Developer Apple Inc. Working state Current | OS family Unix-like
iOS | |
Written in C
C++
Objective-C
Swift Source model Closed (with open-source components) Initial release April 24, 2015; 23 months ago (2015-04-24) | ||
watchOS is the mobile operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc. It is based on the iOS operating system and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the only device that runs watchOS. Its API is called WatchKit.
Contents
The second version, watchOS 2, included support for native third-party apps and other improvements, and was released on September 21, 2015. The third version, watchOS 3, was released on September 13, 2016, emphasizing better performance and including new watch faces and stock apps.
UI overview
The home screen (rendered by and also known as "Carousel") is composed of circular application icons, which can be zoomed in and out with the Digital Crown and dragged and launched by touching the display. Many of the apps are miniaturized, simplified versions of their iOS counterparts.
Prior to watchOS 3, Glances provided fast access to a summarized view of the most popular native or third party applications used on Apple Watch. The Glances view was opened with a swipe up gesture from the watch face screen. With watchOS 3, Glances has been replaced by a redesigned Control Center - much like the one in iOS. The friends menu, invoked with the side button, now acts as a dedicated dock for apps.
Different actions and options appear depending on if the user taps or deep presses which an Apple Watch detects with its pressure-sensitive (Force Touch) Display.
Version history
Legend: Obsolete Discontinued Current Beta