Paul Morris·

watchOS 5 Features, Release Date For Apple Watch Announced

As expected, and following on from the closing of Apple’s opening WWDC keynote, the Cupertino-based company, led by Tim Cook, has officially announced the existence of watchOS 5 for all Apple Watch models.

Pre-WWDC hype is generally always focused on the next major revamp of Apple’s mobile platform, iOS, and generally overlooks other firmware offerings, such as tvOS, watchOS and even macOS.

When you consider that Apple Watch is up there with the number one wearables in the world, and outsells standard non-intelligent watches globally, it’s worth remembering just how important watchOS is to millions of Apple Watch owners around the world.

So, with that in mind, let’s take a dive in and look at what’s just been announced as far as watchOS 5 is concerned:

– 7-day Competition: watchOS 5 now allows for a user to start a competition with a friend with an Apple Watch running watchOS 5.

– Yoga workout: As expected, and as wanted, watchOS 5 finally brings out the guns for tracking your Yoga activities.

– Automatic Workout Detection: Users have been wanting to see this feature for some time now and finally, that time has arrived!

– Walkie-Talkie: This allows users to shoot voice memos to each other. This feature is supported over Wi-Fi and Cellular LTE, both.

– Siri Watch face: Siri Watch face arrives with watchOS 5, with third-party apps also arriving to this Watch face.

– Raise your wrist for Siri: Simply raise your wrist and start talking to Siri, unlike before where you had to raise your wrist and say “Siri” to activate it.

– WebKit support: Finally, now when you tap on a web link, you can get a preview of the link, though there’s no full browser support as yet.

– GymKit: As expected, GymKit is finally here which lets you connect your watch with gym equipments to track your progress.

– Podcasts: Not much to tell here, but Apple finally brings podcasts to the Apple Watch with watchOS 5.

– Enhanced notifications: Notifications from third-party apps can now be made interactive with support to modify an action or task directly from the notification itself.

– Wallet update: Wallet app gets an update to support Student ID cards as well. “The program launches with Duke, the University of Alabama and the University of Oklahoma this fall. Johns Hopkins University, Santa Clara University and Temple University will bring the capability by the end of the year.”

– And finally, that Pride Watch face that was leaked not so long ago, is also here. However, this one is not really watchOS 5 exclusive, and can be found  in the Face Gallery, with iOS 11.4 and watchOS 4.3.1 being the requirements.

Release Date

watchOS 5 beta 1 is available to download now for developers. Public beta will be available later this month. Final version of watchOS 5 will be available later this fall.

You may also like to check out:

You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the Web.