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watchOS 6

36 'watchOS 6' stories March 2019
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watchOS 6 Release Date

watchOS 6 for Apple Watch is expected to be released in the fall of 2019. A developer beta was released in June at WWDC 2019. It’s not expected that a public beta will be available.

watchOS 6 Features

The next version of software for Apple Watch will include new watch faces and complications, new first-party apps like Audiobooks, Voice Memos, and Calculator, as well as a dedicated watchOS App Store. It will also include a new Hearing Health feature. If your watch detects ambient noise, it will notify you if the levels may harm your hearing. Apple has said all audio is stored locally on the device.

It was announced that there will be a streaming audio API available to developers. This feature would allow apps like Spotify or Overcast to stream over a LTE connection when users are away from their iPhone.

There are also new health and fitness features such as new “Trends,” “Highlights,” and “Favorites” views to compare your activity over time. One more new app called “Cycles” allows users to track their menstrual cycles on both Apple Watch as well as iPhone and log important information.

watchOS 6 Compatibility

When Apple released watchOS 5 last year, support was dropped for the original Apple Watch (1st generation, aka Series 0). This time around, watchOS 6 will be supporting all of the same Apple Watch hardware as watchOS 5, meaning even Apple Watch Series 1 users will get to update to the latest software when it’s publicly released.

Apple does note that not all features will be available on all Apple Watches that can run the software, however, it doesn’t specify details on that for now.

watchOS 6 will be compatible with Series 1, 2, 3, and 4 and will require an iPhone 6s or later. The iPhone hardware requirement moves up from 5s and later for watchOS 5.

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