As of Fall 2023, Apple is on the ninth era of its Apple Watch (and has launched one other Apple Watch Extremely mannequin, persevering with its more-or-less unchallenged reign because the high-end smartwatch maker. If you’d like a watch that immediately measures your altitude whereas calculating your blood-oxygen ranges and enjoying your favourite songs, the newest Apple Watch Collection presents performance you may’t get elsewhere.
However there’s one other aspect to the Apple Watch’s usability. On the software program facet, it relies on watchOS, the specialised platform Apple makes use of to offer its apps and join it with different Apple gadgets utilizing iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. We all know that is loads of OSs! However watchOS gives the most effective have a look at what right this moment’s smartwatches are able to. Here is how watchOS works, if it might connect with an Android cellphone, and what new options have been added!
Apple watchOS definition
Apple Watches include a {hardware} facet, the Watch Collection, and a software program facet, the watchOS, quick for Watch Working System. watchOS is the platform the place all of the Apple Watch’s performance and downloaded apps stay.
Like Apple’s different working methods, watchOS will get annual updates to incorporate extra performance. watchOS 10 is the newest model, introduced at Apple’s builders convention in 2023. The most recent watchOS tends to get an earlier announcement than the brand new Apple Watch mannequin, so builders have an opportunity to check the beta and ensure their apps nonetheless work.
The watchOS does not solely assist apps and provides customers an interface to work with. It additionally decides how apps are managed and the place Watch assets go. That may have a huge impact on battery life, pace, and extra.
watchOS historical past
Apple launched the primary Apple Watch and watchOS in 2015, formally making the WatchKit accessible to builders across the identical time. It was much like iOS for the reason that Apple Watch was designed to work carefully with the iPhone, though the software program has grown extra distinctive over time.
watchOS 2 was shortly launched the identical yr to repair points and supply main updates for the Apple Watch launch, which is why the watchOS is a era forward of the Apple Watch Collection. Since then, watchOS has acquired common annual updates, which add substantial new options. Over the previous few years, we have seen improvements like:
- watchOS 6: Added a watchOS App Retailer and long-awaited options like a Calculator, Exercise monitoring characteristic, and new communication choices.
- watchOS 7: This era added sleep monitoring, handwashing detection (COVID-friendly), Household Setup for older adults, and higher navigation.
- watchOS 8: Redesigned well being apps arrived with watchOS 8, together with a Mindfulness app, Extremely Wideband assist, and a brand new Residence app.
- watchOS 9: Apple added many new options for current apps just like the Well being app.
Lastly, the Apple Watch face has slowly grow to be bigger through the years. That enables watchOS to place extra stuff on the show, so it is no shock that watchOS 10 got here with a large seen improve, permitting app icons to take up extra room and show extra data without delay.
Major watchOS 10 options
Apple Watch is filled with options, together with distinctive sensors that may carry out methods even the iPhone cannot, like monitoring blood oxygen, coronary heart charge, temperature, and maybe even blood sugar ranges at a future date. watchOS manages all these capabilities in a single tight UI that also permits for many customization relating to selecting apps, settings, and Watch faces.
All that compatibility and customization make it tough to undergo all the pieces watchOS can do as a result of there’s a lot of it. Many options just like the Management Heart, Settings, and the touchscreen controls (plus the Digital Crown) are acquainted to iPhone customers. So, the training curve is not that painful for Apple followers. In watchOS 10, we noticed new options like:
- Bigger app notifications with Sensible Stack group to point out essential widget data, making extra helpful pop-ups you can simply swipe by. That included updates for Climate, Shares, Maps, Messages, and extra. Builders can customise their third-party apps to offer extra data on the brand new interface.
- A lot of new Watch faces: This can be a perennial addition however particularly essential due to the modifications watchOS 10 made with how data is conveyed.
- Compatibility with biking exercises.
- Bluetooth assist for quite a lot of exterior sensors, together with energy meters, pace sensors, and different workout-friendly gadgets.
- New additions to the Compass app to assist with mountain climbing and comparable actions, together with a brand new Elevation view.
- An up to date Mindfulness app that makes it simpler to log present moods and evaluate.
- A brand new capability to trace time spent in daylight.
- The NameDrop capability to right away share contact data to a close-by iPhone with a faucet.
watchOS and Android compatibility
watchOS works instantly with Apple’s different gadgets, subscriptions, and syncing. So, what’s left for Android cellphone customers? Nicely, not a lot.
You can’t pair an Apple Watch with an Android cellphone. There is a workaround to trick the Apple Watch into pondering it is working with an iPhone SIM card, however this methodology is not dependable and ends in much less performance. We solely advocate getting an Apple Watch when you’ve got an iPhone.
watchOS safety
watchOS receives frequent updates to enhance safety, repair bugs, and improve efficiency. It is designed to solely pair with one iPhone at a time, and when utterly unpaired, all private information on the Apple Watch is robotically erased. Bluetooth periods are robotically protected. An Apple Watch may be set to unlock a Mac or an iPhone, whereas an iPhone may be set to unlock an Apple Watch robotically.
watchOS prices
watchOS is free to make use of and replace. The one prices concerned are these associated to the Apple Watch Collection buy and subscription charges it’s possible you’ll pay for iCloud companies. The most recent Apple Watch Collection 9 begins at $399 for the aluminum model and $699 for an upgraded chrome steel model.
Be careful for the newest watchOS information
watchOS is the software program facet of the Apple Watch, much like iOS however made for a smaller display screen with an emphasis on health, well being, exercise monitoring, and different features. Its interface is customizable by altering Watch faces, and the brand new Sensible Stack characteristic helps you to select an important apps to get widget notifications for. As a result of watchOS constantly will get updates with new options, there’s all the time one thing else to find. We’ll preserve protecting the numerous modifications and what watchOS brings to the desk for brand spanking new smartwatch customers.
