Contents

watchOS 11 Release Notes

Update your apps to use new features, and test your apps against API changes.

Overview

The watchOS 11 SDK provides support to develop watchOS apps for Apple Watch devices running watchOS 11. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 16, available from the Mac App Store. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 16, see Xcode 16 Release Notes.

General

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Passive Entry will not work on newly provisioned car keys on watchOS. The key can still be used by double-clicking and holding the Apple Watch to the door handle. (128866908)

ActivityKit

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Tapping Live Activity does not launch watch apps that use the WKSupportsLiveActivityLaunchAttributesTypes Info.plist key. Instead, a Live Activity tap displays the full-screen view with an “Open on iPhone” option. (132832577) (FB14568721)

App Intents

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Parameterless @Parameter and @Property wrappers might cause protocol conformance failures. (130219933)

Apple Music

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: The download button for music is unavailable in the watchOS Music app when only connected to a cellular network. (128975478)

Depth

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Depth might not recover from a crash, including system kernel panic in-session. (129904699)

Foundation

New Features

  • JSONEncoder.OutputFormatting.sortedKeys will now sort keys with a different ordering. Previously, keys were sorted using a numeric, case-insensitive, or localized ordering. Beginning in beta 4, keys are sorted lexicographically based on the keys’ UTF-8 contents. (126874437)

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Date.ComponentsFormatStyle was incorrectly producing strings like "1m" with the Date.ComponentsFormatStyle.Style.condensedAbbreviated style and strings like "1min" with the .narrow style instead of the other way around. The behavior was corrected to match the behavior of Duration.UnitsFormatStyle.UnitWidth. (125790342)

Health

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Cycle Tracking Widget loses background/legibility on watch faces with a black background or if a multi-color option is selected. (128885691)

  • Fixed: Users might occassionally receive erroneous timezone change notifications for Medications on watch. (129242686)

Live Activities

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Disabling the global switch for “Allow Live Activities” or “Auto-Launch Live Activities” does not properly disable live activities in Settings on the Watch. (129075920)

  • Fixed: Interactive elements inside of Live Activities on watchOS will not perform any action. (130079986)

Networking

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: For apps linked on macOS 15 / iOS 18 or newer, the default User-Agent request header field value generated by URLSession now includes the unlocalized bundle name instead of the localized bundle name. (117380285)

  • Fixed: Single-target watch apps are erroneously able to bring up cellular when running in the background. (Use URLSession with background configuration if cellular access is needed.) (124725044)

Pairing

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Request to allow Watch Faces to use Location Services is displayed during the pairing flow. (128199203)

Platform

New Features

  • The firmware image for iBoot will be made available in cleartext in the PCC image. To reduce the overhead imposed by firmware encryption and align policies where appropriate, firmware encryption has been disabled for iBoot on iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. See Private Cloud Compute for more details. (125171074)

Podcasts

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Tapping an episode in the Up Next widget on watchOS launches Podcasts instead of starting playback. (129011666)

  • Fixed: Podcast app might crash when user attempts to play subscription podcast content on watch. (129241181)

StoreKit

New Features

  • The SubscriptionStoreView now supports custom control styles. To create a custom control style, declare a type that conforms to SubscriptionStoreControlStyle and implement makeBody(configuration:) method. (106819454)

  • New standard styles are available for laying out subscription store view controls with a compact height. Use pagedPicker and pagedProminentPicker for a platform appropriate paging effect, or compactPicker to place options in a horizontal stack. For watchOS, the new pagedPicker style is available for laying out SubscriptionStoreView controls with a compact height. (110286601)

  • Use types such as SubscriptionOptionGroup and SubscriptionPeriodGroupSet to declare a hierarchical structure for your SubscriptionStoreView. You can use the subscriptionStoreOptionGroupStyle(_:) to choose between presenting groups as a tab view or as navigation links. (110429924) (FB12264937)

  • The subscription status RenewalInfo object now supports new properties renewalPrice and currency to indicate the price at which the subscription will renew, and its currency. There is also a new offer property containing the information of the offer that will be applied to the next renewal, if there is any. This includes the offer ID, the offer type, and the payment mode. (114217892)

  • Finished consumables can now be included when using the Transaction APIs. Users can enable this feature by setting SKInAppPurchaseHistoryIncludesConsumables to true in app’s Info.plist. (115079880)

  • When configuring the control style for a SubscriptionStoreView, users can specify a placement for the controls using the subscriptionStoreControlStyle(_:placement:) view modifier. For tvOS, by default SubscriptionStoreView will place the controls trailing the marketing content. (115319543)

  • Users can now use APIs like monthly or yearly to get common Product.SubscriptionPeriod values when comparing subscription periods. (122684230)

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: VoiceOver does not read a product’s title and description in ProductView and StoreView. (124254957) (FB13679318)

Deprecations

  • The Original API for In-App Purchase is now deprecated, including: SKStoreReviewController, SKProduct, SKReceiptRefreshRequest, SKStorefront, SKPayment, SKRequest, SKProductsRequest, and SKProductDiscount. Please upgrade to StoreKit 2 for current APIs and future enhancements. (116600524)

Swift Charts

New Features

  • Plot math functions using LinePlot and AreaPlot. (117186178)

  • Visualize large datasets more efficiently using vectorized plot APIs such as PointPlot and RectanglePlot. (117469419)

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Rotated axis labels stretch to incorrect sizes. (106013386)

  • Fixed: Blur and shadow effects on marks might disappear during animation. (125493885)

  • Fixed: Glitches when animating a connected scatter plot made of LineMark. (127196185)

  • Fixed: Stroke styles can now be animated. (127465359)

  • Fixed: For function plots, the Y domain cannot be inferred automatically. (128877906)

SwiftUI

New Features

  • Toolbar Foreground Style can now be customized on watchOS with the .toolbarForegroundStyle view modifier. (107349615)

  • For ObservableObject subclasses used with @EnvironmentObject, @ObservedObject, and @StateObject, SwiftUI will now only call objectWillChange once per property per object instance. If you use @Published and the default ObservableObjectPublisher, you do not need to change anything. If you override objectWillChange, ensure the lifetime of the publisher you return matches the lifetime of its enclosing ObservableObject. (116197689)

  • TextField and TextFieldLink now launch text input directly to the last used input method, including Dictation. (116598050)

  • watchOS bordered buttons now support dynamic type and will automatically size themselves to the width of the system text margins. It is no longer necessary to apply custom padding to watchOS bordered buttons. (118793715)

  • Types conforming to the View protocol, and other similar SwiftUI protocols, are now isolated to the @MainActor by default. SwiftUI’s runtime behavior with respect to actor isolation has not changed: SwiftUI views and similar types have always been evaluated on the main actor at runtime; this change improves compile-time diagnostics for potential data-race safety issues. To opt out of the new default main actor isolation and restore the previous default isolation, add the nonisolated keyword to methods and properties as needed, or move the protocol conformance to an extension to opt out the entire type. (120815051)

  • Scroll target behaviors now create haptics when snapped to via the Digital Crown on Apple Watch. (121612157)

  • watchOS navigation titles now support dynamic type. If the title doesn’t fit, it will marquee. To enable this behavior, use standard title views like .navigationTitle("Title") and not custom title views like .navigationTitle { Text("Title").someModifier() }. (121888327)

  • Text(_:format:) now automatically injects FormatStyle known to SwiftUI with the TimeZone and Calendar from the environment. (123662780)

  • @Entry macro can now be used to simplify declarations of custom EnvironmentValues, FocusedValues, Transaction, and ContainerValues properties. (125568810)

  • watchOS toolbar button labels now support dynamic type. To best fit the toolbar, label the buttons with SF symbols instead of text. For more information, see https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10138. (125640396)

  • Added the ability to give a gesture a name, which gets surfaced to UIGestureRecognizers when establishing dependencies. (126527559)

  • Toolbar items in the navigation bar now animate with the navigation title and toolbar items in the bottom bar. (126886788)

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: ForEach is now able to reclaim persistent state of unused child views. @State values created by views inside ForEach elements might be destroyed earlier than previously observed. (90667238)

  • Fixed: A DismissAction captured in the content or detail column of a NavigationSplitView now pops the implicit stack.

    For apps linked on or after iOS 18 and aligned releases, the button in the example below will now clear any selection in the sidebar List. Previously, this would fail silently on iOS, and close the window on macOS.

     NavigationSplitView {
   List(…)
 } detail: {
   DetailView()
 }
 
 struct DetailView: View {
   @Environment(\.dismiss) private var dismiss
 
   var body: some View { 
     Button("Pop") { dismiss() }
   }
 }

    To retain the previous behavior, capture the DismissAction from the environment above the NavigationSplitView. (92522613)

  • Fixed: When a light appearance applies to a view, the view will now render watchOS system colors using the “light” values defined by https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/color#watchOS-system-colors. (108993115)

  • Fixed: View._printChanges now outputs key path of mutated observable properties instead of “@dependencies”. (111392797)

  • Fixed: SwiftUI will now assert that types conforming to the App protocol are value types. (113634782)

  • Fixed: Automatically updating Text created via Text(_:style:) or Text(timerInterval:pauseTime:countsDown:showsHours:) was causing increased battery drain when used in long running Live Activities. They now no longer animate changes in digits that signal the seconds value, keeping the power impact to a minimum. (115906895)

  • Fixed: .navigationDestination(for:destination) modifiers inside of lazy containers are no longer evaluated. .navigationDestination(isPresented:destination:) and navigationDestination(item:destination) will log warning when used in lazy containers. Lazy containers in this context include: List, LazyVGrid, LazyHGrid, LazyHStack, LazyVStack Table, and TabView. If using navigationDestinations in lazy containers, users will see logged errors at runtime. Lift the modifiers higher up in the view hierarchy so they are outside of the lazy containers. Allowing navigation destination modifiers in lazy containers had two significant costs: (1) app navigation state could be undefined if a navigationDestination had been scrolled off screen (2) The navigation system had to explore all list contents to ensure navigation destinations remained up to date. Only allowing these modifiers outside of lazy containers improves app navigation reliability and performance. (117998693)

  • Fixed: Views at the root of a NavigationStack will now always have matching onAppear and onDisappear callbacks. (119737698)

  • Fixed: The order of ShapeStyle compositing modifiers is now honored with respect to shadows. Previously in fill(style.blendMode(…).shadow(…)) the added blend mode would also apply to the shadow, that is no longer the case. The blend mode modifier must be added after the shadow modifier to affect it. As a consequence, the fill and any shadows added can now use different blend modes. Similar rules apply to ShapeStyle.opacity() except that outer opacity() modifiers multiply with inner modifiers, e.g. in fill(style.opacity(0.5).shadow(…).opacity(0.5)) the shadow is drawn with 50% opacity (of whatever style draws) and style itself draws with 25% opacity. (119738072)

  • Fixed: The meaning of the boolean value passed to the ContentTransition.numericText(countsDown:) function has been flipped for apps deployed prior to iOS 18 aligned releases. (120561508)

  • Fixed: In vertical page-style tab views, toolbar items now adjust for the bottom safe area. (120739592)

  • Fixed: Gestures might not pick up a modified content shape, such as when increasing the tappable area of a button. (120938385)

  • Fixed an issue when a sheet modifier is removed from a view hierarchy. This can happen if the sheet modifier is in one branch of an if statement and the statement’s condition changes. For apps linked on or after iOS 18 and aligned releases, when a sheet modifier is completely removed from the hierarchy, the binding associated with the sheet will not be reset. (123742063)

  • Fixed: ForEach child views are no longer re-evaluated unconditionally, only when a parameter of the ForEach view might have changed. (123902210)

  • Fixed: Elements along a NavigationPath or the data structure passed to the path parameter of NavigationStack(path:root:) are now compared more efficiently. Any side-effects from setting a path equal to itself are no longer reliable and likely will not occur. (125093883)

  • Fixed: SceneBuilder, WidgetBundleBuilder, TableColumnBuilder, TableRowBuilder, CommandsBuilder, and ToolbarContentBuilder now diagnose unsupported if #available conditions at compile time instead of crashing at run time. (125379937)

  • Fixed: In certain scenarios, Text(_:style:) produced suboptimal output, such as choosing an unnecessarily small calendar unit, showing zero values for large calendar units instead of omitting them, or showing seconds in Always On Display. (125885307)

  • Fixed: Text(timerInterval:pauseTime:countsDown:showsHours:) was redacting the seconds value even when the timer was paused, had not started yet, or had already reached its end. (125885429)

  • Fixed: Resolved an issue where scroll views would not receive touches if placed near a tappable control. When rebuilt with the newer SDK, make sure that small buttons and tap targets are correctly enlarged. You can use the contentShape modifier. (126232279)

  • Fixed: On watchOS, hierarchical fill colors applied like .fill(Color.red.tertiary) now differ in opacity both when vibrancy is disabled and enabled. (126304778)

  • Fixed: Views using the .digitialCrownRotation modifier might prevent scroll or pan gesture events from being recognized. (128026017)

  • Fixed: In the Swift 6 language mode, the @Entry macro now works with non-Sendable types if the type of the entry is declared explicitly. (129073803)

  • Fixed: Status bar time might not move to the centered position when there is a trailing bar item after a navigation push. (131398106)

Wallet

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Users will be unable to present ID cards in Wallet. (127695252)

WidgetKit

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Widgets that use SiriKit custom intents for configuration might fail to render if an Intents extension is not provided with the app. (133479478)

Workout

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed: Starting a new workout during an ongoing workout by tapping “New” might cause the Workout app to hang. (128755373)

See Also

watchOS 11