How to access the "Always On" functionality of Watch 5

Hey Apple Developers,


I'm working on a new fitness app for the Apple Watch, and I want to take advantage of the "Always On' state for Series 5 watches.

I see that Apple Workouts does this well. When then screen moves into this low power state, and a workout is active, it does at least the following:

  • Disables all animations
  • Removes milliseconds from time
  • Has less frequent UI updates in general
  • Reverts to a "default" view if it goes into that state, on another view


I'd like to take advantage of this in our app too, designing a lower power mode, with less frequent updates, so users can get glanceable information without having to move their wrist.


However, in all other apps, mainly workout apps, all that happens is that there is a blurred screenshot taken, and time is overlaid. To get update you have to still turn your wrist, and even then depending on the app it can take a few seconds before the display is refreshed with current data.



If anyone has any advice here, or pointers on how I could access this functionality in Swift on Watch OS6, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks in advance,

Campbell

Replies

For what it's worth, I heard a second-hand confirmation from Apple that this functionality is not available to Third Pary developers, just to Apple.


Please Apple, this would be incredibly helpful to expose some of these controls!

If you two didn't see, I have great news for you, there was a WWDC session after this post that provides a how to and example code to do exactly what I think you want to do! Video: https://developers.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2021/10009/ Example code : https://developer.apple.com/documentation/healthkit/workouts_and_activity_rings/build_a_workout_app_for_apple_watch