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Though it’s only been on the market for six months or so, the Apple Watch has had its first update.
Luckily for anyone who forked out a minimum of £299 for one, it’s not the hardware that has been given an upgrade, but rather the software that powers it; watchOS.
watchOS 2 has been rolled out by Apple, with an overall aim of stabilising the Watch experience, one that has been prone to the odd lapse so far. The idea of this operating system update is to tighten up and speed up the whole experience – as well as as some of some of the finer sides of Apple-based technology.
There’s much more polish about the Watch now, and in some areas more than others. The new Timelapse watchfaces for example are a very flash way of checking the time. Not only do they animate each time you look at them, but the time of day visibly changes too.
Live Photos can also be used as a watchface now – so if you happen to be pairing to an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, you can set one of those new animations as your Watch background.
Siri too has gotten more powerful, and can now be used to launch apps as well as ask for directions. Mapping is a key bonus of the Apple Watch, given that it’s still very much a hit and miss feature on Android Wear.
Apple has also invented Time Travel with this update – sort of. You can now use the digital crown on various apps to scroll back and forth through time. Very handy on your calendar as a new way of seeing what’s coming up, or when you last had this meeting. But it also works in other areas, for example on the world clock and astronomy watchfaces.
Now being able to reply to emails directly from your Watch is also an addition not to be underestimated – given that they’re likely to be the most common notification you receive.
When it comes to health and fitness with the Watch, there have been some notable improvements around the inclusion of third-party apps – after plenty of gripes from users about how workouts logged with other apps didn’t register in your daily activity or workout logs.
Native features such as heart rate monitoring is now supported in some third-party fitness apps – Runtastic for example – and workouts that you have saved in these apps can now be selected from within the Workouts app, and count towards your daily goal.
You can also share workout data and your tri-coloured activity wheel with contacts now. Perhaps not the most frequently used feature, but if you’re in a competitive fitness circle it’s nice to have the option.
There are lots of these throughout the operating system that you’ll stumble upon as you use it. Nightstand mode when charging overnight is an aesthetic upgrade more than anything else, but you will notice it nonetheless. A Beats One button has appeared in Music app too, so you can jump straight in to listening to Zane Lowe – should you want to.
The addition of transit links to Maps as part of iOS 9 on iPhone has also made its way to the Watch – so you can quickly view Tube and bus routes in London on your Watch via the native Maps app for the first time. Boarding passes and tickets from third party apps will also appear in your Wallet now too. Though the thought of using your wrist as a boarding pass for a flight remains mildly alien.
There is no doubting that this first watchOS update has been designed to iron out early issues with the Watch, as well as add features that perhaps Apple felt they couldn’t roll out on day one. As a result, the Watch does feel a more finely tuned device – and powerful enough to be a very good companion for your phone.
You’ve held off for six months, but the time might now have come to embrace smartwatches, and the Apple Watch.
