Toy Story Apple Watch Faces Arrive in watchOS 4 Beta 2

Apple has released watchOS beta 2 for developers, and the charmingly animated Toy Story watch faces promised at WWDC are included.

I’ve installed the second beta on my Apple Watch, and for the most part it seems to be bug fixes. The biggest change I’ve noticed so far is the inclusion of the Toy Story faces, which were left off of the first beta.

When you choose Toy Story as your Apple Watch face, you’ll be greeted with several options. Choose your complications: you get a small one above the time, and a longer one line complication along the bottom. Choose which character(s) you’d like: Jessie, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, or Toy Box. There are anywhere from a half dozen to nearly a dozen different animations for each character. For example, you might see the character wave to you, run away, point at the time, or put his or her face right up close to the screen. Jessie hugs her horse Bullseye in my favorite animation. Toy Box is a mixture of many toys. Woody, Buzz, (or Woody and Buzz together) and Jessie make appearances, plus Rex the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Hamm the Piggy Bank, and a Squeeze Toy Alien.

Each time you flick your wrist or tap your screen, you get a new animation. Like in the Kaleidoscope face, the Apple Watch chooses the color of your time and complications for you, perfectly coordinated with the animation colors.

The Toy Story faces are very different from the nearly static Minnie and Mickey Mouse faces. I think they are a nice little tribute to Steve Jobs, as he was an executive producer on the film. But what they really do is show how charming an Apple Watch face can be. Imagine the possibilities. Elsa creates something out of ice. Moana sails the ocean. Avatar, Star Wars, and so many more amazing films and characters populate the Disney/Pixar family. I think, I hope, we’re just getting started.

Apple will release watchOS 4 to the public sometime this fall.

See the Toy Story faces in action in this video by YouTuber Soltmeal: