watchOS 5 Announced With New Walkie-Talkie Feature

At WWDC 2018 today, Apple officially announced the next major update that would be coming to the Apple Watch in the form of watchOS 5. As expected the update will focus a lot on new fitness related features and improvements, but there will also be some new features added that will be communications-based.

This includes a new Walkie-Talkie feature which according to Apple, “watchOS 5 introduces Walkie-Talkie, an entirely new way to communicate with voice and just a tap of the wrist. A fun and easy way to quickly get in touch with friends and family, this new watch-to-watch connection is fast, personal and can be activated between any compatible Apple Watch users around the world over Wi-Fi or cellular.”

Push-to-talk features aren’t new when it comes to smartphones, but if you ever wanted to feel like Dick Tracy, Apple is now giving you the chance. As for the new fitness features, Apple will be introducing Activity Competitions which lets Apple Watch users compete against each other in closing their Activity Rings.

There is also a new Auto-Workout Detection feature, the addition of support for new workouts such as Yoga and Hiking (amongst 12 other new workouts), new running features that alerts users when they are ahead or behind their designated pace, and more.

There will also the ability to listen to Podcasts from the Apple Watch, and also improvements to the Siri watch face where it will provide users with dynamic shortcuts to features throughout the day based on your routines. watchOS 5 is currently set for a release this fall but Apple did not mention when exactly, but we suppose those details will be revealed later this year.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Gadgets
Tags: Apple Watch, Fitness, Health, Smartwatch, watchos, Wearable Tech, wwdc, wwdc 2018