by So now we know Apples plans for the watch for the fall thanks to the recent WWDC event. Just in case you missed it here’s the round up from WWDC
Apple really feels that people who are using Apple watch love it, particularly for quick glances, information and quick interactions and have taken heed of the frustrations of launching an app and waiting. In their own words “our top focus is performance.”
Looking at the demonstrations, yes carefully coreographed, but again when Kevin P said
We’ve made optimizations across the entire system including a serious acceleration in app launch time. Your app should actually respond instantly.
The information you look at should be updated before you go look so it’s ready the instant that you are, so you are not waiting.
Almost all agree that those waiting times have been the achilles heel of the Apple watch. In this age of uber responsiveness across product offerings, Apple Watch has almost been an embarrassment.
Taking a look at these In watch OS/3 your favorite apps can respond instantly. So let’s take a look. We are going to accomplish this by keeping your favorite apps in memory, we are going to support background updates of data and refresh the information so it’s ready the instant that you are and then we support quickly launching these apps interacting with them.
This is going to work for both the built in apps and third-party apps. Let’s take a look at an example this is watch OS/2 and were going to look at an app called 1Football. We’re going to launch it from the complication in the bottom left and were going to see how long it takes.
So here we are launching the app, takes a few seconds the launch and then once it launches it loads some data and it updates there we go. So that is pretty typical example on watch OS/2.
Now to take a look at 1Football launching in watch OS/3 are you guys ready? Dont blink
Thats it! That example is about seven times faster but it feels like a million times faster.
So we made it really easy to access your favorite apps you can just press the side button below the crown to show we called the dock. You can choose which apps go here and you can quickly scroll through them. The apps are now both collapsible and interactive rather than separate concepts and this is a dramatic improvement in how it feels to use the watch.
So this increase performance allowed us to have access to have access to our favorite apps quickly we want to be able to access them anywhere to be using the side button and get to them easily.
Another key design goal we had was to make the watch feel more familiar and so we’ve done with the watch face now we have added control center. You to swipe up from the bottom, just like on iOS, and very familiar. This is a giant improvement in how it feels to use apps and to navigate the watch very simply and easily in watch OS/3.
Weve also made it more powerful powerful to reply to messages. So now when you receive a message you can see the ways to respond right there we’ve removed the step you don’t to actually have to press replied just pick the way you would like to reply. If you just scroll down you’ll see your smart replies right below the message so you can tap to reply in less than a second.
Introducing Scribble
Now sometimes you don’t see exactly the response you like and you are not in where you can use dictation so wouldn’t it be great if you could just write your message on the watch. Were introducing a new way to do that with something that we call scribble.
With scribble you have a new way to respond just by writing what you like on the screen you can just quickly draw the letters for your message right there like writing something like Starbucks. You can see the letters go right on top of each other. So it’s a great new way to respond with just a response that you link on your watch.
More Watch Faces
Now the watch face is great for quick looks and it reflects your style and it’s also the character of the device Now we have had Mickey as a fun watch face that I like to use on weekends but I know my daughters gonna love this as Minni is coming to the watch now.
Of course you can choose from a variety of colors for her outfit that match bands perfectly.
Activity and Numerals Watch Faces
One of the most frequent things people do is look at their activity rings were adding a new watch space specifically for that called activity. It’s a great beautiful way to see your rings throughout the day.
It comes not only in the analog version but also really nice chronograph version and a digital version. So a super good way for looking at your progress during the day.
We’ve also added a really simple new face that we call ‘numerals’ which is very beautiful and the hours actually go around the dial during the day and you can choose from a variety of fonts that match your style, so a really simple new watch space called numerals.
Now there’s a lot of watch faces to choose from and finding the people are actually switching between faces for different occasions so were going to make that super easy. You can now just swipe to switch the face you like to use and you can choose which faces you like and how there configured so you can easily get to them.
We’ve also added the ability to add more complications to faces like the weather here on the photos face. So now really simple to navigate and use your watch faces.
SoS on Apple Watch.
It’s so exciting to achieve this new level of performance on the watch and were finding the people who are wearing Apple Watch wear it all the time this. This opens up some new great ways that we can help in one of these is actually getting help in critical situations just by pushing a button that’s actually on you.
You might be a having a medical emergency for example or a safety situation and were going to be able help with that with SOS on the watch adn were going to make it easy to call for help.
To activate it you just press and hold the side button, it’s going to count down to let you know it’s calling 911 and then you’re going to be a live call with the emergency services right on your watch. This works either as a cellular call via your iPhone or directly from the watch if you’re connected to Wi-Fi.
After done talking on the on the phones emergency services the watch will automatically notify your emergency contacts and send them a message. The message also will include a map of your current location they know where you are they can coordinate with each other.
After sending the message your watch will actually now show your medical ID which is also a new feature in and watch OS. It has things like for example your age and allergies and other information you like to put there.
SOS works not only just in the US but works internationally. So for example you might be traveling to someplace like Hong Kong and you might not know the emergency number to the call but your Apple watch does. So in this case it calls 991.
So this is an emergency feature that isn’t one that you’ll use often but when you need it it’s gonna be there and that’s SOS.
Enhanced Activity and Workout
Now one of the primary reasons people are wearing the watch today is for fitness and health and were enhancing the activity and workout apps and were adding a new app that we think you’re going to love.
Breathe.
Breathe is really terrific I was actually using the breathe app backstage to help me a bit. So watch OS/3 is a giant step forward for you as developers. When someone adds your app to dock or to the watch face it benefits from all the instant launch experience that we are showing and you get background time to update your information before someone goes and looks and that will enable really quick interactions with your app on the watch.
You can already build apps that are native to watch thatcan run independent of iPhone but we are also adding a number of new APIs you can take advantage of when you’re building apps for the watch.
Apple Pay Within Watch Apps
One of those is support now for Apple paid within your app on the watch CD purchases right there within their apps
Fitness Apps Can Access Real Time Data
Fitness Apple now be able to run the background during workouts enabling access to real-time heart rate information and motion data. This is going to enable a whole new category fitness apps on the watch.
Sprite and Scene Kit On Apple Watch
Also were enabling a much richer and expressive apps in watch OS including support for sprite kit and scene kit also native event support from the crown and for touch gestures. you can find a good audio video can be embedded right inside your app UI and connect across devices with game center and cloud kit.
So we are really excited about what new apps now can be created on watch and they’re going to be amazing . This is a great new opportunity for all of you.
The preview release for you is available today so you can get going. The free upgrade is coming to all watch users this fall and its going to like a whole new watch that’s just some of what’s coming and watch OS.
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