After a packed watchOS 10.2 update, Apple is releasing a small watchOS 10.3 version to Apple Watch users. The main change is a new Unity Bloom face celebrating Black History Month.
Last week, Apple announced it would release on January 23 a new Apple Watch Black Unity Sport Band, including this new Unity Bloom watch face. The company says this collection is inspired by “the resilience and beauty of the Black community,” with Blooming flowers and vibrant colors representing Pan-Africanism, and symbolizing generations working together to address injustice and dismantling systemic barriers.
The Unity Bloom Apple Watch face showcases a “beautiful floral design that signifies a lasting commitment to the pursuit of a more equitable world.” Users can choose between a full-bloom or single-bloom arrangement, and when they raise their wrists, the flowers begin to bloom and fill with vibrant hues.
Interestingly, with watchOS 10.2, Apple quietly added all the delayed watchOS 10 features, which include:
- Double tap gestures: Users can easily control the Apple Watch Series 9 using just one hand and without touching the display by tapping the index finger and thumb of their watch hand together twice to quickly and conveniently perform many of the most common actions on the Watch.
- NameDrop from iPhone to Apple Watch: NameDrop is a new feature that lets you easily share your contact information from one iPhone to another by approaching them. Apple says that nearing an iPhone to Apple Watch to perform the same action will be possible later this year with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, Apple Watch SE (1st and 2nd generation), and Apple Watch Ultra.
- On-device queries: Users can ask Siri to read and long on-device Health requests. This change not only makes requests faster but more private and secure to users, as Siri can be used to access the Health app for health and fitness-related queries on-device (available for Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2).
- Apple Fitness+ Audio Focus: Prioritize the volume of either the music or trainers’ voices in most Fitness+ workouts
- HomePod feature: Users can automatically view Now Playing when in the proximity of HomePod (2nd generation) or HomePod mini playing media from Music or Podcasts.
- HomePod feature: Media suggestions will appear at the top of the Smart Stack if nothing is playing on a nearby HomePod
Besides watchOS 10.3, Apple is also releasing iOS 17.3, iPadOS 17.3, macOS 14.3, and tvOS 17.3.
