Your Apple Watch may be going to look considerably different this fall. Apple appears to be adding an iPhone feature to watchOS 10, which will give you a lot more options.
What iOS is to the iPhone, watchOS is to the Apple Watch. It is the operating system for the device. Apple comes out with a new version every year where it immediately adds some new features. watchOS 10 in September promises to be a special one.
Major innovations for the Apple Watch through watchOS 10
If rumors are to be believed, watchOS 10 will be an update we have never seen before on the Apple Watch. The company plans to introduce quite a few innovations on the smartwatch. Now more and more seems to be leaking out exactly what we can expect, including an iPhone feature.
According to Bloomberg’s usually well-informed Mark Gurman, the look of the operating system is going to get a major overhaul. That immediately means you’ll be using your Apple Watch differently after the watchOS 10 update.
In fact, widgets are going to play a big role starting watchOS 10, a feature you may already know from the iPhone. For example, on the smartphone, you choose larger icons for the weather or Spotify. In it, you immediately see more information about the respective app.
From iPhone to the smartwatch
Yet Apple does not appear to have started all over again at the drawing board for the feature in watchOS 10. According to Gurman, the widgets resemble the Siri dial that the company launched in 2017 with WatchOS 4.
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– Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 30, 2023
However, that seems to be more like an extra layer of sorts on top of the widget on the Apple Watch so you can use it however you want. That’s about the same as stacking widgets on your iPhone which is already possible.
For that new feature, it also wants to address the Apple Watch’s physical buttons. In watchOS 10, when you press the crown you get to see the widgets. Now pressing those will take you back to the home screen.
Exactly how this will all work in practice is the big question. Presumably, we will hear and see more of watchOS 10 during WWDC 2023, Apple’s developer conference. This is scheduled for next month. Then we will also immediately see more of iOS 17 for the iPhone.