What is the purpose of the new "utilitarian small flat" complication family?

In my watchOS 2 app, I have support for all the complication families. For utilitarian small (CLKComplicationFamilyUtilitarianSmall) I was using the template CLKComplicationTemplateUtilitarianSmallFlat.


watchOS 3 now includes the family CLKComplicationFamilyUtilitarianSmallFlat, along with a new "Utilitiarian Small Flat" checkbox in the "Supported Families" for the target. This doesn't seem to accomplish anything new though, so it's pretty confusing. The very sparse documentation mentions the same watch faces that are mentioned for the standard "Utilitiarian Small". I can't even find any mention of it any of the WWDC talks. "Designing Great Apple Watch Experiences" talks about how all the complication types are used, including the new "Extra Large" family, but there's no mention of "Utilitarian Small Flat". I don't see any mention in the HIG either.


I assume it's OK to just check the box and then return the same CLKComplicationTemplateUtilitarianSmallFlat template for either family?


My best guess is that there are new, unannounced watch faces coming that will only support "Utilitiarian Small Flat", but it's entirely possible I just missed something.


Any ideas?

Replies

That page doesn't even mention the "utilitarian small flat" type. Like I said I haven't found any reference to at all in the HIG.


To clarify, it does give an example of a complication created using the "utilitarian small flat" template, which is one of several options you can use for the "utilitarian small" family. I'm referring to the newer "utilitarian small flat" family. Not just a template, but a new complication type that is a subset of "utilitarian small".

Today I discovered the same thing. Very confusing. For now I decided to not use new "Utilitarian Small Flat" until I get right answer 🙂.

Looks like the Utilitarian small flat is used on Mickey watch face on watchOS3. In my app, I didn't have the complication available on Mickey watch face until I added the support for this complication. In the code, I just render this complication the same exact way I render the normal Utilitarian small, and then it showed on Mickey watchface.

According to the docs:

> A small rectangular area used in the in the Photos, Motion, and Timelapse clock faces.

I can confirm that adding support for CLKComplicationTemplateUtilitarianSmallFlat allows the complication to show up in Timelapse.