---
title: watchOS apps
framework: watchOS apps
role: collection
path: watchos-apps
---

# watchOS apps

Build watchOS apps that combine complications, notifications, and Siri to create a personal experience on Apple Watch.

## Overview

Overview Apple Watch provides easy access to vital information on someone’s wrist. The watchOS experience focuses on quick actions that achieve useful tasks through brief, punctuated interactions.

On Apple Watch, keep interactions as short as possible. Provide vital information at a glance, encouraging the wearer to respond with just a few taps, and then drop their wrist and move on. They don’t need to wait to see if the action succeeds; instead, the watchOS app automatically notifies them of any important updates. For watchOS, expect to spend more time planning, designing, and refining your app’s experience than writing the actual code. For design guidance, see Designing for watchOS. When designing a watchOS app, mix a combination of the following technologies to create a richer experience. The watchOS app The main app serves as the foundation for your watchOS app experience. Anyone can launch and interact with your app directly. However, the app’s interface isn’t necessarily the primary way people interact with your app. Many may prefer to interact through complications or notifications, and may never explicitly launch your app.

Complications Complications provide small glimpses into your app’s data directly on the watch face. People can add complications to most watch faces, but space is limited. Design complications to show information that is timely, up to date, and useful. People can also launch the watchOS app quickly and easily by tapping a complication.

Notifications Use notifications to alert people of significant events. You can also provide actions so that people can respond immediately without opening your app. You can use either local or remote notifications to communicate, even when your app isn’t running.

Siri Use SiriKit and App intents to expand the ways people can interact with your app. If your app uses domains like messaging or media, use SiriKit to add Siri support to your app. For other features, use App Intents to expose your app’s functionality to system services like Siri and the Shortcuts app.

## Topics

### Essentials

- [Creating an intuitive and effective UI in watchOS 10](watchos-apps/creating-an-intuitive-and-effective-ui-in-watchos-10.md)
- [Updating your app and widgets for watchOS 10](watchos-apps/updating-your-app-and-widgets-for-watchos-10.md)
- [Building a watchOS app](watchos-apps/building_a_watchos_app.md)
- [watchOS updates](updates/watchos.md)
- [Migrating to a single-target watchOS app](watchos-apps/migrating-to-a-single-target-watchos-app.md)

### App experience

- [Setting up a watchOS project](watchos-apps/setting-up-a-watchos-project.md)
- [Creating independent watchOS apps](watchos-apps/creating-independent-watchos-apps.md)
- [Keeping your watchOS content up to date](watchos-apps/keeping-your-watchos-app-s-content-up-to-date.md)
- [Updating watchOS apps with timelines](watchos-apps/updating-watchos-apps-with-timelines.md)
- [Authenticating users on Apple Watch](watchos-apps/authenticating-users-on-apple-watch.md)
- [Responding to the Action button on Apple Watch Ultra](appintents/actionbuttonarticle.md)
- [Enabling the double-tap gesture on Apple Watch](watchos-apps/enabling-double-tap.md)

### Accessibility

- [Create accessible experiences for watchOS](watchos-apps/create-accessible-experiences-for-watchos.md)

### User interface

- [Building a productivity app for Apple Watch](watchos-apps/building-a-productivity-app-for-apple-watch.md)
- [Supporting multiple watch sizes](watchos-apps/supporting-multiple-watch-sizes.md)
- [Designing your app for the Always On state](watchos-apps/designing-your-app-for-the-always-on-state.md)
- [Setting the app’s accent color](watchos-apps/setting-the-app-s-accent-color.md)

### Complications

- [Creating accessory widgets and watch complications](widgetkit/creating-accessory-widgets-and-watch-complications.md)
- [Migrating ClockKit complications to WidgetKit](widgetkit/converting-a-clockkit-app.md)
- [Creating a widget extension](widgetkit/creating-a-widget-extension.md)
- [Keeping a widget up to date](widgetkit/keeping-a-widget-up-to-date.md)
- [Increasing the visibility of widgets in Smart Stacks](widgetkit/widget-suggestions-in-smart-stacks.md)

### Notifications

- [Notifications](watchos-apps/notifications.md)

### Siri

- [Making actions and content discoverable by Apple Intelligence](appintents/making-actions-and-content-discoverable-by-apple-intelligence.md)
- [Creating an Intents App Extension](sirikit/creating-an-intents-app-extension.md)

### Health and fitness

- [Setting up HealthKit](healthkit/setting-up-healthkit.md)
- [Authorizing access to health data](healthkit/authorizing-access-to-health-data.md)
- [Saving data to HealthKit](healthkit/saving-data-to-healthkit.md)
- [Reading data from HealthKit](healthkit/reading-data-from-healthkit.md)
- [Build a workout app for Apple Watch](healthkit/build-a-workout-app-for-apple-watch.md)

### Runtime management

- [Background execution](watchkit/background-execution.md)
- [Life cycles](watchkit/life-cycles.md)
- [Using extended runtime sessions](watchkit/using-extended-runtime-sessions.md)
- [Interacting with Bluetooth peripherals during background app refresh](watchkit/interacting-with-bluetooth-peripherals-during-background-app-refresh.md)

### Network requests

- [Making default and ephemeral requests](watchos-apps/making-default-and-ephemeral-requests.md)
- [Making background requests](watchos-apps/making-background-requests.md)

### Unit tests

- [Setting up tests for your watchOS app](watchos-apps/setting-up-tests-for-your-watchos-app.md)