Apple is also now pushing out its watchOS 5 update for the Apple Watch, delivering new health and fitness features, including social competitions in the Activity app, automatic startup of Workouts, advanced features for runners, and new heart rate measurements and notifications. An improved Siri Watch Face now integrates with Apple Maps to provide proactive directions to upcoming appointments, live sports scores and upcoming games for favourite teams, and heart rate measurements, as well as integrating with Siri Shortcuts and third-party app shortcuts, providing users with a more comprehensive view of what’s going on in their world.
Four new Watch Faces have also been added, including three animated Breathe faces, as well as Fire & Water, Liquid Metal, and Vapor motion faces. A new Walkie Talkie app allows for quick communications with friends, and a new Apple Podcasts app provides direct support for listening to podcasts right from the wrist via Bluetooth headphones.
watchOS 5 requires a paired iPhone 5s or later running iOS 12, and is available as a free update that can be downloaded over the air by visiting the Watch app on the paired iPhone and selecting General, Software Update. We’ll have a more in-depth look at what’s new in watchOS 5 in an upcoming feature article.