Apple Watch Hacked to Display Custom Watch Faces

[MacRumors]

Apple doesn't allow developers to create custom watch faces for the Apple Watch, preferring to maintain control over the general look of the device, but that hasn't stopped iOS developer Hamza Sood from tinkering with the Apple Watch and getting a custom watch face uploaded onto the device.

In a tweet posted this afternoon, Sood shared a video of a custom animated watch face with multiple color options.

After some haxx... Custom watch faces on Apple Watch!

Watch face source code is on GitHub:
https://t.co/7ZvOz8nK34 pic.twitter.com/nQGJKlp6kt - Hamza Sood (@hamzasood) August 18, 2015

The watch face source code that was used to create the custom watch face has been made available on GitHub and will require watchOS 2. Earlier this summer, Sood also joined several other developers in efforts to hack watchOS 2 to run truly native apps like Canabalt and a Flappy Bird clone.

It is not clear if Apple has plans to allow third-party developers to create watch faces for the Apple Watch in the future, but it's possible that as watchOS and the Apple Watch mature, Apple will be less restrictive. For now, hacks like Sood's are the only way to get custom watch faces on the device.

Article Link: Apple Watch Hacked to Display Custom Watch Faces

 

[FWRN]

About time. Jailbreak here we come!

 

[Brian Y]

Surely it's a bad idea releasing the source before OS2 is actually out.

 

[sniffies]

Would be cool to run FCP on the watch.

 

[MuGeN PoWeR]

looks like i should buy one for myself.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Why they did not launch this with customizable watch faces you could download from app store for a fee is beyond me.

 

[xlost6]

Finally! Now that watch OS2 is about to release!

 

[AnthonyHarris]

I know its very early and coding takes time, but I'd have tried to do something... less crap... before sharing this 'ability', even knowing theres a race to hack the thing.

 

[keysofanxiety]

…which firmly confirms why you shouldn't, at least if that's the picture you choose.

@AngerDanger, you know what to do

 

[Fortimir]

Why they did not launch this with customizable watch faces you could download from app store for a fee is beyond me.

Pretty sure they'll get there soon enough. I think they had other priorities to meet launch requirements.

 

[jdillings]

Apple shuts this down in 3, 2, 1

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

Pretty sure they'll get there soon enough. I think they had other priorities to meet launch requirements.

i think you're right about this. WatchOS 2.0 is probably what they really wanted to put out at the beginning but didn't have time to perfect it. Custom faces was probably originally a "2.0" idea.

 

[Four oF NINE]

If that's the best they can come up with, I'm not missing anything

 

[nigerson]

Why they did not launch this with customizable watch faces you could download from app store for a fee is beyond me.

That way they can announce this as some sort of exclusive new break through in watch face technology in the apple watch 2.

 

[NachoGrande]

Earth Shattering.....

 

[Mascots]

Ah! I hope this slips by Apple and isn't patched before Fall.

Looking at the source, though, while Apple could easily patch it by changing signatures, the frameworks are still written Obj-C, which means exposed headers. I doubt they'd go as far as to add any sort of complex restrictions beyond changing method names - as is routine for private APIs - especially when they're probably minting an internal GM very soon.

Unfortunately, it'll probably never make it pass review. But f it, I'm making s few faces of my own

 

[Ulysses164]

I'm really not sure Apple would ever let developers install watch faces without some severe, severe curation on their part - keeping the Apple Watch Apple Watch-like and all.

 

[Pakaku]

I dunno, I'd use a watch face like that.

 

[Pakaku]

I'm really not sure Apple would ever let developer install watch faces without some severe, severe curation on their part - keeping the Apple Watch Apple Watch-like and all.

I wonder how long Apple can keep up the facade that this is a luxurious jewelry piece that requires pristine curation. Yes, it's good to keep a quality standard, but come on.

 

[firewood]

Unfortunately, it'll probably never make it pass review.

If it's open sourced, it doesn't have to pass review. Just download Xcode, build from source, and install it directly on your own iPhone and watch.

 

[Mascots]

I wonder how long Apple can keep up the facade that this is a luxurious jewelry piece that requires pristine curation. Yes, it's good to keep a quality standard, but come on.

I don't think it's a curation thing, I think it's more of a "we have a lot of work to do" kind of thing. Basically, OS 2 is a slight iteration, a "service package" to OS 1; the upgrades are more like updates, even native apps are essentially the extensions written for iPhone crafted to work on the device.

I think, and hope, they're saving major updates for the next cycle, with the main team working in the advance cycle for the next major update which will be more surprising. I don't think they'd hold out that long without tapping their developer market.

But then again, I didn't think they'd skip it in this update so: ~\(o_o)/~

 

[Mascots]

If it's open sourced, it doesn't have to pass review. Just download Xcode, build from source, and install it directly on your own iPhone and watch.

I forgot that non developers can build on the device now - radical.

 

[Rogifan]

I wonder how long Apple can keep up the facade that this is a luxurious jewelry piece that requires pristine curation. Yes, it's good to keep a quality standard, but come on.

When did Apple say that's why they're not allowing custom watch faces?

 

[Pakaku]

I don't think it's a curation thing, I think it's more of a "we have a lot of work to do" kind of thing. Basically, OS 2 is a slight iteration, a "service package" to OS 1; the upgrades are more like updates, even native apps are essentially the extensions written for iPhone crafted to work on the device.

I think, and hope, they're saving major updates for the next cycle, with the main team working in the advance cycle for the next major update which will be more surprising. I don't think they'd hold out that long without tapping their developer market.

But then again, I didn't think they'd skip it in this update so: ~\(o_o)/~

But the fact that they have to rely on developers for this thing to kick off is why I don't think "the utmost highest level of curation" is realistic. Otherwise, the price-point ratio would be severely unbalanced, no matter how polished the devs can try to make their software. This is really just a box with computer parts inside, it's not a 24K diamond even if Apple tries to market it so.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

Balmy not to have thousands of custom watch faces in the first place.

Apple keep saying this is their most personal device. It's not if you've only got a handful of faces. My iMac is more personal; I can choose millions of faces for it.