Apple’s watchOS 6 getting its own App Store and new health apps

Image: Raymond Wong / mashable

Apple’s watchOS 6 for the Apple Watch is coming this fall.

Apple announced the new software update for its smartwatch at WWDC 2019. And needless to say, it’s going to have a ton of new features.

All the Apple Watches watchOS 6 supports

When watchOS 6 comes out in the fall, it’ll work for all Apple Watches except the first-generation (unofficially dubbed “Series 0”).

New watch faces

Everyone wants new Apple Watch faces and Apple’s delivering them in watchOS 6. The company unveiled several new ones with larger digits and more visible “complications” that take advantage of the larger screens on the Apple Watch Series 4.

One is called “Modular Compact” which shows a smaller watch face in one corner mixed with several complications. Another watch face is called “Gradient” and features a minimalist face that looks like a watch from straight outta the MoMa store.

One watch face will have a taptic vibration when the digital hand strikes the hour.

Apple Watch App Store

The Mac has an app store and iPhones and iPads have an app store. So why shouldn’t the Apple Watch have its own app store? 

Wonder no more because watchOS 6 will bring with it an app store for the Apple Watch. With the new App Store, Apple’s making the Apple Watch even more of an independent device. 

Currently, the only way to install Apple Watch apps is by downloading them via the Watch app on iPhone. 

New apps: Voice Memos, Apple Books, and Calculator

The Apple Watch has a fairly robust bunch of Apple-made apps and in watchOS 6, there will be several new ones: Voice Memos, Apple Books, and a Calculator. All of them are pretty self-explanatory. 

Voice Memos lets you record, well, voice recordings just like you would on iOS. The Apple Books app lets you listen to audio books. The Calculator app — let’s just say, finally.

New health app: Menstrual cycle tracking

If there was any doubt that Apple’s transforming the Apple Watch into a do-it-all medical device, you can cast it to the side.

Apple introduced a new app coming in watchOS 6: Cycles. The Cycles app tracks menstrual cycles. Fitbit was the first to include menstrual cycle-tracking on its Fitbit Versa smartwatch in 2018 and now Apple’s following suit.

New watch bands

Yup, Apple’s got a bunch of new watch bands for the Apple Watch including one for Pride.

This story is developing…