Installation

Man did I struggle to get my Series 3 watch updated.  I don’t think it was entirely Apple’s fault, my wifi was super slow until I got home, but I think the update process for the Apple Watch really needs to improve.

Starting off:

• Long downloads
• Took forever to unpack the download
• Problems with the watch app on the phone before and after.

I know that Apple is worried about the battery life of the watch during updates, but I also think that they need to be working on a way to improve the update.

 It took me over an hour once I got home and had good unrestricted wifi.  

For most people though, the update will probably be much quicker, if not later.  I was actively trying to update so that I could have impressions ready to go today.  So let’s talk about those impressions:

New Watch Face:

I think the first thing most people will be looking at will be the watch faces.  watchOS 5 adds in 4 brand new watch faces to all watches Series 1-3.  All three watch faces feature 3 spots for complications

• Breathe – which uses the animation from the Breathe app to help you… Breathe
• Fire and Water – which looks like fire or water moving around the screen.  It looks like you can pick on that changes from fire to water throughout the day.  
• Liquid metal – looks like the terminator from T2 moving around on your screen
• Vapor – looks like smoke moving through your watch face.

I haven’t messed around with these too much, because I like to have more complications on my watch face for the most part, but I think these would look good when dressed up.

In addition to the new faces, the Siri watch face gets a pretty big update.   Apple has added more apps and the ability for 3rd party apps to add things to the Siri watch face. It’s more information when you need it. 

For example, this morning on my watch I had the weather (which usually showed up in the morning) and my daily commute time (which was new). Spinning through the rest of my watch face, I saw the score of the last Astros game (which they lost) and the next game scheduled for the Texans. 

It’s little things like this that make me love the Siri watch face one of my favorites. 

New app

Another fun feature I’ve liked so far is walkie talkie.

In walkie talkie, you connect to friends that also have watchOS 5 installed and can then use your watches like walkie talkies. 

I didn’t like having to add my wife through this yet again. It seems like I’ve added her to lists from Apple so many times now.  I know that I’ve added her to activities, apple music, e-mail, my friends’ list on the first version of the apple watch, etc.  It’s time for things to be tied together.  

You can only add someone to your Walkie Talkie list if that person has updated to watchOS 5, but when you open the app, your entire contacts are there and you get to just go through and try to remember who has an Apple Watch and which ones have newer models that can actually upgrade.  

Once that was done though, it’s a handy app.  You put yourself as available and anyone on your friends’ list can send you a message and you can talk back to them with a touch of the button.  I can see this as a great way for quick communication.  If you have rooms that are far away, you could use this to talk to someone a couple of rooms over instead of shouting.  If you’ve gone to a store or somewhere and gotten separated from each other, this could be a good way to find each other.

Each message is preceded by beep just like on a walkie talkie as well.

Just be careful when using it in public if you aren’t using headphones.  You don’t get to choose when you get a message, and people can just send you one if you have the app open.  Also, if you have the app open but miss a message, there’s no getting it back.  You’ll have to ask that person to repeat it.  

I’m excited to see how this plays out with my friends and family.  

Workouts

I haven’t had too much of a chance to really dive into what’s new with workouts, but I know that workouts now have automatic workout detection.  If you are one that goes running and forgets to start their activity tracker, you won’t have to worry anymore.  The watch will start detecting when you’re doing stuff and ask you if you want to start tracking.

I think this only works with certain types of workouts though.  I played tennis for about fifteen minutes today and nothing ever came up.  I had to start it.

On the flip side, if you forgot to end the workout, it will remind you to do that as well.  That will come in handy because there have been many times when I’ve forgotten to end a workout.

Your heart-rate and some other statistics will also now show up on your Siri watch face as well so you can track your rate as you recover.

Competitions

Along with the workout, Apple finally add activity tracking competitions!

If you go to your activity app on your watch and slide over to the screen on your right to see you list of friends that you are sharing your activities with, you can now push on one of your friends, scroll down to the bottom of their page there should be a competition button.  Push the button to challenge them to a competition for the week.

Your friend will have 48 hours to respond to the challenge and once they do it will start the following day.  You’ll now have a week to compete on closing your rings.  You get points for closing rings and some for going over as well, but there is a cap so that people don’t cheat.

At the end of the week, you get bragging rights and a medal to add to your collection of other activities medals.  It’s pretty cool.

Wrap up

watchOS 5 can be installed on all Apple Watches except for the very first Generation Apple Watch.

I say if you can get your watch to update, not to hesitate.  I think it adds enough to warrant an upgrade.  

I haven’t had even a day to mess around with watchOS 5 yet, but I’m liking what I’m seeing.  I’ll check back later in the week with thoughts on the new Series 4 watch, and a review of watchOS 5 sometime after that as well.

Have you upgraded?  How was your experience?  What features are standing out to you?