watchOS 5 for Apple Watch now available with fitness upgrades and Walkie-Talkie apps, much more

Apple today released watchOS 5, the newest version of the operating system designed to run on the Apple Watch Series 1 and later.

watchOS 5 brings Apple’s Podcasts app to the watch for the first time, improves the Siri watch face and brings new element and Breathe watch faces, a new Walkie-Talkie app for watch-to-watch communication, and much more.

When you upgrade to watchOS 5, you’ll get the following new features:

Activity

• Challenge any of your Activity sharing friends to a one-on-one, seven-day competition
• Earn points by filling your Activity rings, one point for every percent added to the rings each day
• View active competitions in the sharing tab of the Activity app
• Receive intelligent and personalized notifications throughout the competitions
• Earn awards at the end of the competition, and view in the redesigned Awards tab in the Activity app on iPhone

Workout

• Automatic workout detection sends alerts to start the Workout app for many workouts, giving you retroactive credit for exercise already started, and end alerts reminding you to end your workout
• Yoga and Hiking workout types for accurate tracking of relevant metrics
• Set target pace during outdoor run workouts and receive alerts if you fall behind or move ahead of that target pace
• Track cadence, or steps per minute, as you run and see average cadence in running Workout summaries
• Rolling mile (or km) metric for running workouts measures pace for the immediately preceding mile (or km)

Apple Podcasts

• Sync subscribed shows on Apple Podcasts to Apple Watch for local playback with Bluetooth headphones
• New episodes are automatically refreshed as they are added to subscribed shows
• Stream any available episode or show on Apple Podcasts with Siri when connected to Wi-Fi or cellular
• New Podcasts complication for watch faces

Walkie-Talkie

• Invite friends with Apple Watch to communicate with Walkie-Talkie
• Press to talk and release to listen
• Supports one-to-one interactions between Apple Watch users
• Special sounds and haptics distinguish Walkie-Talkie from other notifications on Apple Watch
• Set your availability for Walkie-Talkie
• Walkie-Talkie works through Wi-Fi or cellular on Apple Watch or with paired iPhone

Watch Faces

• Breathe face with three animation styles to choose from: Classic, Calm, and Focus
• Three new motion faces—Fire & Water, Vapor, and Liquid Metal—that animate when you raise your wrist or tap the display
• Display curated moments from your photo library using the Memories option on the Photos watch face
• New complications for Podcasts and Walkie-Talkie

Siri

• Updated Siri watch face intelligently surfaces predictive and proactive Shortcuts based on routines and inputs like location and time of day
• Integration with Maps on the Siri watch face shows turn-by-turn directions and estimated arrival times to your next calendar event location
• Heart Rate measurements surfaced on the Siri watch face including resting rate, walking average, and recovery rate
• Live sports scores and upcoming games for your favorite teams in the TV app appear on the Siri watch face
• Support for third-party app shortcuts on the Siri watch face
• Access to Siri with Raise to Speak, by raising your wrist to your mouth and speaking your request into the watch (Series 3 and later)
• Support for customized voice commands for Siri Shortcuts that are created and managed on iPhone

Notifications

• Notifications from the same app are automatically grouped together to help you manage your notifications
• Ability to modify notifications preferences for an app by swiping left on an app notification in Notification Center
• New Deliver Quietly option silently sends notifications directly to Notification Center without interrupting you
• Turn off Do Not Disturb after a set time, location or calendar event

Heart Rate

• Option to be notified if your heart rate falls below a specified threshold while you appeared to be inactive for a 10-minute period
• Heart Rate measurements including resting rate, walking average, and recovery rate shown on the Siri watch face

Other features and improvements

• View website content optimized for Apple Watch when receiving links in Mail or Messages
• Add cities to Weather app on Apple Watch
• See new metrics like UV Index, wind speed, and air quality index in supported regions in Weather app
• Add new stocks to track in the Stocks app on Apple Watch
• Customize arrangement of Control Center icons
• Choose Wi-Fi networks in Settings app and enter password if prompted
• Answer FaceTime video calls as audio on Apple Watch
• Option to install software updates overnight
• Add cities to World Clock app on Apple Watch
• Use redesigned categories to scroll through and choose emoji in Mail and Messages
• Adds support for system language in Hindi