At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for watchOS (part 1). 1. I'm really excited about the new design system on all platforms. Liquid Glass is super cool. What do developers need to keep in mind when building for watchOS 26? To adopt the new design system, start with updating your app for watchOS 10 – If you have done so, your app will be mostly ready for watchOS 26. For more information, see Design and build apps for WatchOS 10. You can then look into Liquid Glass specific APIs to fine tune your app. This topic is covered in Adopting Liquid Glass. If you have SwiftUI views using any custom style, make sure they are still legible and fit with the new design system. 2. Something that really stood out to me were updates to the Smart Stack, with the system prioritizing Widgets when they're most relevant. Tell me more about these new opportunities for apps. Workout apps that record workouts using HealthKit may be automatically suggested on the watch face and appear in the Smart Stack without adding a widget. Relevant widgets are a great way to present information related to a date, location, point-of-interest type, sleep schedule, or fitness condition in the Smart Stack when it is relevant. Relevant widgets don't need to display a empty state view when they are not relevant. They are only shown in the Smart Stack when relevant. The watchOS 26 Design ToolKit in the Apple Design Resources includes a set of templates that you can use to layout your widgets. 3. Is the Wrist Flick gesture available to developers in the same way as Double Tap is? The system uses Wrist Flick to dismiss notifications and incoming calls, silence timers and alarms, or return to the watch face. There is no separate API for the Wrist Flick gesture. Apps that are using XCUIAutomation to make sure their user interface behaves as intended can use the XCUIDeviceHandGesture.flick to automate tests that verify that their app responds appropriately to the Wrist Flick gesture. For apps using automated testing, the XCUIDeviceHandGesture.doubleTap can be also be used to automate testing of the app with the Double Tap gesture. See XCUIDevice.perform(handGesture:) 4. Can HRV measurements be triggered on demand via API in watchOS? Guidelines or processes for enabling energy-intensive biometric sampling on development devices for IRB-approved research? You don’t have direct control on the sampling rate in watchOS. You can use HealthKit (HKQuantityTypeIdentifierHeartRateVariabilitySDNN, to be specific) to query the HRV data, once the system has sampled and persisted the data to HealthKit. If that doesn’t help, we suggest that you file a feedback report with your concrete use case for us to investigate. Specific to IRB-approved research using Apple Watch or its companion iPhone, you might want to look at this FAQ and SensorKit to see if they can be of any help. 5. What is the best advice for someone who is new to making a watchOS app that’s been on iOS and iPadOS? You can start with exploring the system experience features on watchOS, such as notifications, controls, and widgets, and getting familiar with the system spaces, like Smart Stack, watch face, and control center. Knowing the watchOS app design principles and practices is important as well. Design and build apps for WatchOS 10 is a great resource for this topic. SwiftUI is an amazing across-platform framework, and you will use it to create your watchOS app. If you're already using it, great! Keep in mind some watch-only constraints. Comparing to iPhone or iPad, Apple Watch has a limited battery and smaller screen size, which significantly impacts how people use your app and how your app works. 6. Was there any extension this year to the 7 day limit on querying Apple Health data on the watch? There is no change on the limit this year. You can get this official limit at runtime using earliestPermittedSampleDate. There are some exceptions, and so don't be surprised if you see some data types are retained longer. The companion iPhone holds the full set of the health data. If you need to access the health data that has been purged from the Apple Watch, consider doing it with your iOS app, and then passing the result to your watchOS app.

At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for watchOS (part 2). 7. For widget (complication) update budgets, is there an overall budget or are scheduled update separate from APNS updates? For context I have a complication that is updated on a fixed schedule (every 20 min), but there can be times of the day that are more "interesting" where pushes make sense. Like timeline updates, the system budgets WidgetKit push notifications and delivers them opportunistically. You can use WidgetKit push notification updates as an addition to timeline updates. For more information, see Updating widgets with WidgetKit push notifications. 8. It seems like the new Control Center widgets can be sourced from either the iPhone or directly on the Watch. Can we control whether a control appears in the watch list, or will it always be a combination of all controls from both sources? iPhone controls will be automatically available on the companion Apple Watch, even if they don’t have an associated watchOS app. When an iPhone control is tapped on the Apple Watch, the action is performed on the iPhone. Controls whose actions foreground the iOS app will not appear on Apple Watch. If a watchOS app has controls, no controls will appear on Apple Watch from the companion iOS app. 9. From UI/UX perspective, what are the current practices for Designing watchOS apps that feels native. The WWDC23 session Design and build apps for WatchOS 10 covers the details of watchOS design principles and how to apply them in your app using SwiftUI. A lot of SwiftUI APIs, such as NavigationSplitView, vertical tab view, list view, and etc, already implement the look and feel native to watchOS. 10. When adopting the new design system on watchOS, it seems like the main place we will use the glass effect is for our buttons in toolbar? Standard buttons in system apps seem to continue to use a flat appearance and full width. We leave the choice to you – You can use the new GlassButtonStyle API or .buttonStyle(.glass) to apply the liquid glass material to buttons. Learn when to use the Liquid Glass styles in Get to know the new design system. 11. Is there any way to gracefully migrate extensions when their bundleIDs have to change? e.g., converting a multi-target watch app to single-target, which drops the .watchkitextension from both the app and WidgetKit ext bundleIDs Updating a watchOS app to single-target is covered in TechNote TN3157: Updating your watchOS project for SwiftUI and WidgetKit. Xcode provides a tool that can do the update automatically, and the technote describes the details about how to use it and how to clean up the project after the automatic update. If there's something that technote doesn't address, please reach out to us on the Developer Forums. 12. What is the status of WatchConnectivity? Is that still the preferred way for iOS + watchOS communications? The Watch Connectivity framework is still supported, and is appropriate for the communication between an watchOS app and its companion iOS app. The systems also provide other APIs for the apps to exchange data. For example, watchOS supports Apple Push Notification service (APNs). If data for your widget changes on your server, your widget can receive a WidgetKit push notification, and update accordingly. That’s the preferred mechanism for widget updates.

I’m blocked debugging a watchOS app on a physical Apple Watch. The iPhone connects to Xcode normally (wired), but the Watch either fails to connect with a tunnel timeout or disappears entirely from Xcode after I unpaired it inside Devices & Simulators. Environment Mac: macOS 26.x (Apple Silicon Mac) Xcode: 26.2 iPhone: iOS 26.1 Apple Watch Ultra: watchOS 26.2 (build 23S303) Connection: iPhone connected to Mac via USB (trusted). Watch paired to iPhone and working normally in the Watch app. Issue A (when Watch is visible in Xcode) In Xcode → Window → Devices and Simulators, the Watch shows up but is not usable and fails to connect. Error: “Previous preparation error: A connection to this device could not be established.” “Timed out while attempting to establish tunnel using negotiated network parameters.” In some attempts the Watch shows “Capacity: Unknown” / limited details, and then fails during preparation. Issue B (after unpairing Watch in Xcode only) I unpaired/removed the Watch in Xcode (Devices & Simulators). I did not unpair the Watch from the iPhone. Now: iPhone appears in Xcode and works normally for builds. Watch is still paired to the iPhone and works normally. Watch no longer appears anywhere in Xcode Devices & Simulators (no paired watch section, no watch run destination). What I’ve tried Reboots of Mac, iPhone, Watch (multiple times) Watch unlocked, awake; iPhone unlocked and close to Watch Verified Watch is paired and connected in iPhone Watch app Developer Mode enabled on iPhone and Watch Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ON (Mac/iPhone/Watch), tried toggling both Tried on home Wi-Fi and also with iPhone hotspot (same result) Resetting trust prompts / reconnecting iPhone via USB, re-trusting Mac Apple Watch: “Clear Trusted Computers” Xcode: removing/re-adding devices; clearing derived data; restarting Xcode Watch Developer networking test: Responsiveness = Medium (430 RPM) Questions 1. Is this a known issue/regression with Xcode 26.2 + watchOS 26.2 tunneling (CoreDevice / devicectl)? 2. Is there an Apple-supported way to force Xcode to re-discover a paired Watch after it was removed from Xcode Devices & Simulators (without unpairing the Watch from the iPhone)? 3. Any recommended logs or diagnostic steps I should collect (Console logs, sysdiagnose, specific Xcode/CoreDevice logs) to include in a Feedback report? If helpful, I can provide the full error text from Xcode’s Devices window and any logs you recommend. Thank you in advance,

I’m building a standalone Apple Watch metronome app for running. My goal is for these 3 apps to work at the same time: Runna owns the workout session Spotify plays music my app plays a metronome click in the background So far this is what I've found: Using HKWorkout​Session in my metronome app works well with Spotify, but conflicts with Runna and other workout apps, so I removed that. Using watchOS background audio with longFormAudio allows my app run in the background, and it can coexist with Runna. However, it seems to conflict with Spotify playback, and one app tends to stop the other. Is there any supported watchOS audio/background configuration that allows all 3 at once? More specifically this is what I need: another app owns HKWorkout​Session Spotify keeps playing my app keeps generating metronome clicks in the background Or is this simply not supported by current watchOS session/background rules? My metronome uses AVAudio​Engine / AVAudio​Player​Node with generated click audio. Thank you!

In the WWDC 2019 session "Extended Runtime for WatchOS apps" the video talks about an entitlement being required to use the HR sensor judiciously in the background. It provides a link to request the entitlement which no longer works: http://developer.apple.com/contect/request/health-monitoring The session video is also quite hard to find these days. Does anyone know why this is the case? Is the API and entitlement still available? Is there a supported way to run, even periodically, in the background on the Watch app (ignoring the background observer route which is known to be unreliable) and access existing HR sensor data

I have a watchOS WidgetKit complication that needs the user's location to show the nearest transit station, but the widget never gets location permission and CLLocationManager times out. Setup: NSWidgetWantsLocation = YES in Widget Extension's Info.plist NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription and NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription in Widget Extension's Info.plist Watch App successfully has location authorization Problem: The system never presents a location permission prompt for my widget. Apple's own World Clock widget does get one on watchOS (see screenshot) — I can't figure out what triggers it. When the widget tries to get location via CLLocationManager, the request times out and never returns a location. Questions: What triggers the system location prompt for a watchOS widget? Is NSWidgetWantsLocation sufficient or is something else required? Why would CLLocationManager time out and never return a location inside a widget extension? Is there a specific pattern required for requesting location in a WidgetKit timeline provider? Screenshots Sorry for swedish, but it says "Do you allow widgets from World Clock to use your location services?"

The second time i start a workout session, the beginCollection instance method on HKLiveWorkoutBuilder freezes. To recreate run the Apple Sample Project Building a multidevice workout app. It looks like a bug with the HealthKit SDK and not the code but i could be wrong. The only workaround i found was erasing the simulator and reinstalling the app.

Our watchOS App isn't opened when tapping on a Live Activity. Added the following to our Info.plist and still get the Open on iPhone option. <key>WKSupportsLiveActivityLaunchAttributeTypes</key> <array/> Is there something else we need to configure?

Our watchOS app is exploring adding audio VOIP calling capability using our in-home platform. We are using LiveCommunicationKit for this and have that all hooked up nicely in a proof of concept implementation. Our use case is primarily based around supporting end-users through various tasks with assistance from a remotely based expert. We would like for our platform to be able to display visual content on the watch's screen during the call – in other words, we would like to be able to treat this as a video call. LiveCommunicationKit fully supports all video-related flags on watchOS and doesn't appear to have any different symbol availability versus its iOS version. This high-quality thread (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/798090) from a DTS engineer suggests that our use case should be valid (i.e. whiteboarding apps) and that the system's response to an accepted income video call is to dismiss the LCK's incoming call screen and bring the target app to the foreground, allowing it to render its custom content. Unfortunately, on watchOS the system doesn't seem to treat a video call any differently from an audio call, and won't dismiss the system UI once it's answered. We fully realize that Apple Watch doesn't have a camera for outbound video, doesn't support VideoToolbox or other low-level video convenience libraries for simplified rendering and decoding, etc. That's not what we're worried about (yet). The documentation is at best unclear about whether LCK (or CallKit, for that matter) can hand off calls flagged as video-compatible according to how we think they should, which is passing foreground UI over to the app once the call has been accepted by the user. Can any Apple people shed some light on this? I recognize we are probably trying to do something not many people have before.

Hello, I am trying to upload a watchOS standalone app to App Store Connect using Xcode 26.3, but Organizer does not show the “App Store Connect” upload option. It only displays: • Release Testing (Ad Hoc) • Enterprise • Debugging Project setup • Target type: watchOS App (standalone, not companion) • PRODUCT_TYPE = com.apple.product-type.application • PRODUCT_BUNDLE_PACKAGE_TYPE = APPL • WRAPPER_EXTENSION = app • SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS = watchos watchsimulator • Archive configuration: Release • Base SDK: watchOS The app does not depend on iOS. Bundle ID Originally: com.example.app.watchkitapp Recreated as: com.example.app HealthKit capability enabled in: • Developer Portal • Xcode (Signing & Capabilities) Signing • Apple Distribution certificate active • App Store provisioning profile created • Manual signing configured for Release (Apple Distribution + App Store profile) • Also tested Automatic signing • Deleted old Ad Hoc profiles • Cleared Derived Data and regenerated archive App Store Connect • App created successfully using bundle ID com.example.app • Account role: Account Holder • No pending Agreements, Tax, or Banking items Despite a valid Release archive signed with Apple Distribution, Organizer only allows Ad Hoc distribution and never shows “App Store Connect”. Is this a known issue in Xcode 26 affecting independent watchOS apps, or is there an additional configuration step required? Thank you.

A watchOS widget requires you set a container background: .containerBackground(for: .widget) { Color.black } But I see some .accessoryRectangular widgets, on the Smart Stack, using a glass background. From what I know there is no way to set this using .containerBackground. Does anyone know how to do this? Thank you

Hello, everyone! I'm seeking some guidance on the App Store review process and technical best practices for a watchOS app. My goal is to create an app that uses HealthKit to continuously monitor a user's heart rate in the background for sessions lasting between 30 minutes and 3 hours. This app would not be a fitness or workout tracker. My primary question is about the best way to achieve this reliably while staying within the App Store Review Guidelines. Is it advisable to use the WorkoutKit framework to start a custom, non-fitness "session" for the purpose of continuous background monitoring? Are there any other recommended APIs or frameworks for this kind of background data collection on watchOS that I should be aware of? What are the key review considerations I should be mindful of, particularly regarding Guideline 4.1 (Design) and the intended use of APIs? My app's core functionality would require this kind of data for a beneficial purpose. I want to ensure my approach is technically sound and has the best chance of a successful review. Any insights or advice from developers who have experience with similar use cases would be incredibly helpful! Thank you!

Hi there, I’ve been having ongoing issues with my Apple Watch. Last week I updated it to watchOS 26.3. The next day it accidentally ran out of battery, and since then it has been randomly restarting, showing an overheating message. I suspected it might be related to the update, so I researched online and on the official Apple forums. People recommended resetting the Apple Watch and unpairing it from my iPhone. I did both procedures, but the problem persists, even when the watch is in a cool environment. I’ve been using it normally, but it still restarts multiple times a day. Yesterday I even updated to the public beta of watchOS 26.4 hoping it would fix the issue, but it didn’t help — the random restarting continues. Today I also unpaired and paired it again with my iPhone, and the problem is still happening. This has been very disruptive and frustrating. I’m following up on my previous message because I’ve found additional diagnostic information that may help identify the cause of the issue. I accessed the Apple Watch analytics logs and noticed that the restarts appear to be associated with a system process crash, specifically the ActivityMonitorApp (com.apple.ActivityMonitorApp). The log shows an EXC_RESOURCE exception with subtype MEMORY and the message “(Limit 35 MB) Crossed High Water Mark.” Based on this, it seems the system process exceeded its memory limit and was terminated by the system. This happens shortly before the watch displays the overheating icon and restarts. This makes me suspect the overheating warning may not be caused by actual temperature, but instead may be related to a software or system issue introduced after the watchOS update. For reference, the watch is currently running: watchOS 26.4 (build 23T5209m) I’d also like to share that I’ve performed some additional troubleshooting steps to help isolate the issue. Based on the crash logs referencing the ActivityMonitorApp, I removed the Activity rings complication from my main watch face and disabled Activity app notifications as well. I’ll be monitoring the watch closely today to see if this resolves the issue. If the restarts happen again, I will also try to capture additional logs to provide you with more information.

.navigationDestination(isPresented) hangs after reboot (when called within 2 minutes of reboot) in watchOS when destination view contains @Environment(.dismiss). Feedback: FB21077151 Second button hangs after reboot. Hangs in watchOS 26.0 and 26.4 on a physical device. struct ContentView: View { @State var presentView1 : Bool = false @State var presentView2 : Bool = false var body: some View { NavigationStack { VStack { Button("Show View 1") { presentView1.toggle() } Button("Show View 2") { presentView2.toggle() } } .navigationDestination(isPresented: $presentView1, destination: {TestView1()}) .navigationDestination(isPresented: $presentView2, destination: {TestView2()}) } } } struct TestView1: View { var body: some View { Text("View 1") } } struct TestView2: View { @Environment(\.dismiss) var dismiss var body: some View { Text("View 2") } }

I am trying to develop a Watch and iOS app as companion. It is beyond stupid how I can not keep the watch connected to Xcode to develop. I have tried all the so-called tricks. Why is this so fragile? The phone is USB connected to my Mac I have tried turning off the wifi on my Mac and have the phone and watch on the same network. Nada I have tried just having everything on the same network. The watch is connected maybe 20% of the time. I have tried creating a hotspot network with my phone. The watch is connected maybe 50% of the time. This is truly an awful experience. Am I doing something wrong? Any advice would be grateful.

Hey all, I am a first time publisher navigating the App Review process. I want to publish a watchOS only app, but keep getting this feedback: Regarding 4.0, Apple Watch app icon's background color is still black. Based on our investigation, you have included plain black icons. To resolve this issue, it would be appropriate to modify your app's Apple Watch app icon to include a lighter background color to ensure that it is recognizable and appears circular on Apple Watch. I set the following configs: Project -> Targets -> Apple Watch App -> App Icons & Launch Screen -> App Icon set to my Icon Composer file. Checked App Icons Source. I was able to install my build through TestFlight and successfully install on my watch, and the App Icon displays properly there. I also saw a recent Reddit post from another developer facing the same issue. I can't link that post, but will share this post with the OP. I attached what the reviewer sent me with the rejection.

Hey, I am looking to participate in the upcoming SSC 2026. I am confused whether I am allowed to submit an idea which is for watchOS. I know the fact that submission would be xcode project and playground correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know, we can develop prototypes for watch on playground. If anyone of you knows about this, please let me know!

I'm currently using Swift to write an independent Apple Watch app for watchOS 7+. My app uses Location Services, and in case the user doesn't allow that at first, I'd like to have a button inside my watchOS app to send my user to the part of the Settings app (inside watchOS) where he can give the appropriate permissions for the app. I know that in iOS/macOS you can use the openSettingsURLString string from UIApplication to do what I want, but it's not available in watchOS and I haven't found any equivalent resource inside the WKExtension class (normally the equivalent for UIApplication in the watchOS environment). Does anyone know if there's any way to programatically open the Apple Watch Settings app from my watchOS app? I'm asking since as far as I understand asking for Location permissions again would not work since the user has already refused to allow the permissions before, making the authorization status "denied". I understand as well that there's the possibility of showing a modal and directing the user to go to Settings and allow the use of location services (as in "Please go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > [AppName] to allow the use of location services") but I'd like if I could direct the user there instead as one might do in iOS. The code below is what I'm trying to do - but (of course) it crashes since I'm not actually passing any system URL. .alert(isPresented: $alertVisible) { Alert (title: Text("Please allow our app to use location services in order to get Weather Data"), message: Text("Go to Settings?"), primaryButton: .default(Text("Settings"), action: { WKExtension.shared().openSystemURL(URL(string: "")!) //UIApplication.shared.open(URL(string: UIApplication.openSettingsURLString)!) }),

I had a Watch-only app on the AppStore, and decided to add an iOS companion app now. Technically this was very easy, adding just an according target to my project. TestFlight tests where successful, IAPs remained valid for the whole setup etc., watch app could remain standalone as well -- so everything looked "Go" for release. But now customers that already previously downloaded the watch app just see "Purchased" in the AppStore for the app, and they neither automatically get the iOS companion through the update process, nor can they force a download (as there is no cloud icon to explicitly do so -- just the greyed-out "Purchased" button). The watch app updates automatically to the new version, but it seems impossible to initiate the iOS app download. The initial download of the watch-only app also doesn't show up in their list of purchases/download (only on the watch AppStore app, but from there, the iOS app won't be forced to install either). Did anyone face this also and can recommend a solution that can be communicated to affected (i.e. all so far...) customers?

I've ran into an error with the insertRouteData function of the HKWorkoutRouteBuilder that I can't seem to find any information on. The error is "Unable to find location series 1A193D3B-AFF5-41D8-A967-B1BE08D9F543 during data insert.". It seems to only happen when trying to insert very long routes, in the most recent case it was a 5 hour bike ride with 5900 samples. I save all the route data in a sqlite table as backup and after checking out the data there isn't any red flags as to why it would not insert correctly. Has anyone seen this before and could offer some insight or point me in the right direction to find the source of the error?