6 biggest Apple Watch features coming to WatchOS 6
On-device app store, improved health tracking and menstrual cycle monitoring
As the confetti of Apple’ WWDC scatters and falls to the floor of San Jose’s McEnery Convention Centre, there are a lot of pieces to pick up.
While it might be the last nail in the coffin for iTunes, everything else Apple is careening forward. There’s iOS 13, finally a new Mac Pro 2019, an eye-popping 6K retina display, a computer stand which costs $999 (yes, really) and you can now be inside Minecraft, via AR.
But all you Apple Watch fans will care about one thing, and that’s WatchOS 6. There’s nothing drastic here, just incremental improvements to retain Apple Watch’s standing as no.1 smartwatch.
If you’ve got an Apple Watch, from Series 1 to 4, here’s what you can look forward to…
1) New Watch Faces
New face. Who dis?
There are new shiny faces to spruce up your Apple Watch. Modular Compact, Solar Dial – which visialises the sun’s path (it’s very cool but the novelty will certainly wearOS off), California, Gradient and Numerals.
Our favourite face is the multi-coloured pride edition and now there’s a delightful pride band to match.
New complications on the watch face give you access to more apps and features you might want on show too, such as how likely it is to rain later in the day. There’s also taptic chimes on board, should you wish to listen to the tweeting of a bird every hour, on the hour.
Voice Memos makes its way onto your watch face too, simply tap and go.
2) App Store is coming to your wrist
FInally! WatchOS 6 brings the App store directly to the Apple Watch.
Ask Siri, (who has a new voice by the way) to download an app or search for and install all third-party apps without the need for your iPhone.
This opens up opportunities for developers to design Apple Watch apps to work independently of an iOS app. This makes the watch feel not like an accessory to your iPhone, but a fully-fledged product which might even attract those who don’t use iPhones.
On the topic of apps, Audiobooks comes to the Apple Watch and your reading lists will automatically sync and it will remember the place where you left off regardless of whether you were listening via Watch, iPhone or iPad.
3) Fitness gets trendy
Apple Watch wants to give you even more data on your health and fitness.
Activity Trends compares a 90-day period to the rest of the days over a year and shows if your activity is going up or down. As ever, the Health app will give you some tailored coaching to get you back on track if thing are going pear-shaped.
The Health homepage has been re-designed too, displaying 9 key metrics. You can customise exactly which metrics you want to see displayed.
4) Menstrual Cycle tracking
It’s no secret that knowing more about your menstrual cycle can help with general wellbeing and understanding your body.
The new Cycle Tracking app will allow women to log when they’re on their period, with a breakdown of extra data like flow, symptoms and results from ovulation kits.
You can also record daily temperature using a body thermometer for even more in-depth knowledge.
All this data comes together in a simple, graphical chart in the redesigned Health app on your iPhone. The Cycle Tracking is a new feature to Health and it won’t exclusively be for Apple Watch users too so iPhone users who update with iOS 13 will reap the benefits too.
5) Volume control
Following on from Apple’s clear trajectory of looking out for us, it’s chosen noise as its next challenger.
Apple Watch will track the ambient noise and track exposure to varying levels of noise and when the decibel rises to 90 decibels, which, according to the World Health Organisation are dangerous noise levels to be exposed to on a regular basis.
So you’ve been listening to too much shouting and for over 4 hours a week, your watch will notify you with a wrist tap.
Great! Just in time for Metallica’s comeback tour.
6) Best of the rest
Nobody whooped or cheered when it was announced the calculator was coming to the Apple Watch. But won’t it come in handy, when you’re trying to split the bill, yet your phone is buried deep in your bag as you didn’t want to have it out on the table? Yes it will.
Siri can now display webpage results in full on Apple Watch, plus Apple GymKit is compatible with more manufacturers now including: Octane Fitness, TRUE Fitness and Woodway.
Natalya Paul
