Apple Watch to revive widgets, which could be good for Wear OS

Ben Schoon | May 1 2023 - 1:01 pm PT

Since its inception, Apple’s WatchOS for the Apple Watch has had a pretty consistent core. A focus on apps with notifications, fitness, and other features surrounding it. With the upcoming release of watchOS 10, though, it sounds like Apple is going to be adopting an experience a lot more similar to Google’s Wear OS 3.

As reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman this past weekend, Apple is working on a redesign of its watchOS platform for the Apple Watch. This tenth iteration of the platform is said to have “notable changes” from existing versions, particularly with a focus on widgets over apps. Mark Gurman explained:

The plan is to let users scroll through a series of different widgets — for activity tracking, weather, stock tickers, calendar appointments and more — rather than having them launch apps.

This would work with any watch face, and work much like widget stacks on iOS for phones. Accessing widgets, apparently, would take the place of the “click” of the Digital Crown on the side of the device. That action is currently mapped to the app drawer, so this is certainly a radical shift for the experience.

Gurman illustrated the functionality on Twitter, and 9to5Mac has a further breakdown of what’s coming.

https://t.co/2UFGI17khP https://t.co/uCw0TO072w pic.twitter.com/RTSyWLCirl
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 30, 2023

And, really, this feels much like the current interface of Google’s Wear OS 3.

In Wear OS as it exists today, the watch face has widgets – called “Tiles” – to either the left or right in a rotating list that’s customizable by the user. Widgets include glanceable or actionable information that includes weather, stock tickers, calendars, and more, just as Gurman reports is coming to the Apple Watch.

The main difference on Apple Watch widgets, it seems, is that these are buried beneath a button click, where on Wear OS they’re available with a swipe in either direction. On Wear OS, pressing the power button (or crown) opens the app drawer.

The other thing that Apple’s implementation will almost surely change is third-party support. While Wear OS widgets support third-party apps, it’s far from widely used. Mostly, it seems to be popular for fitness apps and first-party apps on non-Google Wear OS watches. The vast majority of third-party Wear OS apps, even new ones, ignore the feature. So, really, Apple putting more emphasis on something that Wear OS happens to already have ready to go could be good for Google’s platform in the long run.

Of course, it’s funny to look back at the fact that Apple technically had this feature first. As far back as 2014, the Apple Watch supported “Glances,” which could bring out “relevant notifications” through a custom UI for each app. But, ultimately, Apple threw in the towel on “Glances” back in watchOS 3, two years before Google introduced Tiles to older Wear OS versions.