Apple unveiled the Apple Watch OS 2 at its WWDC 15 event, and the new operating system looks to renovate the wearable and make it more appealing to prospective buyers than ever.
We’ve had our qualms with the Apple Watch from the beginning, and though we’ve come to terms with it being a fundamentally superfluous yet good-looking piece of tech, the design changes Apple have made to it with the introduction of Watch OS 2 could see it appeal to naysayers who otherwise have a great deal of time for Apple, but couldn’t get on board with their latest product.
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The addition of custom complications from third-party developers, allowing data from apps such as sports scores and flight times to be displayed on the face of the Watch, is a neat touch, as was its new “nightstand mode” and its function as an alarm clock. Apple has also introduced the ability to use your own photos as your Watch face, or a Time-Lapse Face that will show time lapse footage of locations such as London, New York and Hong Kong.
The Watch will also allow for native apps outside of Apple’s own, meaning that the device will no longer need to search for Bluetooth connectivity with an iPhone, thus increasing its functionality as a standalone device. Developers will also get access to multiple Watch features, such as PassKit, HealthKit, the Taptic Engine and more.
Working out and putting that data in third-party apps will now contribute to your Apple Activity, meaning you’ll no longer be forced to switch between apps or use Apple’s first-party apps to utilize the feature, while additional glances were also introduced. Then there was the introduction of Apple Pay and a plethora of apps being able to be brought onscreen as glances, with Siri also enabling this to happen using voice recognition.
All in all there was so much announced for the Apple Watch that it will be of great comfort to early adopters of the device, who could have been forgiven for thinking that it would lack the same level of support as Apple’s other devices. Watch OS 2 looks to drastically improve the Watch users’ experiences, and will allow the device to stand on its own two feet.
