Apple to Release watchOS 10 on Monday, September 18

[MacRumors]

Apple revealed during Tuesday's "Wonderlust" event that watchOS 10 will be released for Apple Watch Series 4 and later models on Monday, September 18.

When the update rolls out, users will immediately have to familiarize themselves with new functions assigned to the common gestures and physical buttons on their Apple Watch.

In watchOS 10, Control Center is now accessed by pressing the side button, while swiping up from any watch face reveals widgets in a customizable Smart Stack that can be swiped through to see relevant information. Turning the Digital Crown achieves the same thing.

Many stock apps have been entirely revamped with a simpler, information-forward design. Weather, for example, shows the temperature and conditions of your current location, with a quick scroll offering an hourly forecast so you no longer have to tap to get more information.

Apple has also added two new watch faces, Palette and Snoopy, and there are updates to Cycling and Hiking workouts, along with mental health integrations to support new health features in iOS 17. Users can log their state of mind and mood using the Apple Watch, with the device providing insights into mental health over time.

watchOS 10 also adds support for Apple's forthcoming NameDrop feature in iOS 17. Rather than type in the number of someone new to call or text them so that they have your number, NameDrop allows you to simply hold your iPhone near their ‌‌iPhone‌‌ to swap contact details. NameDrop works between two iPhones‌, and between an ‌iPhone‌ and an Apple Watch. The feature also works between two Apple Watches.

Elsewhere, in Apple Fitness+, a new Custom Plans feature allows users to tailor workout routines by selecting day, duration, workout type, music, and trainer.

Apple yesterday seeded the release candidate version of the upcoming update to developers for testing purposes. The release candidate, or RC, represents the final version of the software that will be released to the public, barring the last-minute discovery of any show-stopping bugs.

Article Link: Apple to Release watchOS 10 on Monday, September 18

 

[BrightCanon]

Do you have to have 17 running on your phone to use this? With all these battery woes on the beta forums Im not sure I want to update to 17 yet.

Thanks

 

[coolbreeze2]

I'm 90% sure the answer to this is "YES" but I will ask anyway. The new hand gesture for Apple Watches will only be available with Watches that have the S9 chip?

 

[surfzen21]

Really looking forward to this update, especially after seeing AWU2 and its minimal upgrades.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Do you have to have 17 running on your phone to use this? With all these battery woes on the beta forums Im not sure I want to update to 17 yet.

Thanks

Yes your phone has to be on iOS17 to install Watch OS10..

 

[surfzen21]

I'm 90% sure the answer to this is YES" but I will ask anyway. The new hand gesture for Apple Watches will only be available with Watches that have the S9 chip?

I believe that's the case since they tied it to the new S9 SIP with 4 core neural engine.

I will be looking forward to videos of people setting up accessibility to mimic this feature with slightly different gestures.

 

[MrGimper]

Do you have to have 17 running on your phone to use this? With all these battery woes on the beta forums Im not sure I want to update to 17 yet.

Thanks

Betas tend to have battery woes because of the increased logging they do, because they are betas.

 

[fwmireault]

The side button change took me a few weeks to get used to, but now it's better, and the UI of watchOS 10 is beautiful

 

[t0rqx]

I will definitely wait this one out. I am too scared it cripples the perfect S5 and S8 models performance. Manipulating you to upgrade to the the S9, cause it is suddenly smoother on S9 in comparison after the update to WatchOS10. They did this s before with StageManager.

 

[WeatherWeasel]

I do like the snoopy, but for me I have a 3rd party app, Dexcom G7 blood glucose. yeah perks of being diabetic, i guess. I wonder if snoopy has complications or will let these things pop up.

 

[Obry]

Why the hell did they remove the swipe gesture to change the active watch face? Now you have to press and hold, then swipe (often times swipe twice since swipe area has been reduced). To add insult to injury, the old swipe gestures don’t even do anything on watchOS 10.

Also, why remove recent apps from side button and put the control center there? If you can open widgets board by scrolling the crown, why did the need to also open widgets with swipe from the bottom of the screen?

Finally, app updates with prettier graphics but showing less glanceable information (fitness activity, etc).

Overall it now takes a lot more swiping and scrolling to do a lot of the same tasks that were very intuitive before.

I actually hate this update and resent installing it. The only cool feature is the widgets board. Many of the other changes have been unnecessary and provide worse user experience (for me at least).

 

[HJM.NL]

Question… why is a stainless steel version € 299,- more expensive in Europa than an aluminum version? I can buy a whole stainless steel watch from another brand for only € 50,-

 

[Radeon85]

Been running the it since B1 and overall it's been a very smooth experience, only two major bugs I had really during the betas. The music settings page crashing which I think everyone had and was fixed in the following beta, and the my 14 PM had horrific UI stuttering on the homescreen and closing apps, this was also fixed in the following beta and it's been silky smooth ever since.

Already updated my 5x HomePod Minis, 2x iPads, 2x 14 PM, Ultra Watch, Series 7 Watch and 3x Apple TVs to the latest RC build.

Every device updated flawlessly. The new watch control center location took a long while to get used to, still wish they kept that as a swipe up personally.

 

[Will Co]

Although I think the latest hardware isn’t much to get excited about, I am pretty excited about the latest OSes. I don’t generally do betas so I’m keen to see the new features when they release in the next week or so.

 

[GMShadow]

I'm 90% sure the answer to this is "YES" but I will ask anyway. The new hand gesture for Apple Watches will only be available with Watches that have the S9 chip?

Correct, as the SE doesn't have it.

Question… why is a stainless steel version € 299,- more expensive in Europa than an aluminum version? I can buy a whole stainless steel watch from another brand for only € 50,-

So go buy that watch then? This is like asking why a Fiat costs less than a Mercedes.

 

[Chiromac81]

Can someone tell me how exactly to change the double pinch currently in watchOS accessibility?? Can't seem to get it to work on Gen 8

 

[andreagrandi]

Until WatchOS 9.x I could press the side button to access my recently open apps and for example check a timer I had set. Now how do I get to it?

 

[bigjnyc]

For those of you who haven't been using the beta.... You are in for a real treat... WatchOS has flown under the radar because iOS gets all the attention... but this update is amazing. pretty much every app has been redesigned and there are a bunch of little touches throughout that are cool... its a fresh new design and I am loving it.

 

[denleschae]

Already updated my 5x HomePod Minis, 2x iPads, 2x 14 PM, Ultra Watch, Series 7 Watch and 3x Apple TVs to the latest RC build.

I couldn't tell from the presentation, but does the Ultra Watch get the new Ultra watch face(s), or is it reserved for the Ultra Watch 2 for marketing reasons?

 

[jonathan508]

anyone else having issues with the sensors? I'm on the GM now but I've had nothing but problems. heart rate sensor doesn't show periodic measurements anymore and the O2 sensor doesn't want to work at all. multiple resets and set up as new.

 

[lkrupp]

Do you have to have 17 running on your phone to use this? With all these battery woes on the beta forums Im not sure I want to update to 17 yet.

Thanks

Most of what you read on forums, beta or not, should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

 

[rjjacobson]

Yes your phone has to be on iOS17 to install Watch OS10..

Oh well then waiting I am not upgrading my 14 ProMax to 17 then. Leaving on 16.x for the transfer to my new 15 ProMax first will have to wait and just play with my 17 on my new ipad 12.9 Pro LOL

 

[zachz]

Do you have to have 17 running on your phone to use this? With all these battery woes on the beta forums Im not sure I want to update to 17 yet.

Thanks

I've been on the iOS/iPadOS 17 betas since they first launched and while battery life has been pretty terrible, it's drastically improved since the first beta. I've yet to install the most recent batch of betas, but I'll presume that by launch, the battery issues will be fixed. But, betas have bugs so don't use them to decide - wait for the proper launch!

On my iPad mini 6, just keeping it unplugged overnight would drain ~20-30% on iPadOS 16, now I can leave it unplugged for a day or two and still have less drain than before.

 

[johnb300m]

I'm surprisingly ok with the "swipe to change watch face" going away.
Numerous times, if something/or me accidentally rubs the screen, it's always changing my watch face on me.

 

[spinedoc77]

I didn't see it mentioned but can you change the side button back to the old function of pulling up your dock? I use the dock like that all the time and would hate to lose that functionality, and also prefer control center with the swipe up. I'm not particularly sold on the widgets with such a small screen.