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watchOS apps

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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Topics

Essentials

App experience

Accessibility

User interface

Complications

Notifications

Siri

Health and fitness

Runtime management

Network requests

Unit tests