitness app on iPhone make monitoring daily movement even easier with additional details, improvements to sharing, a new trophy case, and Apple Fitness+ trainer suggestions.

With a flip of the Digital Crown from any watch face, a new Smart Stack's widgets can be unlocked to deliver timely information that adjusts to the user's context. For instance, Weather might display the forecast in the morning, while the Smart Stack might display boarding tickets from Wallet when you're flying.

Reminders and Calendar will move up to the top to show future events or tasks, and running apps like Podcasts will also move up for easier access. Users can enjoy watch faces like Portraits with Smart Stack while still having rapid access to the information they care about.

The new design language can be used by developers to upgrade their apps. The NBA app makes following a favorite team even more compelling with team colors and new game details, and with Waterllama's redesign, users can quickly glance at their hydration from the last seven days with just a turn of the Digital Crown, according to Lynch. For instance, Streaks now makes use of the entire display to show progress and access tasks.

The side button now makes it possible to swiftly activate Control Center over any app at any moment. Any recently used apps can be accessed by double-clicking the Digital Crown.

NEW WATCH FACE

Palette and Snoopy are two of the new watch faces that come with watchOS 10. The Palette face uses three unique overlapping layers to represent time in a wide range of colors, and as the time changes, so do the colors on the display.

Additionally, a brand-new watch face with images of Snoopy and Woodstock brings the Peanuts comic strip to life on the Apple Watch. The characters converse and play with the watch hands, respond to the local weather, and even become active when the user exercises.

MENTAL HEALTH

Users of watchOS 10 can record their everyday moods and fleeting emotions using the Mindfulness app. Users can choose how they're feeling, determine what is having the largest impact on them, and describe how they're feeling by turning the Digital Crown to scroll among multidimensional shapes.

Users can view insights to determine what may be influencing their state of mind in the Health app in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 — whether it be associations or lifestyle elements like sleep or exercise. Additionally, the Health app now has access to depression and anxiety exams that are frequently used in clinics. These assessments may be used to identify risk, connect users to local resources, and generate PDFs that can be shared with their doctor.

SIGHT HEALTH

Nearsightedness, or myopia, is the most common cause of vision impairment worldwide. The International Myopia Institute advises kids to spend at least 80 to 120 minutes a day outside to lower their chance of developing myopia. With watchOS 10, Apple Watch adds the capability to use the ambient light sensor to track time spent outdoors. On an iPhone or iPad, users can examine this data in the Health app.

All ages can benefit further from time spent outdoors in terms of their physical and mental wellbeing. Additionally, kids who don't have their own iPhone can use Family Setup to connect their Apple Watch to their parent's iPhone so that their parents can see how much time their children spend outdoors thanks to Health Sharing.

Myopia risk factors include reading too closely and using devices or other objects up close. In order to encourage users to move their smartphone farther away after holding it closer than 12 inches for an extended period of time, Apple claims the new Screen Distance feature makes use of the same TrueDepth camera that underpins Face ID in iPad and iPhone.

When a device is locked with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID, all Health app data, including mental health and vision health data, is encrypted.

ACCORDING TO APPLE, 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.
• Apple Watch offers enterprise customers features to enhance productivity and safety in the office or in the field, such as hands-free communication and responding to notifications on the go, or Fall Detection on a job site. watchOS 10 introduces support for Mobile Device Management (MDM), enabling enterprise customers to remotely and centrally install apps and configure accounts on a fleet of devices, with features such as passcode enforcement, and configuring Wi-Fi and VPN settings. With this update, Apple Watch can further help improve employee wellness, productivity and health, and safety monitoring.

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. Some features may not be available in all regions or all languages, or on all devices. For more information, visit apple.com/watchos/watchos-preview.