WatchOS 10 Launch: Everything You Need To Know!
So WatchOS10 is finally here, having officially launched on Monday 18th September 2023. Let's have a look at what's new in WatchOS 10.
Display & Widgets
One of the biggest new features with WatchOS 10 is with its widgets. Users can now summon widgets onto the watch face simply by turning the digital crown on the side of the Apple Watch. Core apps within the Apple Watch, such as weather, reminders, stocks, clock and messages have all been updated to use up more of the digital display and provide more information to the user.
The latest addition that comes with WatchOS 10 is the new Smart Stack feature - this will allow users to view widgets that display information like weather, appointments etc by turning the digital crown. This makes it a whole lot easier for users to stay updated with their schedules, weather and other reminders/information without having to navigate through multiple apps to do so.
WatchOS 10 also brings a new design language for developers to create a smooth and consistent experience between first and third party apps for the Apple Watch. This means that users can now expect a unified interface across all the apps on their watch, this aims to improve the user's experience across different apps and make the WatchOS platform more user friendly and easy to use.
Watch Faces
Apple has also added two new watch faces for WatchOS 10, any fans of new and exciting watch faces, this is for you!
Palette is a more artistic watch face, featuring three overlapping layers displaying the time. Users can select the colours they want when setting up the watch face, and as the day progresses, the colours on the display will shift to match the changing face. Users can select from multicoloured or monochromatic colour options for the Palette face and complications can also be added to each of the four corners of the screen, allowing users to quickly select features like stopwatch, weather and fitness rings.
Apple have also added a Peanuts face, for nostalgic fans of the old comic strips. Clearly not satisfied with their popular Mickey Mouse watch face that they introduced a few years ago, Apple have done it again! The Peanuts face features the famous comic's characters Snoopy and Woodstock on the face - the duo will not only interact with the watch hands, but they also react to local weather conditions and will perform workouts alongside the user. Each time the Apple Watch "wakes up" from a sleep mode, the screen will display a little animation of the two character's shenanigans. It's a great little fun watch face and bound to put a smile on anyones face. The Peanuts face also allows for customisation, allowing the user to scroll through different layouts, clock styles and colours to find the one that perfectly suits their style.
For the Apple Watch Ultra there's also another face: Modula Ultra. This face takes advantage of the large display on the Ultra and uses the outer edge of the display to provide real-time data such as altitude, seconds, as well as displaying the most complications of any Apple Watch digital face. Things like location, time, temperature and compass are easily on display and especially useful if the user is out and about.
Cycling
While the Apple Watch is known as an all-round health tracker, useful for a while plethora of activities, the main fitness focus this year seems to be with cycling. WatchOS 10 now features more data points, including speed, cadence and power which can all be added to the workout view using select Bluetooth accessories.
A power zones workout view will become visible when a power meter is detected by the Apple Watch. This view will provide useful and valuable information regarding your estimated functional threshold power and power zones, which allows you to optimise your workout and get better results.
When cycling, the user's iPhone will now display live data onscreen when tapped. This information includes data like speed, heart rate zones, elevation and similar info. This makes it a lot easier for cyclists to view their stats and info when their iPhone is mounted on their handlebars instead of having to glance at their wrist.
Hiking
For fans of hiking and the outdoors, hiking activity tracking has gained several new updates, allowing hikers and outdoor enthusiasts to get the most out of their activities. The last cellular connection waypoint feature will automatically generate a waypoint within the in-built compass app on the watch, which estimates the last place that the user encountered with cellular reception for being able to place calls and check messages. This is an extremely useful feature for anyone who's out in the great wilderness where signal and reception is scarce, knowing where the nearest or last location with good cellular reception is an extremely helpful feature to have in any kind of emergency (or just general) situation.
When looking for nearby trails, users can now view more details like the name, length, time, difficulty, elevation gain and other such useful info. Never again will you misjudge the intensity of a hike! On top of this, topographic maps will be able to provide the user with helpful information like geographic elevations, contour lines, points of interest and lakes.
Have you checked out all the features on WatchOS 10 yet? What are your favourite features (or clock faces) Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check out some of our other Apple Watch blogs!
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