watchOS 9 Concept Ideas

The Apple Watch’s latest software update, watchOS 8, official released to the public a little over half a year ago, on the 20th of September 2021, after previewing at WWDC earlier that summer. Now, there’s supposedly only a few months to go until Apple showcases their watchOS version, watchOS 9.

The Apple Watch is a feature-rich device.

WatchOS 8 gave us changes like new workout types, Focus, a new mindfulness app, improved Wallet integration, and more. This adds onto 7 previous iterations of the Apple Watch’s software.

However, there are still features we would like to see introduced in the next major Apple Watch update. Mainly, detailed Sleep Tracking is something we’d like to see Apple introduce, more than they have already.

Detailed sleep tracking could provide information on movements during the night, sleep talking, blood oxygen during the night, more precise sleep phases, etc. There is plenty the watch still doesn’t give us, and hopefully watchOS 9 can bring more information to light in regards to sleep tracking.

New watch-faces are a regular appearance in every watchOS version change. We can expect Apple to bring out a couple new watch faces, and maybe some extra one for the new Apple Watch Series 8, to make use of the thinner bezels around the gorgeous new 41mm and 45mm displays. Real-world, this means more complications on the screen, so more of your core information at one quick glance.

More-so, we’d appreciate Apple bringing full support for third-party watch faces in watchOS 9. While there are already ways to get third-party complications onto your Apple Watch, this process is not facilitated in any way by Apple. We believe Apple officially inviting Apple Watch developers and designers to create watch faces would bring many new interesting additions.

While we doubt that watchOS 9 could bring any major new health tracking capabilities, since it is a software update, we still have a few things left to look forward to. Since we are sharing ideas, it would be interesting to see Apple come up with a new “home” design for the Apple Watch. What this means is that Apple could introduce a new “CarPlay-like” app arrangement to show all of your apps. We sometimes find the globe view too messy to pinch while moving, and the list view could be a problem for users who download apps to their Apple Watches extensively. If you’re a pro user, feel free to check out these well-reviewed Apple Watch bands on Amazon.

WatchOS 9 is set for release sometime mid to late September 2022. It will be a free software update to all Apple Watches equal to or newer than the Apple Watch Series 4 and SE (sorry Series 3).

What would you like to see in watchOS 9?