WatchOS (stylized by Apple Inc. as watchOS) is the mobile operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc. It is based on the iOS operating system and has many features similar to those of iOS.[3] It was first released on April 24, 2015, alongside the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch is currently the only device that runs WatchOS. The API is called WatchKit.
At WWDC 2015, WatchOS 2 was previewed publicly for the first time and included major improvements such as support for native third-party apps.[4] It was officially released on September 21, 2015,[5][6] although it was originally scheduled to be released on September 16, 2015[7] but was delayed due to a bug fix taking longer than expected.[8]
The home screen (rendered by and also known as "Carousel")[3] is composed of circular applicationicons, which can be zoomed in and out with the Digital Crown.
Glances provide fast access to a summarized view of the most popular native or third party applications used on Apple Watch.[9] The glance view is opened with a swipe up gesture from the watch face screen.
Navigation between glances is achieved by swiping left or right.
Different actions are executed depending on the force with which the user executes a tap, which Watch detects with a special mechanism.[10]
Allows the Apple Watch to act as a nightstand/alarm clock when the watch is charging at night and is turned horizontally while being placed on a table or other surface. Users can look at the time just by tapping the Digital Crown. When an alarm comes in, the Digital Crown can be used to snooze the alarm and the side button can be used to dismiss it.
New Watch Faces and timekeeping features
New 24 Hour Time-Lapse videos of Hong Kong, London, Mack Lake, New York, Shanghai, and Paris. These watch faces allow users to set the backgrounds of different cities as the user's watch face. As the day moves on, the watch face represents a different time of day in the city. For example, if it is nighttime, the watch will show a skyline of the city at night.
Users can also set a particular photo or their entire photo gallery as the watch face, including support for Live Photos.
Time Travel
A new mode called Time Travel is available in which a user can use the digital crown to scroll forward/backward in time. This allows the user to see upcoming or past calendar events and alarms they have set.
9 new colors to customize watch face, and a new multicolor Modular face.
Third party complications.
Complications will be available from third-party developers which allow users to do things such as check flight status or charging level of electric cars
New Beats 1 button to start playing the 24/7 radio station
New Quick Play button to play a variety of songs from Apple Music
Other improvements
Reply to emails using dictation, emoji, or smart replies customized specifically for email
Make and receive calls using FaceTime audio
Support for Wi-Fi calling without iPhone in proximity on participating carriers
Activation Lock prevents anyone from activating your Apple Watch without your Apple ID and password
New developer capabilities including
Native SDK to build faster and more powerful apps running natively on Apple Watch
Access to accelerometer to more granularly track your motion
Access to heart rate sensor for use during a workout
Access to microphone and speaker to record and play audio
Access to the Taptic Engine with 8 different types of Haptic feedback
Access to the Digital Crown for more precise controls
Ability to play video directly on Apple Watch
Support for running apps without iPhone in proximity, including access to networking capabilities when connected to known Wi-Fi networks
Complications on the watch face
Workouts from apps can be counted towards Activity rings
Workouts from apps can be included in Activity app on iPhone
New support for system language in English (India), Finnish, Indonesian, Norwegian, and Polish
New support for dictation in Dutch (Belgium), English (Ireland, Philippines, South Africa), French (Belgium), German (Austria), Spanish (Chile, Colombia)
New support for smart replies in Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong, Taiwan), Danish, Dutch, English (New Zealand, Singapore), Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Thai