Apple today announced watchOS 6 — the next major release of watchOS for the Apple Watch. The update further helps in making the Apple Watch act as a standalone device and reduce its reliance on the iPhone for basic tasks.

watchOS 6 is packed with plenty of new features including a dedicated App Store, new watch faces, improved health tracking features, and more.

New System Apps

watchOS 6 comes with a number of new system apps including Audiobooks, Voice Memos, and Calculator. The last one can even be used to calculate tips or quickly split a bill!

Dedicated App Store

watchOS 6 introduces a new standalone App Store on the Apple Watch. The App Store is directly accessible from the Apple Watch and will allow one to directly download apps on the wearable. Apple is hoping this would help in improving and increasing the quality and quantity of apps for the Apple Watch.

Users can browse and search the App Store using Dictation, Scribble, or just asking Siri.

New Watchfaces

watchOS 6 introduces a number of new watch faces. This includes a gradient watch face in which one can select a color of their choice, a modern digital watch face with bold fonts, California dial, and more.

All watch faces in watchOS 6 feature Taptic chime which basically sounds a chime every hour.

New APIs, Standalone Apps

watchOS 6 will allow developers to create apps for the Apple Watch without the need for creating an iPhone app.

Apple is also making a new streaming audio API with watchOS 6 for developers. This will allow for Spotify and other similar high-quality streaming apps to make their way to Apple Watch.

Activity Metrics

Apple is adding Activity Metrics to the Apple Watch’s Health app. As the name indicates, your health metrics and recorded data are compared to other Apple Watch users across the globe so as to further motivate you.

Developing…..