New watchOS offers greater access with Wallet, more
capabilities with the Home app, new workout types, and an updated
Breathe app
Apple® today previewed watchOS® 8, with impactful new features
that make the world’s most advanced wearable operating system even
more essential for users to stay healthy, active, and connected.
Updates to the Wallet and Home apps extend Apple Watch® as an
increasingly useful tool for convenient access across the car and
places users live, work, and visit. A reimagined Breathe app and
new Tai Chi and Pilates workout types help users lead a fit and
healthy life and support mental well-being, while a new Portraits
watch face and enhancements to Messages and the Photos app make
staying connected to loved ones even easier.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210607005659/en/
watchOS 8 brings new access,
connectivity, and mindfulness features to Apple Watch this fall.
(Photo: Business Wire)
“Apple Watch is the most loved watch in the world, keeping users
healthy, active, and connected,” said Kevin Lynch, Apple’s vice
president of Technology. “With watchOS 8, we’re bringing more
convenient access to places users live, work, and visit with
significant updates to Home and Wallet, expanding support for both
physical and mental well-being, and enabling richer personal
connections with the new Portraits face and updates to
Messages.”
More Access with Wallet
With Apple Watch, it is incredibly convenient to use Apple Pay®
and Wallet to make secure, contactless payments in stores or ride
transit. With watchOS 8, Wallet brings even more powerful
contact-free ways for users to access the places and things they
care about seamlessly, safely, and securely.
First announced at WWDC in 2020, Ultra Wideband support now
arrives for digital car keys on Apple Watch Series 6. Apple Watch
wearers can securely unlock their car from a distance and start it
from the driver’s seat.1 This fall, users can also add keys for
their home, office, and hotel to Wallet, and tap their Apple Watch
to unlock.2 Later this year, beginning with participating states in
the US, users will be able to add their driver’s license or state
ID to Wallet. Select TSA checkpoints will be the first place users
can begin using their digital ID.
Redesigned Home App
The redesigned Home app in watchOS 8 offers more convenient
access to accessories and scenes needed in a particular moment, and
the ability to control accessories by room. Users with a
HomeKit®-enabled camera can view who is at the door directly on
their wrist. Apple Watch users can also tap Intercom to quickly
broadcast a message throughout the home or to individual rooms via
HomePod®, HomePod mini™, or other personal devices.
New Workout Types
watchOS 8 introduces two new popular workout types that are
beneficial for both physical fitness and mindful movement: Tai Chi
and Pilates. These new workout types are supported by powerful,
validated custom-built heart rate and motion algorithms to provide
users with accurate metrics.
A New Approach to Mindfulness
Now more than ever, people are recognizing the importance of
finding small moments in their day to be more mindful. In watchOS
8, the Breathe app becomes the Mindfulness app, featuring an
enhanced Breathe experience, plus a new session type, Reflect.
Reflect offers a mindful intention to focus on for as little as one
minute that can be done anywhere and at any time. Each Reflect
session welcomes the user with a unique, thoughtful notion to
consider that invites a positive frame of mind. For example, the
user may see something like “Recall a time recently when you felt a
sense of calm. Bring that feeling into this moment,” or “Reflect on
one thing you’re grateful for and think about why you appreciate it
so much.” Both the Breathe and Reflect experiences also offer tips
to help users get more from each session and feature beautiful new
animations.
Sleeping Respiratory Rate
Today, Apple Watch helps users meet their sleep goals by
establishing a pre-bedtime routine, and tracks metrics like time
asleep, heart rate, and blood oxygen. watchOS 8 gives users even
more insight into their overall wellness by tracking sleeping
respiratory rate, which is the number of breaths per minute. To do
this, Apple Watch uses the built-in accelerometer to measure
respiratory rate while sleeping, and this information can be
viewed, along with trends over time, in the Health app on iPhone®.
This metric is also available for developers to use with permission
through HealthKit®.
Portraits Watch Face and Photos
The Photos face is the most popular Apple Watch face, and
watchOS 8 introduces new ways to view and engage with users’
favorite photos right from their wrist. The new Portraits watch
face brings to life stunning portrait photos shot on iPhone with an
immersive, multilayered effect, intelligently recognizing faces in
photos and cropping in to highlight the subject. The Photos app is
also redesigned, offering new ways to view and navigate
collections, Memories and Featured Photos now sync to Apple Watch,
and photos can be shared through Messages and Mail with the new
Share Sheet.
Messages and Contacts
Communicating on Apple Watch is even easier with new tools in
Messages. Users can combine the use of Scribble, dictation, and
emoji all within the same message, and for dictated messages, they
have the option to edit the presented text. To easily add even more
expression to a message, users can simply enter a word or phrase
and select from hundreds of trending GIFs.
watchOS 8 also brings the Contacts app to Apple Watch, providing
a simple way for users to browse, add, and edit contacts, and share
contacts directly from the app.
Focus
watchOS 8 supports Focus, a powerful set of tools available in
iOS 15 to help users reduce distraction and be in the moment. Apple
Watch will automatically align with any Focus set on iOS, so that
notifications from people and apps are filtered based on what a
user is currently doing. Focus uses on-device intelligence to make
suggestions based on usage patterns — for example, when starting a
workout on Apple Watch, the Focus for fitness is suggested.
Additional watchOS 8 Updates
- Multiple timers come to Apple Watch and can be given a specific
label using Siri® (such as “Laundry Timer” or “Cooking
Timer”).
- In watchOS 8, more Apple Watch apps support the Always-On
display, including Maps, Mindfulness, Now Playing, Phone, Podcasts,
Stopwatch, Timers, Voice Memos, and others. watchOS 8 is also
making it easier for developers to keep their apps timely and
relevant with a new Always-On API for third-party apps.
- To support Apple Watch users with upper-body limb differences,
AssistiveTouch® enables one-arm usage of Apple Watch by sensing
simple hand gestures to interact without touching the display.
Using the built-in motion sensors, users can answer incoming calls,
control an onscreen motion pointer, and surface an action menu that
can access Notification Center, Control Center, and more.
- A new Find Items app on Apple Watch helps users locate tagged
items using the Find My™ network, and a new Find Devices app helps
users locate lost Apple devices that are signed in with the same
Apple ID.
- The redesigned Music app enables users to share songs, albums,
and playlists through Messages and Mail, and enjoy music and radio
all in one place.
- The Weather app now supports Severe Weather notifications,
displaying government alerts about certain severe weather events.
The app also delivers Next Hour precipitation alerts and offers
updated complications.
- Family Setup introduces the ability to add transit cards from
Hong Kong, Japan, and select China mainland and US cities, and
Calendar and Mail now include the option to add a Google
account.
- Apple Fitness+℠, the first fitness service created entirely
around Apple Watch, expands its offering in watchOS 8 with Picture
in Picture support and new filtering options, and users can stop
and resume an in-progress workout on any device. Later this month,
Fitness+ introduces a new series of workouts featuring Jeanette
Jenkins, one of the most sought-after fitness experts, and a new
Artist Spotlight Series with workouts featuring entire playlists
from Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Alicia Keys.
Privacy
Apple believes privacy is a fundamental human right. Since
privacy is particularly important for Health and identification,
Health data is encrypted on device or in iCloud® with iCloud sync.
For identification, Identity Cards in Wallet are encrypted and
securely stored in the Secure Element, the same hardware technology
used to keep Apple Pay private and secure. Apple cannot see when or
where digital IDs are presented when using a driver’s license or
state ID.
Availability
The developer beta of watchOS 8 is available to Apple Developer
Program members at developer.apple.com starting today. A public
beta will be available to watchOS users next month at
beta.apple.com. watchOS 8 will be available this fall as a free
software update for Apple Watch Series 3 or later paired with
iPhone 6s or later, running iOS 15. Some features may not be
available in all regions or all languages, or on all devices.
Features are subject to change. For more information, visit
apple.com/watchos/watchos-preview.
Footnotes
1 Digital car keys require a participating car manufacturer and
will be coming later this year. 2 Support for new keys in Apple
Wallet® requires a compatible door lock for homes, offices, and
hotels that will be available through third parties.
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction
of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in
innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.
Apple’s five software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and
tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and
empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store,
Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000
employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and
to leaving the world better than we found it.
NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple Newsroom
(www.apple.com/newsroom), or call Apple’s Media Helpline at (408)
974-2042.
© 2021 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo,
watchOS, Apple Watch, Apple Pay, HomeKit, HomePod, HomePod mini,
iPhone, HealthKit, Siri, AssistiveTouch, Find My, Apple Fitness+,
iCloud, and Apple Wallet are trademarks of Apple. Other company and
product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210607005659/en/
Nikki Rothberg Apple nrothberg@apple.com 408-974-4427
Lance Lin Apple lance_lin@apple.com 408-974-5036
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