WatchOS 3 and Next tvOS Announced, Release Set for Fall 2016

WatchOS 3 and the next version of tvOS have been announced by Apple as the next major system software updates for Apple Watch and Apple TV.

WatchOS 3 Overview

The next version of WatchOS offers a variety of new features, and is intended to offer dramatically improved performance which is said to be 7x faster in WatchOS 3 compared to existing WatchOS versions.

There are a variety of design changes offered in WatchOS 3 as well, including a Dock that functions as an app switcher, and Control Center, which is a bit like the same feature in iOS.

An intelligent handwriting recognition feature called Scribble translates what you write on the screen to text, making it easier to communicate with the Apple Watch.

Several new Watch faces are also available, including an Activity face, a Minnie Mouse face (Mickie is happy about that), a new Numerals minimalist watch face, and some minor changes to existing faces as well.

There’s also a new emergency orientated feature called SOS, which dials 911 (or whatever the local emergency number is) directly from the Apple Watch, offers Medical ID information, and then shares your current location and an emergency message to some predefined contacts.

Activity and Health apps have also gotten a variety of enhancements and updates, including optimizations for wheel chair users, activity sharing abilities, and yoga deep breathing exercising for stress reduction.

Perhaps the best aspect of WatchOS 3 is that it offers the huge performance boost without requiring new hardware (though a new Apple Watch is certainly on schedule later in the year).

WatchOS 3 will be released this fall, likely alongside the next version of Mac OS Sierra system software, iOS 10, and tvOS.

tvOS 10 Overview

The next version of tvOS for Apple TV was also unveiled today at WWDC 2016, and it features a variety of new features, enhancements to existing abilities, and a new dark mode interface.

Remote app for iPhone which offers all of the same features of the Siri remote, including touch navigation and Siri functionality.

Single Sign-on allows you to log into every channel through a single unified form rather than going through every app and individually logging in to each.

Dark Mode offers a darker user interface experience, and there are a variety of other improvements offered for live streaming and new apps too.

The next major version of tvOS will debut in the fall, alongside iOS 10, watchOS 3, and MacOS Sierra.