Hands-On Apple Watch watchOS 2 Review

Hands-On Apple Watch watchOS 2 Review
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WatchOS 2 was Apple’s first major update of the Apple Watch software and has been available for a few months now. The first iteration of the software left much to be desired, but Apple has made some changes that should alleviate a few of the major issues like delays while apps are loading, a few more customization options and some new tools for developers.

The Apple Watch is still a device that both Apple and users seem to be unclear as to what the product is and can be. At this point the Apple Watch is primarily a convenient notification hub that keeps you from having to pull out your iPhone every time it dings, but Apple seems to be pushing towards making the Apple Watch a more independent device that doesn’t have to be connected to your iPhone to be useful.

Eli's Apple Watch Music Bush iDropAfter spending some time with watchOS 2, here is my full hands-on review of the most notable changes Apple made in watchOS 2.

New Watch Faces

watchOS 2 Pic 2The watch face on your Apple Watch is the most personal element the device and essentially functions as the home screen. It is where you will spend most your time while using the watch so it’s understandable that there were a lot of complaints about Apple not allowing third-party developers to create their own watch faces when the device launched. However, the decision wasn’t surprising given Apple’s history.

While watchOS 2 has only partially opened up watch faces to developers, more on that in a minute, Apple has included some pretty cool new watch faces of their own.

The first is the Time-Lapse watch face that displays a 24 hour Time-Lapse of a few select places. You can choose between locations that include Hong Kong, London, Mack Lake, New York, Shanghai and Paris. The Time-Lapse that is displayed when you lift your wrist corresponds with your current time of day, which is a nice touch.

watchOS 2 Pic 3Next is the photo album watch face that allows you to select one of your own photo albums. Every time you lift your wrist a new photo from the selected album will be displayed.

In the same vein, there is also a new watch face that lets you only select one photo to be displayed. This single photo watch face also works with the Live Photos that were introduced alongside the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. If you choose to use a Live Photo for your watch face, the image will animate each time your raise your wrist.

The only downside to these new watch faces is the lack of complications. If you heavily rely on complications, which I cover in detail below, these watch faces are probably not going to be for you.

Native Apps

I started with watch faces because it is the most constantly used element of the Apple Watch, but Apple’s marquee feature of watchOS 2 is native apps.

When the Apple Watch was released, many people complained about the delays they experienced while using many apps on the Apple Watch. Prior to watchOS 2, the delay was caused because apps on the Apple Watch were required to communicate back and forth with the iPhone in order to retrieve data to display on the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch was essentially just a display for information from your iPhone.

With watchOS 2 developers can now create apps to run entirely from the Apple Watch. The benefit is that native apps will run much more smoothly and quickly because they do not have to constantly pull information from the iPhone.

Even with native apps, there are still many functions that the Apple Watch cannot perform unless it is connected with your iPhone. For example, the Apple Watch cannot independently take phone calls or send messages just yet, although I would expect these capabilities would be featured in a future generation Apple Watch.

At this point, native apps allow your Apple Watch to do some small things while not connected to your iPhone. For example, some native fitness apps on the Apple Watch let you leave your iPhone behind and still capture your work out data all from the watch.

The only hiccup with this feature is that not that many developers, at least that I’ve experienced, have updated their apps to run natively on the Apple Watch.

Although I’m not a developer, I assume that it requires a good deal more work to create an app that takes advantage of this feature, especially when many developers are still working out kinks to their original Apple Watch apps. However, like with most of Apple’s new products, the more time that goes by the more and more we’ll see apps updated to run natively on the Apple Watch.

More Developer Access

Because of Apple’s history of being a closed garden, it wasn’t much of a surprise that developers were limited by Apple when creating apps for the Apple Watch at launch.

Many key hardware features of the Apple Watch including the Digital Crown, Taptic Engine, accelerometer, fand the heart rate monitor were all off limits to developers until now.

In watchOS 2 developers finally have access to these crucial elements of the Apple Watch. They can now access heart rate data, send you haptic notifications and incorporate the Digital Crown for scrolling or for other creative interactions.

Another big hardware feature is the use of the microphone and other audio/video features that allow apps like Instagram and Vine to play videos on the Apple Watch, although video on the Apple Watch seems a little cramped for me. Also, third-party apps can now use voice recording in their apps, which I imagine will be very useful for task list, and reminder type apps.

Complications

Even though Apple has yet to allow third-parties to create their own watch faces, there is still some light for developers in watchOS 2. Apple now allows third-party developers to create custom complications that can be used on watch faces that support them.

As noted earlier, Apple’s new photo centric watch faces unfortunately don’t support complications like most of the traditional looking watch faces. If you aren’t familiar with complications, they are the little tidbits of information like the date or calendar events that you find on watch faces like the Utility or Modular faces for example.

There are already a decent number of apps that have taken advantage of the feature ranging from popular calendar and weather apps all the way to companies like Volkswagen that has created a complication that allows you monitor the battery life on certain models of their electric vehicles.

Time Travel

Time Travel is a nifty new feature that allows you take a look at upcoming information from watch faces that support complications. To access the feature, you simply turn the Digital Crown while on your watch face and the clock will begin traveling forwards or backwards depending on which way you turn the crown.

For complications that support the feature, information like your upcoming calendar events or weather predictions will be updated to correspond with the time.

Apple did joke on stage that the feature won’t display future stock market activity, which is unfortunate, but the feature is really useful for quickly taking a look at what events you have coming up and whether you will need to bring an umbrella.

Nightstand Mode

Since you most likely take your Apple Watch off every night to charge it, Apple has created a new feature called Nightstand mode that allows your Apple Watch to function as an alarm clock.

When you plug in the device and set it down sideways with the Digital Crown facing upwards, the Apple Watch will enter into Nightstand mode.

The watch will display the time in large illuminated numbers along with the date and the time an alarm will go off, if you have one set, in a smaller font below. The display turns off after about 15 seconds but can be activated again by simply moving the watch. When your alarm goes off, the Digital Crown functions as a snooze button and the side button functions to turn the alarm off.

In my experience, however, I’ve found that the alarm on the Apple Watch is not near as loud as the alarms you can set on your iPhone. Since I’m a heavy sleeper, I’ve slept through the Apple Watch alarm more than once and I’ve resorted to using it as a back up alarm to my iPhone.

Also, you don’t have access to any additional alarm sounds like you do on the iPhone. I’m sure the Apple Watch alarm would work fine for many people, but I would suggest testing it out first before relying on it to wake you up for a job interview.

Siri

In the first iteration of watchOS Siri could only be activated by holding down the Digital Crown, but in watchOS 2 Siri can now respond to the “Hey Siri” command when you raise your wrist.

It is no surprise that Siri is also a little smarter in watchOS 2 and can now perform new tasks like starting a specific workout, open specific Glances, and pull up transit routes in one of the cities where transit directions are available. There are other small updates like the ability to ask Siri for definitions and calculate tips.

Security

Apple has been including a feature in their iPhones and iPads for a while now that prevents them from being reset without an Apple ID password so that the devices are essentially useless if they are stolen. A similar feature was absent with the Apple Watch at launch, but with watchOS 2 Apple has tightened security.

Originally, an Apple Watch could be reset without the need for the current security code meaning that the device could be paired with a new iPhone when stolen. In watchOS 2, the owners Apple ID login is now needed before an Apple Watch can be reset.

Who knows if this feature will actually prevent more theft, but at least in that situation you may get a since of satisfaction, albeit small, that whoever stole your Apple Watch won’t be able to use it.

Other Updates

Apple made many other small updates to the software that are worth noting. In the mail app, you can finally reply to email using dictation or with preset responses just like in the Messages app.

The Music app in watchOS 2 was updated to allow you to take advantage of some Apple Music features. For example, you now have access to Beats 1 straight from your Apple Watch.

watchOS 2 Pic 5In watchOS 2 you can now extend the number of friends you can have by adding multiple Favorites screens that you can access by swiping back and forth. Although I really haven’t got into using Digital Touch much, if you do send sketches to your friends you can now do so in multiple colors rather than being limited to just one color at a time.

For the first time, you can now answer FaceTime Audio calls from your Apple Watch. Obviously, you cannot take FaceTime Video calls yet due to the lack of a camera on the Apple Watch, a feature that I anticipate will come on the second generation Apple Watch. You can however reject a FaceTime Video call from your watch or send the call to your iPhone.

In the first version of watchOS your display only stayed on for 15 seconds after the last tap and there was no option to change it. There is now an option to change that length of time to 70 seconds. Selecting this feature will eat through more of your battery but if you constantly find that the watch display is turning off on you too soon, it may be useful to increase the time. However, it does seem odd that 70 seconds is the only new option and is not accompanied by more intervals.

Updating

If you are still running the first version of watchOS, you can update your Apple Watch on the Watch app on your iPhone by going to General/Software Update. In order to install the update, your Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery and be plugged into a charger. It must also be in range of your iPhone.

Conclusion

watchOS Pic 4As expected, watchOS 2 improves Apple Watch functionality and usability in many ways. I believe Apple’s biggest challenge at this point, is getting developers to embrace these new features and update their apps to take advantage of them.

Since the Apple Watch is more of a luxury for most people as compared to the iPhone, which is almost a necessity these days, it seems most developers have made a cost-benefit analysis and don’t see as much profit spending time on an Apple Watch app and instead focus their energy on the iPhone.

Like I said earlier, I anticipate that as Apple sells more Apple Watches, more and more developers will take the time to create powerful apps for the watch and make the device that much more appealing. At this point, I’d say that watchOS 2 shows major potential, but it’s not quite outstanding, just yet.

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