Your Apple Watch will look very different in the near future. Among the many announcements Apple made during its WWDC keynote was one related to watchOS 10. As expected, the company is giving the smartwatch user interface an overhaul as part of perhaps the firmware’s biggest update yet.
You may recall that the original Apple Watch UI was designed, in part, around Glances — a carousel of widgets for different apps and features. Apple eventually moved away from Glances to place more emphasis on apps, but now the company is looking to make widgets a larger focus of the Watch interface again.
It seems to work in a similar way to the Siri watch face that’s long been available on Apple Watch. However, this experience will now be available on any watch face. You can rotate the Digital Crown to access a smart stack of relevant widgets — just like you’re able to cycle through widgets that you place on top of each other on your iPhone. Things like timers, stopwatches and podcasts will show up as widgets when they’re in use. You can even have a widget that’s home to your favorite complications.
The Activity app will include corner shortcuts. You’ll be able to view more data by rotating the crown. The World Clock app is also getting an update. It will feature dynamic background colors to help reflect the time of day in different time zones, which could come in handy when you have friends, family or colleagues in different parts of the world.
There are two new clock faces coming in watchOS 10. One called Palette will show you the time in a colorful fashion. The other face features Snoopy and Woodstock.
Cyclists may be pleased by updates that are coming in WatchOS 10. You’ll be able to connect to Bluetooth biking sensors and view power and heart rate data during cycling sessions. Your watch can track your functional threshold power as well. Cycling activity that your Watch tracks will appear on your iPhone automatically.
The Compass app is also getting an upgrade. It will now create two new waypoints automatically. The first will drop a pin at the estimated position where you last had a cellular connection, which will be useful for when you’re hiking ant need to make a call or see your messages. On a similar note, your Watch will be able to place a Last Emergency Call Waypoint. This will show roughly where you last had access to any carrier’s network so you can make an emergency call. Elsewhere, a new Elevation view will use altimeter data to provide a 3D view of saved waypoints. Folks in the US will be able to access a topographic map. You’ll be able to search for trailheads and trails nearby and view details such as trail length, type and difficulty.
Elsewhere in watchOS 10, the Mindfulness app will include a feature that allows you to log your emotions and moods by rotating the Digital Crown. Apple says that users can “scroll through engaging, multidimensional shapes to choose how they are feeling, select what is having the biggest impact on them and describe their feelings.” Through the Health app on iPhone and iPad, you’ll be able to access insights that can help you determine the factors that are affecting your mental health, Apple says.
This story is developing, please refresh for additional updates.
Follow all of the news from Apple’s WWDC 2023 right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-apple-watch-embraces-widgets-again-in-watchos-10-180838970.html?src=rss