You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.
Everything Apple Announced At WWDC Related to Apple Watch

Everything Apple Announced At WWDC Related to Apple Watch

June 8, 2015

At the 2015 World Wide Developers Conference, Apple spend a full two hours discussing and demonstrating OS X El Capitan, iOS 9 and what Apple is calling watchOS — Apple’s native operating system for the Apple Watch. Since we’re mostly interested in Apple Watch, here are the most interesting developments to come out of today’s announcements in case you weren’t fortunate enough to spend most of the afternoon glued to your screen. Enjoy!

cf672e7c91113cf61e33b2a90f74843d35751ba7_xlarge

Native Apps: Apple Watch apps will now have a ton more capability with watchOS 2. Apps will now be able to take advantage of features such as the Taptic Engine, accelerometer, heart rate sensor, speaker, mic, and even the Digital Crown. This will mean that so many of the apps that you enjoy today will run faster and will have direct access to the best sensors and functions of Apple Watch.

e00e657ed3d25479883e6fea9f82d980cf1e9a70_xlarge

New Faces: Apple is adding new watch faces in watchOS 2 including the ability to choose a photo or a photo album as a watch face. With photo albums, each time you raise you wrist, you’ll see a different photo from that spefic album.

bde7ed1c7bea9ce710d0adc03a66b466bf2aa8e9_xlarge

Third-party Complications: Apple is now allowing app developers to build their own third-party complications that can be used on a wide array of watch faces that Apple offers. Things such as flight times, sport scores, and more will now be accessible with just the raise of your wrist.

6c797d04e8b4f80483b6bcfbc971311de2591d49_xlarge

Time Travel: Apple will allow you to use the Digital Crown to fast forward through time to see updated events. For example, say it’s 10AM and you have a variety of meeting sat 12PM and 3PM. From the Watch face, you can you can turn the digital crown to fast forward through time to see what your next event is. You can do all this without having to enter the calendar app. A press of the Digital Crown gets you back to the current time.

ed2aeae63c0ccdcbccaffbc97b15f337c230ba34_xlarge

Night Mode: Lay the Apple Watch on its side and it will display the time horizontally for those who like to use it as an alarm. Since the Watch has an accelerometer, it changes the functions of the buttons when it’s laid down making Digital Crown the snooze button and the side button the button to turn it off. Sweet.

d0c5c52c50f85deec7fe91a530bde1e931a76942_xlarge

Communication: You’ll be able to set various groups of friends to connect to since many people may have more than 12 friends. You’ll also be able to draw in multiple colors when you sketch.

625703186b213b48c9d6530d9d1602bab709b5ae_xlarge

Reply to emails: You’ll be be able to reply to email right form your Apple Watch. This was not previously available on watchOS 1.

67875fa645aa3e52d12a3a4ef3a9bbb01ff2abc3_xlarge

Apple Wallet: Apple has renamed Passport to Apple Wallet which now supports in-store credit cards and rewards cards. That function is also coming to Apple Watch.

bf29f7cbd3f61a6577e1303b8e68c2a897b66c1d_xlarge

Siri for workouts: Raise your wrist and say “Hey Siri, start a 30 minute run in the park” and the Watch will automatically pick the right workout and get you started.

d00706c419bc2aee7a85ada6cd7c4955738e725c_xlarge

Transit: Apple will support Transit maps found in iOS 9 right on the Watch itself and will prompt you when to leave.

d0b1976b95d57375b61e8e342bf4809ba88eb54c_xlarge

HealthKit: You’ll abe able to access various Health functions right on the Watch itself. For example, if you’re using an app like Strava for working out, you can see your heart rate in real-time. Previously, you’d need to open the Heart Rate glance and wait about 5 second or so. Now if you care about up-to-the-second data, you can have it.

Availability: Developer Beta is available today and watchOS 2 is expected to hit all Watches this fall.

Learn more by visiting Apple’s dedicated watchOS 2 page.