My Wish List For watchOS 6
watchOS 6, the next major version of Apple Watch software is almost certainly going to be announced at the World Wide Developer’s Conference in June. And Apple are likely going to announce new features and cool things. But if I were in charge of putting together the requirements for watchOS 6, here’s what I would include:
- Mirror the notification sound settings of your iPhone: This has to be at the top of the list as every Apple Watch sounds exactly the same. Which is stupid considering that Apple has had five versions of watchOS to get that right. The simple solution is to have the Apple Watch mirror your notification settings from your iPhone. That would allow you to use notifications you are already familiar with. Plus the notification sounds would not take up a whole lot of space on the Watch. Apple, you seriously need to get on that. Like right now.
- Customizable screen on times: When you flip your wrist or tap the screen. The screen can stay on for either 15 seconds or 70 seconds. I don’t get why Apple has such arbitrary figures for the screen on time. Why not allow the user of the Watch to customize it from anything from say 15 seconds to say 70 seconds or longer? I get that this is an OLED screen and burn in might be an issue. And I get that longer screen on times affects battery life. But seriously Apple, the one size fits all approach really isn’t for everyone.
- Watch faces that are far more customizable: This is one area where Apple really needs to up their game. Apple needs to provide more watch faces that allows a user to customize a watch face to their needs. For example, I’d love to create a watch face that has a background from my Photos app with five or six complications that I could position anywhere that would be aesthetically pleasing relative to the background. That would not only be something that users would like, but it would take away the need for Apple to open things up to custom development. Or put another way, they could maintain control. That’s a win/win.
- Sending messages with Siri needs improving: If you send a message using Siri, there’s a delay unless you click the Digital Crown. Which to be frank is not the most logical thing to send a message. Instead, Siri should ask you if you want to send this message, you say yes, and it goes. Much like how CarPlay works. This should be simple for Apple to address.
- The ability hide to tiles Control Center like Walkie Talkie status would be appreciated as that would build on the ability to move them around from watchOS 5.
That’s it for me. But is there anything that you’d like to see added to watchOS 6? Leave a comment and share whatever thoughts that you have.
April 6, 2019 at 5:53 pm
I absolutely agree on all your points, especially customizing “screen on” times. If 70 seconds is available from Apple without burn-in, custom times of 70 and below, could only be better for the screen than the 70 seconds Apple offer!
Wilkie-talkie (when it works, which is much better now), would be the finest part of the Apple Watch for me and my staff, if only the haptic was better. In a noisy environment it just doesn’t quite get ones’s attention. If they could fix that, or make the notification noisier, it would be a wonderful asset in say, a hospital, a hotel or my farm! (Tractors are noisy!)