What’s new in watchOS 5?

Welcome to the next evolution of Apple Watch.

watchOS 5 brings some awesome new features and improvements to Apple Watch, including activity challenges, automatic workout tracking, walkie-talkie, and more. Here's a quick breakdown of everything that's new and changed in watchOS 5!

• How to download watchOS 5

  Activity

• Challenge any of your Activity-sharing friends to a head-to-head, 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

Apple Podcasts

• Sync subscribed shows on Apple Podcasts to Apple Watch for local playback
• 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 a mobile network
• New Podcasts complication for watch faces

WaIkie-TaIkie

• Invite friends with Apple Watch to communicate with Walkie-Talkie
• Press to talk and release to listen
• Set your availability for Walkie-Talkie
• Walkie-Talkie works over Wi-Fi or a mobile network on Apple Watch or with a paired iPhone

Read: How to use Walkie-Talkie app for Apple Watch

Siri

• Updated Siri watch face intelligently shows 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 are shown 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

• Read: What's new for Siri in watchOS 5

• Read: Getting started with Apple's new Shortcuts app

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

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 the Weather app on Apple Watch
• See new metrics like UV Index, wind speed and air quality index in supported regions in the 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 the Settings app and enter a password if prompted
  • Answer FaceTime video calls as audio on Apple Watch
  • Option to install software updates overnight
• Add cities to the 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 Some features may not be available in all countries or all areas.

Any features I've missed?

Found anything cool about watchOS 5 that I've missed? Drop it in the comments.