watchOS 3.2

This article summarizes the key developer-related features introduced in watchOS 3.2, which runs on currently shipping watchOS devices. The article also lists the documents that describe new features in more detail.

For late-breaking news and information about known issues, see Release Notes at https://developer.apple.com/watchos/download/. To learn about what’s new in Swift, see Swift Language and The Swift Programming Language (Swift 3.1).

Theater Mode

Introduced in watchOS 3.2, Theater Mode lets users quickly mute the sound on their Apple Watch and avoid waking the screen on wrist raise. Users still receive notifications (including haptics) while in Theater Mode, which they can view by tapping the screen or pressing the Digital Crown.

SiriKit

watchOS 3.2 includes SiriKit. Users can ask Siri on their Apple Watch to book a ride, send a message, make a payment, or make other requests that your app can handle.

Apps that provide services in specific domains can use SiriKit to make those services available through Siri on watchOS. Making your services available requires creating one or more app extensions using the Intents and Intents UI frameworks. SiriKit in watchOS supports services in the following domains:

To learn how to support SiriKit and give users new ways to access your services, read SiriKit Programming Guide.

WatchKit Framework Enhancements

The WKAudioFilePlayerItem class introduces the setCurrentTime: method, which lets you specify an offset in an audio file.

Existing APIs Now Available in watchOS

AVAudioPlayer is now available on watchOS. Use AVAudioPlayer for simple playback of audio data from a file or memory.