Thanks for verifying this on your side. Please find the answers to your queries. iOS’s Apple Watch version:
The paired Apple Watch is running watchOS 10.6.1 on a physical device. It is paired with an iPhone running iOS 18.x. Regarding the minimum deployment target: 
You are correct that the watch app’s minimum deployment target is set to watchOS 10.0, 9.6 was typo error.
The issue I am reporting is that Xcode still displays the error “watchOS version lower than deployment target” even though the physical Apple Watch is running 10.6. This should satisfy the 10.0 deployment requirement, but Xcode continues to block installation. So we are observing the unexpected behaviour with the below configuration : Physical device: watchOS 10.6 Deployment target: watchOS 10.0 Xcode error: “watchOS version lower than deployment target” The error should not appear. Additionally, I’m still seeing the same issue even on the latest environment: Xcode 26.1.1 macOS 15.6 I performed a clean build, cleared Derived Data, and re-synced the Watch app target, but the build still fails with the same error on my machine.

When creating a new watchOS app as a companion to an existing iOS app (using “Add Target → Watch App for Existing iOS App”), Xcode incorrectly reports a deployment target mismatch warning: “The watchOS version is lower than the deployment target.” Steps to Reproduce: In Xcode 16.4: Create a new iOS App with deployment target iOS 16.2. Add a new target → “Watch App for Existing iOS App”. Set deployment target to watchOS 9.6. Accept the default “No WatchKit Extension” (new architecture). Build the project. Expected Result: Build succeeds without warnings — the watch app should be recognized as a valid companion with watchOS 9.6. Actual Result: Xcode shows: “watchOS version lower than deployment target” Technical Details: iOS Target: IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET = 16.2 Watch Target: WATCHOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET = 9.6 Watch App Info.plist contains: WKCompanionAppBundleIdentifier = LC.iOSScreenShotPrevention No WatchKit Extension target exists (as per Xcode 16’s simplified architecture). Note: Unable to upload the Sample WatchApp Project as a zip. So please verify the screenshot below.

Hi @DTS Engineer, can you please clarify these doubts: We are using appdelegates in our code, is it possible that scenedelegate works faster and are more consistent? The same issue can be seen with phonepe app. We have compared with hdfc, imobile apps which are working fine always. Can we tag this inconsistent screen blur issue to appdelegate/scenedelegate performance?? I have tried with UIView, UIImageView, UIVisualEffectView, UIWindow but the issue exists.

@darkpaw @DTS Engineer - (void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application { if (!_coverView) { _coverView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:self.window.bounds]; _coverView.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor]; _coverView.userInteractionEnabled = NO; [self.window addSubview:_coverView]; [self.window bringSubviewToFront:_coverView]; NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]; [formatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS"]; NSString *timeString = [formatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]]; NSLog(@"[%@] [AppDelegate] Cover view added immediately", timeString); } } - (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application { if (_coverView) { [_coverView removeFromSuperview]; _coverView = nil; NSLog(@"[AppDelegate] Cover view removed"); } } This is the code that we have used and the logs are Idletimer canceled ... [2025-05-20 17:02:06.518] [AppDelegate] Cover view added immediately [AppDelegate] Cover view removed Idletimer canceled ... [2025-05-20 17:02:13.976] [AppDelegate] Cover view added immediately [AppDelegate] Cover view removed Idletimer canceled ... [2025-05-20 17:02:17.442] [AppDelegate] Cover view added immediately [AppDelegate] Cover view removed Idletimer canceled ... [2025-05-20 17:02:20.217] [AppDelegate] Cover view added immediately [AppDelegate] Cover view removed Idletimer canceled ... [2025-05-20 17:02:23.017] [AppDelegate] Cover view added immediately [AppDelegate] Cover view removed Idletimer canceled ... [2025-05-20 17:02:25.304] [AppDelegate] Cover view added immediately [AppDelegate] Cover view removed Idletimer canceled ... [2025-05-20 17:02:27.719] [AppDelegate] Cover view added immediately [AppDelegate] Cover view removed Even when the screenblur is not happening we see this log "[AppDelegate] Cover view added immediately"

@DTS Engineer @darkpaw , Any info on this behaviour. And a new observation is that the issue is intermittent in iphone15 , and its continuously seen in iphone14. Any point to focus on?

we have put logs at the entry of applicationWillResignActive and also at the exit of the code. Those logs are always getting , but the blur code in between the logs is not working. We have a doubt that applicationWillResignActive is called but the UI part is not being executed or is dismissed by OS for other priority activities. Is this is expected behaviour or are we missing anything here?

We have tried with log statements. Even during the issue we are able to see the logs in applicationWillResignActive. applicationWillResignActive is being called everytime but the blur view is not shown everytime. Any reason that the UI work is not being done?

@DTS Engineer @darkpaw Here is the sample code // Add the view to window -(void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application { _coverView = [[UIView alloc]initWithFrame:[self.window frame]]; _coverView.backgroundColor =[UIColor blackColor]; [self.window addSubview:_coverView]; window.bringSubviewToFront(blurView); } // Remove the view to window - (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application { if(_coverView != nil) { [_coverView removeFromSuperview]; _coverView = nil; } } And the issue is not seen in sample application. The issue is intermittent in my main application that too only after logging into the application.