The Apple Watch is getting its next software upgrade with watchOS 6! With completely new features added to the Apple Watch for the first time and some changes to some old familiar feature; here's a breakdown of everything new coming in watchOS 6.
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Rene Ritchie has been using the Apple Watch since it first launched and wants to share with you the most important new features coming to watchOS 6 when it launches.
New watch faces!
Apple is coming with new faces that look great! Some of the newly minted watch faces are:
- Gradient face
- Digital Face
- California Dial
- Solar Face
These watch faces can even have tons of complications that you can add, to make them more useful than what's shown above.
App Store
The App Store is coming to the Apple Watch. That's right, in watchOS 6, you can search the App Store for apps that support the Apple Watch, and you can even download them right on the Apple Watch, no iPhone required!
New Utility Apps
Apple is bringing some fantastic utility apps to the Apple Watch that weren't available before! Audiobooks, Calculator, and Voice Memos are all going to be available in watchOS 6!
- How to use the Calculator on Apple Watch
- How to use Books on your Apple Watch
- How to use Voice Memos on your Apple Watch
Noise app
The Noise app is a new Apple app for your Apple Watch that looks to take care of your ears! When your Apple Watch hears that you're in a loud environment, it will send you a notification letting you know that you could suffer hearing damage if you stay in that environment to long without ear protection!
Health and Fitness
Health and fitness is a huge part of Apple Watch, and watchOS 6 has a few big improvements to its health and fitness capabilities!
Activity Trends
Activity is now getting the ability to track your stats and put them into a trending tab for you to better see the trends of your activity from day-to-day. You can look back 90 days and see you average ring score for all three rings all in one place!
"At a glance, the tab shows whether the trends are up or down for key metrics such as active calories, exercise minutes, walking pace and others. If the last 90 days of activity shows a downward trend relative to the last 365 days, the Activity app offers coaching to help the user get back on track."
The app can even use the trending tracking to give you more advanced stats like your walking pace!
Cycle Tracking
Women wearing Apple Watches will now have the ability to track their menstrual cycles. You'll be able to track the days, how light or heavy it is and your Apple Watch will even give you notification of upcoming periods. It can even give you an estimate on when you'll be most fertile during your cycle, which is perfect if for people trying to have kids. Plus, all this information syncs up with your health and activity on your iPhone so you can keep all your health data in place!
Independent Apps
Apple Watch is now giving developers the ability to make their apps run independently on the Apple Watch with watchOS 6, meaning you wouldn't need to have an iPhone pair with your phone to use the app.
Compatibility
watchOS 6 will follow in its predecessor's footsteps by being compatible with Apple Watch Series 1, Apple Watch Series 2, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple Watch Series 4. The original Apple Watch — sometimes referred to as an Apple Watch Series 0 — will not get the watchOS 6 updates.
When will watchOS 6 release?
watchOS 6 will be available as a download on September 19, 2019, but not for all the models.
The Apple Watch Series 3 and Series 4 will get the update on the 19th; however, the Apple Watch Series 1 and Apple Watch Series 2 will have to wait until "later this fall" according to Apple.
Of course, the brand new Apple Watch Series 5 will ship with watchOS 6 already on board.
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