Apple will make big interface changes in watchOS 10
Apple's unveiling of watchOS 10 at WWDC this summer can be a fairly extensive update to the mobile operating system, a report insists, with a user interface refresh anticipated to come.
Apple Watch Ultra
Apple typically introduces its milestone operating system updates during WWDC, which will commence on June 5. As part of this, Apple will show off upcoming changes to watchOS, revealing things that Apple Watch wearers could expect to see in the fall public release.
In Sunday's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman discusses watchOS 10, the next version of the Apple Watch operating system. While in previous years watchOS has stayed fairly static with few big shifts in design, Gurman thinks it will be markedly different for 2023.
According to Gurman, the next version "should be a fairly extensive upgrade - with notable changes to the user interface - unlike iOS 17."
Furthermore, Gurman offers that it is "important" for watchOS to have a big year for version 10, "given that the Apple Watch hardware updates will be anything but major."
So far, rumors about the Apple Watch hardware updates all discuss 2024 changes, such as a micro-LED display and a bigger Apple Watch Ultra screen at 2.1 inches. With a relatively quiet rumor mill for the 2023 Apple Watch, it seems that this year's hardware updates could be minor in nature.
While still in the realm of rumor, Gurman's comments do have a grain of truth, in that it's entirely possible for Apple to introduce radical changes to watchOS this year. With it being version 10, Apple has every excuse to make big changes.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple Watch Ultra
Apple typically introduces its milestone operating system updates during WWDC, which will commence on June 5. As part of this, Apple will show off upcoming changes to watchOS, revealing things that Apple Watch wearers could expect to see in the fall public release.
In Sunday's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman discusses watchOS 10, the next version of the Apple Watch operating system. While in previous years watchOS has stayed fairly static with few big shifts in design, Gurman thinks it will be markedly different for 2023.
According to Gurman, the next version "should be a fairly extensive upgrade - with notable changes to the user interface - unlike iOS 17."
Furthermore, Gurman offers that it is "important" for watchOS to have a big year for version 10, "given that the Apple Watch hardware updates will be anything but major."
So far, rumors about the Apple Watch hardware updates all discuss 2024 changes, such as a micro-LED display and a bigger Apple Watch Ultra screen at 2.1 inches. With a relatively quiet rumor mill for the 2023 Apple Watch, it seems that this year's hardware updates could be minor in nature.
While still in the realm of rumor, Gurman's comments do have a grain of truth, in that it's entirely possible for Apple to introduce radical changes to watchOS this year. With it being version 10, Apple has every excuse to make big changes.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
As for me, well, I hope that they finally cut the cord with the iPhone. It should be able to run the software updates by itself and not need an iPhone for such basic functionality.
Fully agree that Apple Watch cutting the cord from the iPhone would be fantastic in a similar way that iPhone cut to cord from iTunes. Perhaps this will also encourage more people to get the cellular version of the Apple Watch. Myself I have opted for the tethered version for a long time but I feel ready to make the jump into cellular when I buy the Ultra soon.
WatchOS 10 being its own citizen may also encourage app devs to make the Apple Watch apps more rich in functionality. Would be epic to be able to do much more from the Watch than currently possible.
A feature in WatchOS 10 that I would highly appreciate would be a School-lockdown mode similar in accessibility to Theatre mode where some features are visually verifiable to not be active like messaging and Siri. I see a trend with schools in the UK to be banning Apple Watch in lessons due to them being "disruptive" similar to how smart phones are banned. Fitbits etc are not banned and this places Apple at a competitive disadvantage for family issuing of Apple Watches to kids.
Why can't you do it already now with a focus mode based on the location. This could silence the watches. But they still could be distracting.
So you would need to have something like a content restriction in a screen time, but for the watch.
Still the schools can't rely that the parents will do that 'screen time management'.
To be fair to AI: I like their new-ish "rumor score" rating system. Now, when they're running a really dubious rumor, at least it's rated as such. And this kind of headline clickbait has mostly disappeared from the site, which is great, so I hope this isn't the start of going backwards.
It’s a brilliant App, I use it all the time to map out my hikes and leave my phone in the car.
Apple Watch + AirPods + WorkOutDoors is such a fantastic combination.
I like analog watch faces much more than digital, as far as the overall look goes. I don't use digital much but there are times.
Apple needs to reduce the width of the time font. It unnecessarily dominate any watch face it inflicts. Another reason I prefer analog watch faces. Give us more, elegant watch faces as well. The Ultra is a pricey Watch and it should have more watch faces befitting a higher end watch. Though the internals are much the same. It's not like a mech where there's a big difference between a single dial watch and a multi-dial chronometer.
After all these years I still find watchOS to be confusing.
The dock is okay but the scrolling is somewhat annoying and it’s not that easy to manage.
The app viewer is horrible. Both modes - bubbly grid view (whatever the name is) and list view are extremely hard to navigatie.
In fact, I think the app view should only be accessible through the dock, instead of directly through a dedicated button. There should be an easier way to add/remove apps from and to the dock. There are several UX approaches to this.
Then the apps themselves; health, heart, handwashing, blood oxygen, cycle tracking….mindfulness…pfffff….
It’s overwhelming. It’s almost as if the “app anology” is failing on a tiny screen on your wrist. Perhaps a more radical new approach is needed here. I suspect they’ll take design cues from their upcoming RealityOS, a device that probably doesn’t have an app based structure as well.