This new redesign It does not focus only on visual changesbut we have a new focus on information that can be viewed and accessed quickly, introducing both a new widget screen and updated and redesigned applications that allow us to obtain much more data of this device without having to touch the iPhone at any time.
One of its best features is smart batteries that take advantage of the larger screen size of the Apple Watch and that is activated quickly if we turn the Digital Crown. In this generation, if we press once in our digital crown, the WatchOS menu opens, while, if we do twice, We have access to multitasking and to the applications that we have in the background.
Widgets
Widgets are one of the revolutions of this generation of WatchOS on all compatible devices. We recently commented how the arrival of Widgets was going to change the way we had to relate to Macs. Well, WatchOS 10 also includes very interesting new widgetse that will allow us to take a leap in quality in our work and in the way we relate to our wrist watch. Specifically, widgets can show us calendar activities, relevant news, the weather of the day and more. If you have music or a podcast playing, you’ll see pause, forward, or rewind controls in the watchOS 10 interface.
We can customize everything we want our SmartStack, where we can include Activity, Alarms, Astronomy, Audiobooks, Calendar, Compass, Heart Rate, Medications, Mindfulness, Music, News, Noise, Playback, Podcast, Reminders, Shortcuts, Sleep, Actions, Stopwatch, Timers, Tips, Wallet, Time , Training and World Clock, as well as third-party applications.
Control center
If the Digital Crown is one of the great attractions of this watch, the control center It is another of the most important points and thanks to them, we can enjoy the watchOS 10 experience much more due to the familiarity it has with the iPhone control center, which makes it very easy and intuitive to use.
In the WatchOS 10 control center we find the different functions: mobile connection, Wi-Fi network, class mode, ring iPhone, check battery percentage, silence Apple Watch, lock the watch with a code, activate theater mode, activate your availability for Walkie-Talkie, modes concentration, deactivate leisure mode, deactivate work mode, deactivate rest concentration mode, activate flashlight, activate airplane mode, activate water mode, select audio output, check headphone volume, change the size of the text, notifications and accessibility.
New watch faces
WatchOS 10 incorporates two new watch faces, the Palette and the Sonnopy, which are beautiful. The first of them, the Palette version, changes color throughout the day and is made up of three overlapping layers that are changed regularly. This palette comes by default when you turn on your Watch for the first time and the palette refers to the color you have chosen. For example, I have chosen the midnight color, because the color palette that appears to me is dark blue. However, you can choose all the available colors in that palette.
The other great sphere of this generation is snoopy sphere, the famous little dog from the cartoon Peanits. This sphere has the exception that every time you open the color palette, our beloved Snoopy appears linking a different activity and adapting to the weather in your city. For example, in Granada it never rains and lately it has been getting hotter, because we will have Snoopy removing his sweat or melting from the heat.
As you already know, if you want you can add faces from other generations from the Watch application on your iPhone. To do this, you have to go to Watch < sphere galleries < select the sphere you like the most.
Applications that have undergone an interface redesign
The redesign of many applications has been one of the big changes of WatchOS 10, which has made many applications now feel more visually beautiful and attractive, making it much more fun to work with your watch. It may sound heavy, but this ninth generation of Watch and watchOS 10 feels really good. Let’s see the main changes in each of the applications.
- Activity: In the Activity app, you can see much more detailed information about calories burned, workout minutes, and hours spent on your feet. There is also a broader view of steps, data and distance traveled, as well as summaries, weekly, awards and the ability to share them with your friends.
- Workouts: the workouts application has new colors and other slight design adjustments, which makes its operation much more understandable.
- Alarms: The Alarms app looks largely the same, but it takes up more of the screen and each element on the screen is larger. Visually, it looks much better and above all, when it rings in the morning you can see all the interface elements quickly.
- App Store – The search option has been relocated to the top left corner of the app, and images and titles are more integrated with each other to make swapping across categories faster.
- Calendar: It includes small visual changes and the addition of a new button that is located at the bottom of the application instead of the top.
- Contacts: In watchOS 10 we have a new button at the top left that indicates the options for a new contact with which we can access our contact. In addition, our Apple ID appears at the top right, so you know at all times which users we are looking at the contacts of.
- heart rate, The Heart Rate app now features a pulsating heart that takes up much of the interface, along with your current BPM. The information it offers is similar to what we had in the previous generation, but with the exception that all the icons are much more organic and functional, which offers us the same information but much easier to understand.
- Mail: The Compose button has been relocated to the bottom of the screen, focusing more on reading email on the watch rather than composing. This process makes all the sense in the world, from the principles of usability, because writing emails is practically impossible on the Watch.
- Messages: The Messages app displays icons for your contacts so you can better see who a message is from at a glance. This not only happens in Messages, but we also have it on Twitter and other social networks.
- Music: The music application has taken a very important leap and allows you to listen to the music you have downloaded in Apple Music, as well as access your favorite albums, friends’ playlists and playlists of your favorite artists. The Apple Music application is like a mini type, but it works very, very well.
- Noise: There has been a small redesign of the decibel display in the noise application and it has been enhanced with a color that indicates whether the noise is good or bad for our health.
- Photos: Highlights and Favorites are displayed in the Photos app. In this way, we can create spheres with favorite wallpapers. They seem very cool to me, honestly.
- Podcasts: the podcast application acquires a design similar to the one we have in macOS and iOS and with the arrival of new suggestions from “You might like it” and other quick access links to discover new content.
- Dream: The Sleep app shows your recent sleep data instead of your sleep schedule and sends you notifications about what time you need to sleep for a restful night’s sleep.
- Chronometer: The stopwatch opens directly to the stopwatch interface instead of asking you to choose a style.
- Timers: The timers have a range of quick selection buttons for pre-selected times, plus a large “+” button to set a custom timer. The truth is that it is one of the new features that has had the most weight at WWDC 2023 and I don’t see the point in having it as direct access, to be honest.
- Time: These are some of the widgets that I have been using the most in recent days, since they quickly show you the current conditions, the humidity, the protection we need to have against the sun, the possibility of rain and many other functionalities.
- World clock: Finally, we have the World clock, which opens with the time of your current location, but additionally indicating the times of sunrise and sunset. Additionally, if you click on the three-line icon, it shows the times and sunrise in other locations.