At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for watchOS (part 1). 1. I'm really excited about the new design system on all platforms. Liquid Glass is super cool. What do developers need to keep in mind when building for watchOS 26? To adopt the new design system, start with updating your app for watchOS 10 – If you have done so, your app will be mostly ready for watchOS 26. For more information, see Design and build apps for WatchOS 10. You can then look into Liquid Glass specific APIs to fine tune your app. This topic is covered in Adopting Liquid Glass. If you have SwiftUI views using any custom style, make sure they are still legible and fit with the new design system. 2. Something that really stood out to me were updates to the Smart Stack, with the system prioritizing Widgets when they're most relevant. Tell me more about these new opportunities for apps. Workout apps that record workouts using HealthKit may be automatically suggested on the watch face and appear in the Smart Stack without adding a widget. Relevant widgets are a great way to present information related to a date, location, point-of-interest type, sleep schedule, or fitness condition in the Smart Stack when it is relevant. Relevant widgets don't need to display a empty state view when they are not relevant. They are only shown in the Smart Stack when relevant. The watchOS 26 Design ToolKit in the Apple Design Resources includes a set of templates that you can use to layout your widgets. 3. Is the Wrist Flick gesture available to developers in the same way as Double Tap is? The system uses Wrist Flick to dismiss notifications and incoming calls, silence timers and alarms, or return to the watch face. There is no separate API for the Wrist Flick gesture. Apps that are using XCUIAutomation to make sure their user interface behaves as intended can use the XCUIDeviceHandGesture.flick to automate tests that verify that their app responds appropriately to the Wrist Flick gesture. For apps using automated testing, the XCUIDeviceHandGesture.doubleTap can be also be used to automate testing of the app with the Double Tap gesture. See XCUIDevice.perform(handGesture:) 4. Can HRV measurements be triggered on demand via API in watchOS? Guidelines or processes for enabling energy-intensive biometric sampling on development devices for IRB-approved research? You don’t have direct control on the sampling rate in watchOS. You can use HealthKit (HKQuantityTypeIdentifierHeartRateVariabilitySDNN, to be specific) to query the HRV data, once the system has sampled and persisted the data to HealthKit. If that doesn’t help, we suggest that you file a feedback report with your concrete use case for us to investigate. Specific to IRB-approved research using Apple Watch or its companion iPhone, you might want to look at this FAQ and SensorKit to see if they can be of any help. 5. What is the best advice for someone who is new to making a watchOS app that’s been on iOS and iPadOS? You can start with exploring the system experience features on watchOS, such as notifications, controls, and widgets, and getting familiar with the system spaces, like Smart Stack, watch face, and control center. Knowing the watchOS app design principles and practices is important as well. Design and build apps for WatchOS 10 is a great resource for this topic. SwiftUI is an amazing across-platform framework, and you will use it to create your watchOS app. If you're already using it, great! Keep in mind some watch-only constraints. Comparing to iPhone or iPad, Apple Watch has a limited battery and smaller screen size, which significantly impacts how people use your app and how your app works. 6. Was there any extension this year to the 7 day limit on querying Apple Health data on the watch? There is no change on the limit this year. You can get this official limit at runtime using earliestPermittedSampleDate. There are some exceptions, and so don't be surprised if you see some data types are retained longer. The companion iPhone holds the full set of the health data. If you need to access the health data that has been purged from the Apple Watch, consider doing it with your iOS app, and then passing the result to your watchOS app.

At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for watchOS (part 2). 7. For widget (complication) update budgets, is there an overall budget or are scheduled update separate from APNS updates? For context I have a complication that is updated on a fixed schedule (every 20 min), but there can be times of the day that are more "interesting" where pushes make sense. Like timeline updates, the system budgets WidgetKit push notifications and delivers them opportunistically. You can use WidgetKit push notification updates as an addition to timeline updates. For more information, see Updating widgets with WidgetKit push notifications. 8. It seems like the new Control Center widgets can be sourced from either the iPhone or directly on the Watch. Can we control whether a control appears in the watch list, or will it always be a combination of all controls from both sources? iPhone controls will be automatically available on the companion Apple Watch, even if they don’t have an associated watchOS app. When an iPhone control is tapped on the Apple Watch, the action is performed on the iPhone. Controls whose actions foreground the iOS app will not appear on Apple Watch. If a watchOS app has controls, no controls will appear on Apple Watch from the companion iOS app. 9. From UI/UX perspective, what are the current practices for Designing watchOS apps that feels native. The WWDC23 session Design and build apps for WatchOS 10 covers the details of watchOS design principles and how to apply them in your app using SwiftUI. A lot of SwiftUI APIs, such as NavigationSplitView, vertical tab view, list view, and etc, already implement the look and feel native to watchOS. 10. When adopting the new design system on watchOS, it seems like the main place we will use the glass effect is for our buttons in toolbar? Standard buttons in system apps seem to continue to use a flat appearance and full width. We leave the choice to you – You can use the new GlassButtonStyle API or .buttonStyle(.glass) to apply the liquid glass material to buttons. Learn when to use the Liquid Glass styles in Get to know the new design system. 11. Is there any way to gracefully migrate extensions when their bundleIDs have to change? e.g., converting a multi-target watch app to single-target, which drops the .watchkitextension from both the app and WidgetKit ext bundleIDs Updating a watchOS app to single-target is covered in TechNote TN3157: Updating your watchOS project for SwiftUI and WidgetKit. Xcode provides a tool that can do the update automatically, and the technote describes the details about how to use it and how to clean up the project after the automatic update. If there's something that technote doesn't address, please reach out to us on the Developer Forums. 12. What is the status of WatchConnectivity? Is that still the preferred way for iOS + watchOS communications? The Watch Connectivity framework is still supported, and is appropriate for the communication between an watchOS app and its companion iOS app. The systems also provide other APIs for the apps to exchange data. For example, watchOS supports Apple Push Notification service (APNs). If data for your widget changes on your server, your widget can receive a WidgetKit push notification, and update accordingly. That’s the preferred mechanism for widget updates.

Is there a known workaround (other than forking) for watchOS builds in Xcode 27 that depend on packages without a declared watchOS 9.0 floor? I depend on several Apple SPM packages with no minimum deployment target, such as https://github.com/apple/swift-algorithms. My project's minimum is 26.0. Xcode 27 will not build watchOS targets with these packages because watchOS 8.0 is below its range of supported targets. /.../SourcePackages/checkouts/swift-algorithms/Package.swift The watchOS Simulator deployment target 'WATCHOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET' is set to 8.0, but the range of supported deployment target versions is 9.0 to 27.0.x.

On watchOS 27 my app's round complication on the Infograph face disappears for about a second every time I raise or lower my wrist, then comes back. It only happens in the small round dials of that face, only when the face is set to a single color instead of Multicolor, and only when Always On Display is turned on. Everything else on the same watch is fine. my complication placed in a corner of the same face, the same face set to Multicolor, and an Apple complication sitting right next to mine. Other faces set to a single color are fine too, including in their round slots - I tested Modular and Meridian among others. With Always On Display off there is no problem either. What I already checked is: It still happens when my complication is the only one on the face. It still happens when the complication shows just a single line of plain text. The data is not being reloaded. I displayed the timestamp of the entry inside the complication and it does not change across the gap, so the same content is simply being redrawn. Removing the complication and adding it back does not help. Rebuilding with the newest Xcode changes nothing, and an older build behaves exactly the same. The same app, unchanged, worked correctly on watchOS 26. This started right after updating the watch to watchOS 27. Has anyone else run into this on watchOS 27? And has anyone found anything on the app side that makes a difference? I have not found a single thing.

I have a watchOS app on a cellular Apple Watch (Series 11, watchOS 26.6) that periodically uploads small HTTPS payloads to a backend. It needs to keep working when the paired iPhone is absent and the watch is on its own cellular connection. What I observe: Foreground, no phone, cellular: uploads work. Background, no phone, cellular-only (no Wi‑Fi): nothing uploads for hours. The instant the watch joins Wi‑Fi (app still in background): the whole backlog flushes at once via my background URLSession. My questions: Is a background URLSession transfer over cellular ever expected to run without Wi‑Fi (e.g. while charging), or is Wi‑Fi effectively required in practice? Any configuration that improves the odds? 2. During an active HKWorkoutSession (which keeps the app executing), will a high-level URLSession data task reliably complete over cellular with the phone absent? And is using a workout session to keep a non-fitness background uploader alive acceptable, or is there a sanctioned alternative? 3. Is there any other supported mechanism for periodic background cellular upload from a phoneless watch that I'm missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

TN3135 describes the exception that lets a watchOS app use low-level networking while it holds an active audio session. I have that working, and the app functions — but the network path is withdrawn and restored on a strikingly regular cycle, and I would like to know whether that is expected behaviour rather than something I am doing wrong. Setup Apple Watch Series 10 (Watch7,9), watchOS 26.5. Reproduced on a Series 6 (Watch6,2). UIBackgroundModes: [audio]; AVAudioSession category .playAndRecord, mode .spokenAudio; activated with the async activate(options:completionHandler:). NWConnection with NWProtocolWebSocket to a WebSocket relay over TLS. The app streams 16 kHz mono PCM continuously while transmitting and holds the socket open otherwise. Symptom NWPathMonitor reports .unsatisfied, then .satisfied about two seconds later, over and over. Measured with the iPhone powered off, so the watch was on its own Wi-Fi: Uptime between drops Outage 36.4 s 2.1 s 36.7 s 1.9 s 36.9 s 2.1 s The regularity is what prompts the question — uptime varies by ±0.3 s and the outage is consistently 2.0 s. That reads as a timeout expiring rather than radio behaviour. What I have ruled out Not the network or the server. A browser client on the same relay, same TLS, same wire protocol, holds a WebSocket indefinitely. Not the interface. Identical cadence over the companion ipsec1 tunnel with the iPhone present, and over the watch's own en0 with the iPhone powered off. Pinning requiredInterfaceType = .wifi while the iPhone is reachable fails outright — the path offers only ipsec1. Not audio-session interruption. I observe interruptionNotification, routeChangeNotification, mediaServicesWereResetNotification and silenceSecondaryAudioHintNotification. None fire at a drop. At the moment the path goes .unsatisfied, the engine is running and the player node is actively playing. Not session idleness. Playing continuous silence for the whole session, rather than only while reconnecting, made no difference — still 36.4 s. The control that surprised me To test whether this affects any long-lived watch socket or only audio-unlocked ones, I built a second app with no AVAudioSession at all, no audio background mode, holding a URLSessionWebSocketTask and kept alive by a WKExtendedRuntimeSession so screen sleep was not a factor. It never connected. NWPathMonitor reported .unsatisfied once and never changed, across a 30 s run, and every request failed with "The Internet connection appears to be offline." I had expected URLSession to be permitted regardless. Questions Does the audio-session networking exception in TN3135 have a defined lifetime, and is a periodic revoke/re-grant cycle expected? If so, is there a supported way to hold it continuously — or is the correct design simply to expect the interruption and reconnect through it? Is it expected that an app with no audio session gets no network path at all on watchOS, including via URLSession, even in the foreground with an extended runtime session?

HI, I have an issue displaying SwiftUI previews with Xcode 14. My project has iOS and an watchOS Target. It also includes a lot of SPM, most of them only used by the PhoneApp. The project build successfully for both iOS and watchOS. I can see that when building the watch target, only SPM that are included in this target are build for for watchOS The issue is when I try to build a swiftUI preview of the watch target. In this case I can see on the build for Preview log that Xcode try to build ALL spm defined in the Xcode project, including the one that are not used by the watch Target, As a lot if spm are for iOS only, and doesn't build for watchOS, the build for preview fails, and I'm unable to preview my swiftUI views on the AppeWatch. Note that my project is working fine on Xcode 13. This issue is easy to reproduce in any Xcode projects containing a iOS and watchOS target by adding a SPM that is only for iOS. Any workaround to fix this issue ?

Filed as FB24619522 — sysdiagnoses from both devices and the live logs are attached to the report. We ship WidgetKit complications, and on the watchOS 27 betas (24R5360a, paired with iOS 27 24A5430a) they die every time the app gets updated while they're on the active face. Within seconds they turn into empty placeholders and never come back on their own — opening the app, switching faces or reloading timelines from the app does nothing. The watch logs show the extension being killed during the install (normal), and after that watchOS simply can't launch the new copy any more: runningboardd: <OSLaunchdJob | handle=…>: start succeeded, info=spawn failed, error=111: Invalid or missing Program/ProgramArguments chronod(ChronoKit): Reload failed; 0 retries remaining: … "Unknown extension process" Only two things fix it, and both restart chronod: rebooting the watch, or switching the watch language and back (iPhone › Watch app › General › Language & Region, then give it a couple of minutes). Our second extension in the same bundle, which wasn't running during the install, came back fine — so this looks like an OS bug rather than something we can work around in code. iOS 27 widgets seem to have the same problem (this thread, and iPhone in Canada wrote it up on beta 4), and someone posted the identical log lines back in March. FB24619522 — the full story, both sysdiagnoses and the live logs are in the Feedback.

While testing the watchOS 27 beta, I noticed that the standalone Walkie-Talkie app has been removed from the system. Walkie-Talkie has always been a great, lightweight way to stay connected. Much like Digital Touch, it’s one of those quick, low-friction features that makes the watch feel uniquely personal for communication throughout the day. I am really hoping its absence is just a temporary beta omission rather than a permanent retirement of the feature. I have already submitted a request via Feedback Assistant asking the engineering team to consider keeping it in the final release. If you also rely on this app for quick wrist-to-wrist updates, I highly recommend submitting your own feedback ticket to let the team know there is still an active user base for it. (FB23040695) Has anyone else ran into this or found an official note from Apple regarding its removal in the release notes? Hopefully, we will see it return before the public release this fall. Over and out!

I have both apple devices, AirPods Pro 3 is up to date and Ultra 3 is on watch os 26.1 latest public beta. Each morning when I would go on my mindfulness app and start a meditation or listen to Apple Music on my watch and AirPods Pro 3, it will play for a few seconds then disconnects. My bluetooth settings on my watch says my AirPods is connected to my watch. I also have removed the tick about connecting automatically to iPhone on the AirPods setting in my iPhone. To fix this I invariably turn off my Apple Watch Ultra 3 and turn it on again. Then the connection becomes stable. I am not sure why I have to do this each morning. It is frustrating. I am not sure why this fix does not last long? Is there something wrong with my AirPods? Has anyone encountered this before?

Hello, I am trying to upload a watchOS standalone app to App Store Connect using Xcode 26.3, but Organizer does not show the “App Store Connect” upload option. It only displays: • Release Testing (Ad Hoc) • Enterprise • Debugging Project setup • Target type: watchOS App (standalone, not companion) • PRODUCT_TYPE = com.apple.product-type.application • PRODUCT_BUNDLE_PACKAGE_TYPE = APPL • WRAPPER_EXTENSION = app • SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS = watchos watchsimulator • Archive configuration: Release • Base SDK: watchOS The app does not depend on iOS. Bundle ID Originally: com.example.app.watchkitapp Recreated as: com.example.app HealthKit capability enabled in: • Developer Portal • Xcode (Signing & Capabilities) Signing • Apple Distribution certificate active • App Store provisioning profile created • Manual signing configured for Release (Apple Distribution + App Store profile) • Also tested Automatic signing • Deleted old Ad Hoc profiles • Cleared Derived Data and regenerated archive App Store Connect • App created successfully using bundle ID com.example.app • Account role: Account Holder • No pending Agreements, Tax, or Banking items Despite a valid Release archive signed with Apple Distribution, Organizer only allows Ad Hoc distribution and never shows “App Store Connect”. Is this a known issue in Xcode 26 affecting independent watchOS apps, or is there an additional configuration step required? Thank you.

I’m trying to determine the supported submission path for the first non-consumable IAP in a watchOS-only app. Configuration The app uses a standard watch-only container: Container: com.seanfu.safe Watch app: com.seanfu.safe.watchkitapp ITSWatchOnlyContainer = true WKWatchOnly = true WKApplication = true It offers one non-consumable “Full Version” unlock and uses StoreKit 2: Product.products(for:) Product.purchase(options:) Transaction.currentEntitlements Transaction.updates The product ID in the Release binary exactly matches App Store Connect. Paid Apps agreements, banking, tax, pricing, and territory availability are active. The Release archive contains no local .storekit configuration or test bundle. TestFlight works, but App Review receives no product In TestFlight, using the real App Store sandbox and App Store Connect product configuration, Product.products(for:) returns the correct product, localized price, and title. The purchase sheet can be presented. During App Review, the same request repeatedly returns an empty array without throwing an error. The reviewer sees this application-defined diagnostic: IAP-L-01(empty x5) This is not an Apple or StoreKit error code. It means: Five separate Product.products(for:) calls completed without throwing. Every call returned an empty product array. The diagnostic appears only after the initial request and limited retries are exhausted. Thrown StoreKit errors use different diagnostics. The app does not locally filter a successfully returned product. Therefore, the screenshot means StoreKit returned no matching product in five consecutive requests. This has happened in multiple review attempts, while the same Release code path works in TestFlight. An App Review representative contacted us and explicitly stated that a watchOS-only app can be reviewed and tested with IAP. They suggested investigating our StoreKit integration, but our audit found no code path that could transform a non-empty response into this diagnostic. Submission behavior changed Earlier watchOS-only builds could be submitted with both: The app version The “Full Version” IAP Those submissions reached App Review, where the product was empty: Submission accepted → Review starts → Product array is empty For build 23, we explicitly added the In-App Purchase capability to the Watch target in Xcode. The project now records the IAP capability and explicitly links StoreKit.framework. This did not add an IAP entitlement to the signed app. The bundle IDs, watch-only packaging, product ID, StoreKit code, pricing, availability, agreements, banking, and tax status remained unchanged. After uploading build 23, App Store Connect no longer allows the app version and IAP to be submitted together. The draft contains: iOS App 1.0, build 23 The “Full Version” non-consumable IAP App Store Connect blocks the submission and says IAPs and subscriptions are not supported on Apple Watch and must be removed from the submission. The behavior is now: App version + IAP selected → Submission blocked before review This timing does not prove that adding the Xcode capability caused the change. App Store Connect may have changed its validation, or the new build may have caused its watch-only classification to be reevaluated. However, the transition is notable: earlier submissions were accepted but the product was unavailable during review; the current submission is blocked entirely. Contradictory documentation StoreKit documentation says the Swift IAP API is available on watchOS 8+: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/choosing-a-storekit-api-for-in-app-purchases The documentation for purchase(options:) specifically says to use it for apps running on watchOS: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product/purchase(options:) However, App Store Connect documentation says IAPs are not supported on Apple Watch and must be removed before submitting an Apple Watch app version: https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/manage-submissions-to-app-review/submit-an-in-app-purchase/ The same page says the first non-consumable IAP must be submitted with a new app version. This creates a circular requirement: The first non-consumable IAP must accompany an app version. An Apple Watch app version cannot include an IAP. A watchOS-only app therefore appears unable to submit its first IAP. Questions What is the supported path for submitting the first non-consumable IAP of a watchOS-only app? Can Apple review the first IAP separately, or apply a backend override, despite the requirement to include it with an app version? Is an iPhone companion app required, with watchOS IAP support intended only for Watch apps associated with a regular iOS app? Could the unsupported submission association explain why TestFlight sandbox returns the product while App Review receives an empty array? Why were earlier watchOS-only submissions accepted with the IAP attached, while build 23 is blocked despite unchanged bundle IDs and watch-only packaging? Does App Store Connect use the Xcode IAP capability or explicit StoreKit linkage when validating the submission? Clarification from a StoreKit or App Store Connect engineer would be greatly appreciated. The StoreKit documentation, App Store Connect validation, and guidance from App Review currently describe different behaviors.

I have filed Feedback Assistant report FB24182480 for this issue. On an Apple Watch Series 6 running watchOS 26.6 (23U67), a TestFlight watchOS app can successfully load a non-consumable StoreKit 2 product from Sandbox and display its localized price. However, a subsequent single call to product.purchase() can fail before, or while, the system confirmation sheet is displayed. The app itself remains alive. It receives StoreKit.StoreKitError.systemError (code 1), with an underlying NSCocoaErrorDomain error 4097, consistent with losing the XPC connection to storekitd. The affected run’s private co-sysdiagnose shows this sequence: storekitd starts processing the payment. The Sandbox purchase request returns HTTP 200. AMSPaymentSheetTask begins. The kernel reports that storekitd exceeded its ActiveSoft 5 MB limit and terminates it as the high-water process. The app receives Cocoa error 4097. A later user-initiated retry was handled by a restarted storekitd process and ended with the same result. There are no overlapping product, entitlement, or purchase operations, and the app does not automatically retry purchase(). The issue is intermittent: in other runs on the same Watch, the Sandbox purchase sheet has appeared successfully. This makes it appear to be a system purchase-service lifecycle or memory-management issue rather than a product-configuration or product-loading issue. Environment: Apple Watch Series 6 (Watch6,4) watchOS 26.6 (23U67) TestFlight build StoreKit 2 Sandbox non-consumable IAP One explicit Buy tap per attempt Has anyone seen storekitd being terminated with a high-water reason during a watchOS purchase flow, or found a supported app-side mitigation for the resulting StoreKit error 1 / Cocoa 4097? I have kept the sysdiagnose and recordings private in Feedback Assistant because they contain account, device, and network information.

I’m blocked debugging a watchOS app on a physical Apple Watch. The iPhone connects to Xcode normally (wired), but the Watch either fails to connect with a tunnel timeout or disappears entirely from Xcode after I unpaired it inside Devices & Simulators. Environment Mac: macOS 26.x (Apple Silicon Mac) Xcode: 26.2 iPhone: iOS 26.1 Apple Watch Ultra: watchOS 26.2 (build 23S303) Connection: iPhone connected to Mac via USB (trusted). Watch paired to iPhone and working normally in the Watch app. Issue A (when Watch is visible in Xcode) In Xcode → Window → Devices and Simulators, the Watch shows up but is not usable and fails to connect. Error: “Previous preparation error: A connection to this device could not be established.” “Timed out while attempting to establish tunnel using negotiated network parameters.” In some attempts the Watch shows “Capacity: Unknown” / limited details, and then fails during preparation. Issue B (after unpairing Watch in Xcode only) I unpaired/removed the Watch in Xcode (Devices & Simulators). I did not unpair the Watch from the iPhone. Now: iPhone appears in Xcode and works normally for builds. Watch is still paired to the iPhone and works normally. Watch no longer appears anywhere in Xcode Devices & Simulators (no paired watch section, no watch run destination). What I’ve tried Reboots of Mac, iPhone, Watch (multiple times) Watch unlocked, awake; iPhone unlocked and close to Watch Verified Watch is paired and connected in iPhone Watch app Developer Mode enabled on iPhone and Watch Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ON (Mac/iPhone/Watch), tried toggling both Tried on home Wi-Fi and also with iPhone hotspot (same result) Resetting trust prompts / reconnecting iPhone via USB, re-trusting Mac Apple Watch: “Clear Trusted Computers” Xcode: removing/re-adding devices; clearing derived data; restarting Xcode Watch Developer networking test: Responsiveness = Medium (430 RPM) Questions 1. Is this a known issue/regression with Xcode 26.2 + watchOS 26.2 tunneling (CoreDevice / devicectl)? 2. Is there an Apple-supported way to force Xcode to re-discover a paired Watch after it was removed from Xcode Devices & Simulators (without unpairing the Watch from the iPhone)? 3. Any recommended logs or diagnostic steps I should collect (Console logs, sysdiagnose, specific Xcode/CoreDevice logs) to include in a Feedback report? If helpful, I can provide the full error text from Xcode’s Devices window and any logs you recommend. Thank you in advance,

Environment: MacBook Air M4 macOS 27 Golden Gate Beta Xcode 27 Beta iPhone running iOS 27 Beta Apple Watch Series 10 paired to the iPhone Steps to Reproduce: Install macOS 27 Beta and Xcode 27 Beta. Pair an Apple Watch with an iPhone running iOS 27 Beta. Enable Developer Mode on the iPhone. Connect the iPhone to the Mac and launch Xcode. Open Window → Devices and Simulators. Attempt to locate the paired Apple Watch or enable Developer Mode on the watch. Expected Result: The paired Apple Watch appears in Xcode for development purposes. A Developer Mode option is available on the Apple Watch. Xcode is able to recognize and communicate with the watch through the paired iPhone. Actual Result: The Apple Watch does not appear in Xcode. No Developer Mode option is visible on the watch. The iPhone is successfully paired and running iOS 27 Beta, but the watch remains unavailable for development workflows. Additional Notes: The iPhone and Apple Watch are already paired and functioning normally. Developer Mode is enabled on the iPhone. Restarting devices and reconnecting the iPhone did not resolve the issue. Unsure whether this is a limitation of the current beta builds or a regression in Xcode/watchOS development tooling.

iOS 27 adds a second stage to HealthKit read authorization. After picking data types, the user chooses "Past 30 Days and Future Data" or "All Recorded Data and Future Data", with Allow disabled until one is selected. Every user of every health app now makes this call, in the first seconds of onboarding, with no real context about what the app needs. I don't think the scale of this has landed yet. A meaningful share of users will pick 30 days. multi-year health trends, month to month comparisons, all-time records: with 30 days these features don't get worse, they stop existing. And it breaks silently. The user sees empty charts and a app that doesn't do what the screenshots promised. They won't connect that to a sheet they tapped through on day one — they'll connect it to the app. That's the reckoning: a wave of one-star reviews and support mail for a decision the developer never saw and can't inspect. Because we can't inspect it .authorizationStatus(for:) deliberately hides read authorization and getRequestStatusForAuthorization only says whether prompting would show UI, so a 30-day grant and a genuinely new Apple Watch user look identical from the query layer. A callback when Health permissions change for a type — even without disclosing the new state — would go a long way here. And we can't route users to the fix. UIApplication.openSettingsURLString opens the app's own Settings page, which has no Health section. The real control sits at Settings › Privacy & Security › Health › — four levels deep, unreachable from any public API. My suggestion is a URL constant scoped to the calling app, the way openNotificationSettingsURLString (iOS 15.4+) and openDefaultApplicationsSettingsURLString (iOS 18.3+) already work. But that's just my idea; if there's a better mitigation, or something already planned, I'd like to hear it. Worth saying the privacy gain looks thin either way: the app keeps all future data indefinitely, so a 30-day grant becomes a full-history grant in thirty days for anyone who keeps the app. The window limits what's readable today, not what accumulates. iOS 27 release is approaching... I think this will cause problems 😞 Filed as FB24398048 and FB24398031

Following up on TN3135 and the resolution in https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/773362 — that thread solved establishing a low-level connection on watchOS (the asynchronous AVAudioSession.activate(options:completionHandler:) instead of the synchronous setActive()). This question is about a connection staying established, which I could not find discussed anywhere. Environment: Apple Watch, watchOS 26.6 (23U67). Audio app, WKBackgroundModes = ["self-care"]. Real device, TestFlight build, not the simulator. What works Opening an NWConnection WebSocket to my own server is reliable — 8 attempts out of 8 reached .ready in 0.28–0.98 s, and an echo frame round-tripped in 27–89 ms. Interestingly, in my measurements it opens under BOTH activation variants: the asynchronous activate(options:completionHandler:) AND the synchronous setActive(true). The two are within ~0.2 s of each other. I mention it only because the thread above concluded the synchronous one is insufficient; on 26.6 I cannot reproduce that difference for establishment. What fails The connection goes quiet after roughly half a minute, and an NWPathMonitor running alongside it shows why: the path transitions to .unsatisfied. Four runs: +34.0 s (cellular) +34.6 s (cellular) +36.0 s (Wi-Fi) +34.3 s (companion link only — availableInterfaces ["other", "other"]) The server sends a heartbeat frame every 5 s and closes the socket on a schedule, so I can tell "the peer closed" from "we stopped receiving". The client receives beats 1–6 (5 s … 30 s) and then nothing; the scheduled close never arrives. What I ruled out Server side. The same client construction run on macOS against the same endpoint receives all 8 heartbeats and the scheduled close at 45.1 s. Both audio-session activation variants — no difference, as above. Network type — cellular, Wi-Fi and companion-link-only all drop at ~35 s. The app being suspended. The app keeps logging densely throughout, and in the last run it held a WKExtendedRuntimeSession (delegate reported extendedRuntimeSessionDidStart) and was actively playing audio through AVAudioEngine from the first second — i.e. the audio-streaming condition TN3135 describes — for the entire window. The path dropped anyway, at +34.3 s. An idle socket. Server traffic arrives every 5 s until the drop. The comparison that puzzles me The same app, on the same watch, the same afternoon, relays the same realtime audio session over plain HTTPS (URLSession) instead — and that runs for 64 s continuously without a stall, including straight through a WatchConnectivity "reachability settled: unreachable" transition. So a high-level URLSession request stream survives a period in which a low-level NWConnection's path is reported unsatisfied. That is consistent with the note in thread 773362 that "on watchOS every session is kinda like a background session, where the actual work is done out of process" — but it leaves me unsure what the intended behaviour is. Questions Is a ~35 s path lifetime the expected behaviour for low-level networking on watchOS, or does it indicate something wrong on my side? Does the TN3135 audio-streaming exception cover only the establishment of a low-level connection, or is it also supposed to keep the path available for the duration of the audio streaming? If it is supposed to persist: is there something beyond an active audio session, flowing audio and a WKExtendedRuntimeSession that an app must do to keep the path alive? If ~35 s is the expected ceiling, is a WebSocket a supported transport for a multi-minute conversational audio session on watchOS at all — or is relaying over URLSession the intended approach despite the guidance to prefer Network framework? Happy to file a bug with a sysdiagnose and a reduced sample project if that is more useful — please say the word and I will attach the numbers above.

Hi all, I’m developing a watchOS app that uses a WebSocket API to process voice audio. However, I keep encountering this error when trying to establish the connection: nw_endpoint_flow_failed_with_error [C1 <server URL>:443 failed parent-flow (unsatisfied (Path was denied by NECP policy), interface: ipsec2, ipv4, ipv6, proxy)] already failing, returning I’ve read Technical Note TN3135, which outlines an exception for audio streaming apps. My app is an audio streaming app, and I’ve already added background audio mode to the app’s capabilities. However, I’m not sure what else is required to meet the exception described in TN3135. Questions How do I meet the exception outlined in TN3135 for WebSocket audio streaming on watchOS? Does NECP enforce additional restrictions even with background audio enabled, and how can I address this? Any guidance or examples of implementing WebSocket audio streaming on watchOS would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

We have an Apple Watch app and companion iPhone app that we distribute via Enterprise Distribution using OTA manual installation. (We are on an Apple Enterprise Developer Team) With WatchOS 26.4 and earlier, the app would install fine on both the phone and the watch. However, after updating to WatchOS 26.5 (and iOS 26.5), the app will not install on the watch. It will install on the phone and we can trust the developer/run the phone app. However, when we go into the Apple Watch app on the phone and choose "Install" for the app, it tries to install for a minute and then returns an error "The app could not be installed at this time". We have tried the following remedies: Restarting both watch and phone, and reinstalling the app on phone Factory resetting both the watch and the phone, then reinstalling app Generating a new Distribution Certificate and new manual profiles for the app in Apple Developer Looking through console logs from both the phone and the watch Confirmed that we can install other (non-Enterprise) apps on the watch Try installing a basic example app (the default Xcode watch + companion app project) There does not seem to be anything obviously amiss about the app or its packaging, it seems to be something to do with the update to WatchOS 26.5. The closest related errors we have found seems to be these: appconduitd 0x16d43f000 -[ACXInstallQueue _onQueue_deQueueNextOperation]_block_invoke_3: Failed to install app .EnterpriseInstallTest.watchkitapp (p = Y, ui = Y) : Error Domain=ACXErrorDomain Code=8 "Failed to create socket" UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0xcf9138e10 {Error Domain=com.apple.identityservices.error Code=20 "Socket open timed out" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Socket open timed out}}, FunctionName=-[ACXServerInstallOperation _onQueue_prepForTransferAndInstall]_block_invoke, SourceFileLine=370, NSLocalizedDescription=Failed to create socket} appconduitd 0x16d89f000 -[ACXCompanionSyncConnection _installQueuedOrCompletedForWatchBundleID:companionAppBundleID:withName:userInitiated:withError:withCompletion:]_block_invoke: Failed to install app .EnterpriseInstallTest.watchkitapp : Error Domain=ACXErrorDomain Code=8 "Failed to create socket" UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0xcf9138e10 {Error Domain=com.apple.identityservices.error Code=20 "Socket open timed out" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Socket open timed out}}, FunctionName=-[ACXServerInstallOperation _onQueue_prepForTransferAndInstall]_block_invoke, SourceFileLine=370, NSLocalizedDescription=Failed to create socket}

I'm developing a watchOS meditation app in which the user starts one continuous meditation session. During that session, I'd like the app to obtain a 1-minute HRV measurement immediately after the session begins (to establish a baseline), and then automatically obtain another 1-minute HRV measurement approximately 6 minutes after the session started, without requiring the user to manually start a second measurement or leave the app. My understanding is that HealthKit allows apps to read HRV samples after they have been recorded, but I haven't found a way to request that the watch generate a new HRV measurement. Is there any public API that allows a third-party watchOS app to initiate an HRV measurement similar to the Mindfulness/Breathe app, or otherwise request the Apple Watch to collect a new HRV sample at predetermined times during an ongoing session? Thanks in advance, Hern

In the WWDC 2019 session "Extended Runtime for WatchOS apps" the video talks about an entitlement being required to use the HR sensor judiciously in the background. It provides a link to request the entitlement which no longer works: http://developer.apple.com/contect/request/health-monitoring The session video is also quite hard to find these days. Does anyone know why this is the case? Is the API and entitlement still available? Is there a supported way to run, even periodically, in the background on the Watch app (ignoring the background observer route which is known to be unreliable) and access existing HR sensor data

Need to vent a bit before relaxing for Christmas... WatchOS IAP using Storekit 2 is such a mess...is nobody actually using this or does Apple just not care for the user experience here? Lots of users experience after the purchase confirmation double tap on the side button an instant return to the purchase screen with nothing actually happening. No error message whatsoever. There is just one remedy: users need to unpair and re-pair their watch, including restoring a backup and setting up their wallet again. Nobody really wants to do this, or doesn't believe me and think this is just typical support BS, because their watch is paired and most things just work as they expect. And it turns away a customer, often leaving a bad review. And I can't do anything about it. Other errors in the purchase process are reported, but like "process interrupted" in case the payment is not setup correctly (credit car no longer valid or sth.). How should the user know? There must be better ways of letting him know what exactly the problem is. You need to implement a "Restore Purchase" function, otherwise you're not passing the review. But it really asks every time for the AppStore password, and users with crazy passwords -- that they rightfully should have! -- have almost no chance of typing them successfully on the tiny AW keyboard. Why is it not also just a side button double tap like for purchase? At the very least you would need access to the keychain PWs or allow pasting of sth. copied on the paired iPhone. Promo Codes for IAP on AW-only apps just don't work. AW has no redemption at all, and on the iPhone the AppStore will try to talk to a companion app (which AW-only doesn't have) and the end up in a dead-end installation effort. This all feels like never really tested in the field, and people are of course blaming the 3rd party dev. for all these issues. And opening a ticket is just leading nowhere -- at best it's closed after months with the hint "duplicate" but w/o any chance for me to see that one that they then actually work on and track progress. It's all so frustratingly broken...