Hi, I have a problem with watchOS widget configuration intents. It turns out that watchOS is unable to load text for localization keys. This is how I set configuration parameter in WidgetConfigurationIntent: @Parameter( title: LocalizedStringResource( "watchWidgetConfig.showSymbols", defaultValue: "Symbole", table: "WidgetLocalizable", bundle: widgetBundle ), default: true ) var showSymbols: Bool Unfortunately, on a device always the defaultValue is used. I tried everything and nothing works. What's weird, it correctly works on watchOS simulator and if you configure widgets in iOS "Watch" app. On real Apple Watch, the "defaultValue" is displayed. I'm not sure if it's important but both: the Swift file with WidgetConfigurationIntent and WidgetLocalizable.xcstring are included in two targets: Watch Widget Extension and Watch App. I tried so far: All variants of LocalizableStringResource init. With/without "table", with/without "bundle". Previously I had texts in Localizable.strings, I migrated it to WidgetLocalizable.xcstrings and it didn't work either. Setting only one target for WidgetLocalizable.xcstring and WidgetConfigurationIntent. I checked inside xcarchive to see if WidgetLocalizable.xcstring is copied correctly. Seems like watchOS bug, but I would be happy to know if someone figured out any workaround. Xcode: Version 26.4 (17E192) iOS 26.4.1 watchOS 26.4 I already created a ticket: FB22509406

When I chose a watchOS Test and set the watch with latest watchOS on Xcode Cloud, I could not pass the CI because it showed "xcodebuild: error: Unable to find a destination matching the provided destination specifier: { platform:watchOS Simulator, id:9863C79E-3793-483E-BAA1-F96A0BD34005 }" I've change some destination, but it's not worked. Is there any idea what I can do? The watch app is along with the mobile, not standalone.

On watchOS, the Developer Mode entry under Settings -> Privacy & Security is hidden by default and only appears after Xcode has attempted to connect to the watch as a development device. In my case, once Xcode triggers that surfacing, opening Settings -> Privacy & Security on the watch prompts for a 4-digit Screen Time passcode before granting access. No Screen Time passcode I set on the paired iPhone is accepted at this prompt, which prevents me from reaching the Developer Mode toggle to enable it. The passcode prompt only appears in this specific state. With no Xcode connection attempt (and therefore no Developer Mode entry surfaced in the menu), Settings → Privacy & Security opens normally on the watch with no prompt at all. Environment macOS: Tahoe 26.4.1 (Build 25E253) Xcode: 26.4.1 (24909.0.3) (Build 17E202) iPhone: iOS 26.4.2 Apple Watch: Ultra 3 running watchOS 26.4 All devices on release software (no betas). Xcode error Developer Mode disabled Domain: com.apple.dt.deviceprep Code: -28 Recovery Suggestion: To use [Watch Name] for development, enable Developer Mode in Settings → Privacy & Security. User Info: { DVTErrorCreationDateKey = "2026-04-30 09:38:57 +0000"; "com.apple.dt.DVTCoreDevice.operationName" = checkDeveloperMode; } Reproduction Pair Apple Watch to iPhone (paired fresh, set up as new, not restored from backup). Connect iPhone to Mac running Xcode 26.4.1. Before any Xcode connection attempt, open Settings -> Privacy & Security on the watch. The menu opens normally with no passcode prompt. There is no Developer Mode entry visible. In Xcode, attempt to use the Apple Watch as a run destination. Xcode returns the -28 / Developer Mode disabled error above and instructs me to enable Developer Mode in Settings -> Privacy & Security on the watch. After this attempt, the Developer Mode entry is surfaced in Settings -> Privacy & Security on the watch. Open Settings -> Privacy & Security on the watch in this surfaced state. The menu now prompts for a 4-digit Screen Time passcode before allowing access. The passcodes I have set on the paired iPhone are rejected. The passcode prompt is therefore conditional on the Developer Mode entry having been surfaced by a recent Xcode connection attempt. In step 3 (no surfacing) the menu opens freely; in step 6 (surfacing in effect) the menu is gated. What I have already tried Confirmed Screen Time is disabled on the paired iPhone. Confirmed Share Across Devices is enabled. Confirmed Content & Privacy Restrictions is off on the iPhone. Confirmed I am an adult in my Family Sharing group (not a managed/child account). Confirmed there are no configuration profiles installed (Settings -> General -> VPN & Device Management is empty). Set a fresh Screen Time passcode on the iPhone. Not accepted by the watch prompt. Used Forgot Passcode? → Apple ID authentication to reset the Screen Time passcode and set a new one. Not accepted by the watch prompt. Turned the Screen Time passcode off entirely on the iPhone. The watch still prompts for one when Xcode is connecting. Unpaired the Apple Watch and re-paired as new (not restored from backup). Issue persists. Tried entering the watch's own device passcode at the prompt. Not accepted. Question What credential is the watch's Privacy & Security menu actually checking against once the Developer Mode entry has been surfaced, and how can it be reset or cleared from a paired iPhone? Is anyone else seeing this conditional gating where the menu is only locked in the post-surfacing state? Any pointers from the Xcode / watchOS tools team would be appreciated. Happy to provide sysdiagnose or further details on request.

How does Associated Domains Development work on watchOS? In comparison, on iOS we have Diagnostics menu that allows to input a link and test the setup. How to achieve the same on a watch? watchOS: iOS:

I already have a working iOS React Native app and I’m planning to add a watchOS companion app. Is it possible to keep the iOS app and the watchOS app in separate repositories? If so, will WatchConnectivity still work properly between them? Or is it recommended to keep both in a single Xcode project/repository?

Hello, I’m developing an Apple Watch companion app for my swimming application and the app keeps uninstalling/disappearing from Apple Watch. I have a specific Scheme to install it to my watches, it appears there, I can debug but after a while it disappears. It’s my first app for this device but it doesn’t seem normal to me. any idea?

Hi everyone, I’m currently researching Apple Watch pairing behavior and diagnostic logging across different setup modes. I can reliably trigger a co-sysdiagnose on an Apple Watch when it is paired in a normal standalone / standard configuration. In that case, the expected co-sysdiagnose archive appears on the paired iPhone. However, in a Family Setup / managed account scenario, behavior is different: The watch provides the expected haptic feedback after the sysdiagnose button combination But no co-sysdiagnose archive appears on the paired iPhone afterward The same hardware behaves differently depending on pairing/account configuration My question is: Is co-sysdiagnose collection, transport, or availability intentionally different for Family Setup / managed Apple Watch devices? For example: Are logs stored elsewhere? Is transfer to the organizer iPhone restricted? Is co-sysdiagnose unsupported in Family Setup mode? Are additional conditions required, such as Wi-Fi, charging state, unlocked devices, or a longer delay? I may be missing something obvious, but I have not found documentation describing this difference. If this is expected behavior, I’d really appreciate a pointer to the relevant documentation. Thanks a lot!

Hello! I’m building a VoIP app for iPhone and Apple Watch using PushKit and CallKit. I’m trying to understand the recommended watchOS architecture for this kind of setup. What we would like is for the watch to behave as an endpoint for incoming calls, so that when a call comes in the user can answer on either the iPhone or the watch. My understanding is that VoIP notifications are not supported on watchOS, so for incoming calls what we ended up having to do was send the watch a regular APNs alert notification and only start the actual call setup after the user interacts with it. This isn’t ideal, and the notification often appears a few seconds late. What we would like to be able to do is present the incoming call on the watch more like how FaceTime calls appear on Apple Watch. So I wanted to ask whether this is the intended pattern for a companion watchOS VoIP app. Is using a regular APNs alert notification the correct way to surface an incoming call on the watch, or is there a better supported approach? Thanks!

I have a iOS/watchOS app that gives audio cues, like a metronome, on specific patterns. The intent of the watch app is to have it at the same time as a workout app (ie Strava, Apple Fitness) and/or a music app (Spotify/Apple Music). The app works in the foreground just fine. But if I start another app (i.e. Strava) the haptic feedback and a "ding" continues to play in the background, but the "beep or voice" stops. Beep/voice works fine in iOS when in the background, just not in watchOS.

I managed to install watchOS 2 without having registered my Watch's UDID, but as it's part of the instructions for installing watchOS betas I thought I'd better do it now in case beta 2 bricks my Watch or something.However, the Watch isn't appearing in Xcode. I've tried both the latest public release and Xcode 7 beta, but there's "no paired devices" section under my iPhone when I connect it to Xcode and look in the Devices window.

I am trying to find out about the availability of BLE scanning for advertisements when a watchOS app (on watchOS 26.4 with CoreBluetooth) which starts running a HKWorkoutSession becomes dimmed, ie. due to the user lowering their arm. From my understanding there is still availability for ongoing scanning whilst in the dimmed mode. If this is correct, what settings are required (e.g. using background capability for 'Workout Processing', 'bluetooth-central', etc), and does scanning whilst in background mode limit to requiring service uuids in scanForPeripherals? Also if scanning is throttled, is there an 'estimated' inter scan time? Thanks

Hi community. It's my first time trying WatchConnectivity kit. When I attempt to send ApplicationContext from phone, my debug print indicates that updateApplicationContext is working correctly. However, I'm having trouble receiving it form the paired watch simulator as nothing is shown on that end. Here are the code for the Phone Extension:     func sendDataToWatch(data: String) {         state.append(data)         do {             NSLog("sent by phone")             try WCSession.default.updateApplicationContext(["currentstate": state])         }         catch {             print(error)         }     } Here are the code for watch: func session(_ session: WCSession, didReceiveApplicationContext applicationContext: [String: Any]) {         print("Hello")         if let getState = applicationContext["currentstate"] as? [String]{             print("\(getState)")             self.state = getState[0]         }     } Any suggestion would be appreciated!

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/widgetkit/keeping-a-widget-up-to-date lists a number of exception including "The widget’s containing app has an active audio or navigation session." https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2021/10048/ mentions: "However, there are a few situational exceptions that will make these reloads occur both immediately and budget-free. These are when your container app is foreground to the user or when your app is participating in a user session, like Navigation or Now Playing audio." Does an active workout session in a watchOS app count as "your app is participating in a user session", so calls to WidgetCenter.shared.reloadTimelines(ofKind:) are budget-free?

We are developing a watchOS application that records long audio sessions and uploads them to our backend in chunks (~5 MB each) using pre-signed URLs and URLSession background upload. Current behavior: While audio recording is active, uploads continue successfully even when the app is in the background. Once the recording stops, if multiple chunks (e.g., 10+) are still pending, the remaining uploads do not proceed in the background and appear to be suspended. We attempted to use WKExtendedRuntimeSession (mindfulness type) to allow sufficient time to enqueue background upload tasks, but the session is invalidated when the app goes to the background (e.g., wrist down or app inactive), which prevents reliable scheduling of uploads. Additionally, we added the entitlement: com.apple.developer.extended-runtime-session (mindfulness) in the Watch app entitlements file, but Xcode automatic signing fails with: “Provisioning profile does not include the com.apple.developer.extended-runtime-session entitlement.” It appears that the provisioning profile is not being updated to include this entitlement. Our questions: Is WKExtendedRuntimeSession (mindfulness) expected to support scheduling background URLSession uploads after the app goes to background? How should we reliably complete pending background uploads on watchOS after a long recording session ends? Is there any additional entitlement or recommended approach for this use case? Why is the extended runtime entitlement not being applied to the provisioning profile despite being added in the entitlements file? We are aiming to follow Apple-recommended practices for long-running tasks and background uploads on watchOS. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I am trying to create an automation that will anable to add transactions to my app and it’s using a shared shortcut and a quick automation on the user end. it works great on the iPhone but i couldn’t find any way to make it work on my Apple Watch… any help with that?

I’m building a standalone Apple Watch metronome app for running. My goal is for these 3 apps to work at the same time: Runna owns the workout session Spotify plays music my app plays a metronome click in the background So far this is what I've found: Using HKWorkout​Session in my metronome app works well with Spotify, but conflicts with Runna and other workout apps, so I removed that. Using watchOS background audio with longFormAudio allows my app run in the background, and it can coexist with Runna. However, it seems to conflict with Spotify playback, and one app tends to stop the other. Is there any supported watchOS audio/background configuration that allows all 3 at once? More specifically this is what I need: another app owns HKWorkout​Session Spotify keeps playing my app keeps generating metronome clicks in the background Or is this simply not supported by current watchOS session/background rules? My metronome uses AVAudio​Engine / AVAudio​Player​Node with generated click audio. Thank you!

I have a watchOS WidgetKit complication that needs the user's location to show the nearest transit station, but the widget never gets location permission and CLLocationManager times out. Setup: NSWidgetWantsLocation = YES in Widget Extension's Info.plist NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription and NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription in Widget Extension's Info.plist Watch App successfully has location authorization Problem: The system never presents a location permission prompt for my widget. Apple's own World Clock widget does get one on watchOS (see screenshot) — I can't figure out what triggers it. When the widget tries to get location via CLLocationManager, the request times out and never returns a location. Questions: What triggers the system location prompt for a watchOS widget? Is NSWidgetWantsLocation sufficient or is something else required? Why would CLLocationManager time out and never return a location inside a widget extension? Is there a specific pattern required for requesting location in a WidgetKit timeline provider? Screenshots Sorry for swedish, but it says "Do you allow widgets from World Clock to use your location services?"

The second time i start a workout session, the beginCollection instance method on HKLiveWorkoutBuilder freezes. To recreate run the Apple Sample Project Building a multidevice workout app. It looks like a bug with the HealthKit SDK and not the code but i could be wrong. The only workaround i found was erasing the simulator and reinstalling the app.

Our watchOS App isn't opened when tapping on a Live Activity. Added the following to our Info.plist and still get the Open on iPhone option. <key>WKSupportsLiveActivityLaunchAttributeTypes</key> <array/> Is there something else we need to configure?

Our watchOS app is exploring adding audio VOIP calling capability using our in-home platform. We are using LiveCommunicationKit for this and have that all hooked up nicely in a proof of concept implementation. Our use case is primarily based around supporting end-users through various tasks with assistance from a remotely based expert. We would like for our platform to be able to display visual content on the watch's screen during the call – in other words, we would like to be able to treat this as a video call. LiveCommunicationKit fully supports all video-related flags on watchOS and doesn't appear to have any different symbol availability versus its iOS version. This high-quality thread (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/798090) from a DTS engineer suggests that our use case should be valid (i.e. whiteboarding apps) and that the system's response to an accepted income video call is to dismiss the LCK's incoming call screen and bring the target app to the foreground, allowing it to render its custom content. Unfortunately, on watchOS the system doesn't seem to treat a video call any differently from an audio call, and won't dismiss the system UI once it's answered. We fully realize that Apple Watch doesn't have a camera for outbound video, doesn't support VideoToolbox or other low-level video convenience libraries for simplified rendering and decoding, etc. That's not what we're worried about (yet). The documentation is at best unclear about whether LCK (or CallKit, for that matter) can hand off calls flagged as video-compatible according to how we think they should, which is passing foreground UI over to the app once the call has been accepted by the user. Can any Apple people shed some light on this? I recognize we are probably trying to do something not many people have before.