watchOS Pathway

Get started with this easy-to-navigate collection of videos, documentation, and tools to build great apps and games.

    Get to know watchOS

    Apple Watch apps are either downloaded directly from the App Store for Apple Watch, or they accompany a companion iOS app. When you build an app for Apple Watch, people can engage with your content through the app, complications, rich notifications, Siri, and widgets in the Smart Stack. Let’s take a closer look at each:

    Apps

    watchOS apps highlight, promote, and feature the most relevant and immediate content and actions, while also allowing access to secondary app features.

    Complications

    Complications can display up-to-date values — such as the air quality or the number of calories logged — from apps. They can also initiate actions from an app, such as starting a workout or jumping back into an audiobook.

    Notifications

    If you create a watchOS app, you can supply custom actions for your notifications. For example, a ride-sharing app could add a "Contact Driver" button to the notifications it sends after a person books a ride.

    Siri

    Siri can expand the ways people interact with your app. If your app uses domains like messaging or media, you can add Siri support. For other features, you can use App Intents to expose your app’s functionality to system services like Siri and the Shortcuts app.

    Widgets in the Smart Stack

    The Smart Stack displays widgets from apps, allowing people to quickly access up-to-date information or take action. A person can add specific widgets from the Widget Gallery, and the system will also suggest widgets based on relevance.

    Assemble your toolbox

    Xcode offers the tools you need to develop, test, and distribute apps for all Apple platforms, including intelligent code completion, simulators for Apple devices, advanced profiling and debugging tools, and more.

    Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language for all Apple platforms. It’s easy to get started using Swift, with a concise-yet-expressive syntax and modern features you’ll love. Swift code is safe by design and produces software that runs lightning‑fast.

    SwiftUI helps you build great-looking apps across all Apple platforms with the power of Swift — and surprisingly little code.

    Dive into design

    To create a great experience, your app needs an appealing UI, intuitive interactions, an easy-to-understand layout, and relevant content. Most importantly, it needs an interface that feels natural on Apple Watch. A person might glance at the Apple Watch screen for only a few seconds, so it’s important to show crucial information right away.

    While designing your app, keep Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) close at hand. The HIG offers invaluable information on how to design your app’s interface, navigate content, and manage interactions. We also encourage exploring the relevant sections of the Apple Design Resources.

    And if you’re looking for a little design inspiration, check out these great foundational design videos:

    The qualities of great design

    Essential design principles

    Adopt best practices

    Make sure your app offers the best possible experience for everyone by keeping these practices in mind:

    Prioritize privacy

    At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right. Access user or device data only with the user’s informed consent obtained in accordance with applicable law. In addition, take appropriate steps to protect user and device data, and be transparent about how you use it. If you collect data, offer a privacy statement that explains what you collect and how you use that information.

    Secure the data you collect and store

    If you do collect data, make sure you protect that data from malicious attacks. Adopt passkeys as a secure alternative to passwords. Store personally identifiable information, financial data, or other sensitive data in the user’s encrypted keychain.

    Audit your accessibility support

    Apple builds accessibility support right into its technologies, but screen readers and other accessibility features rely on information your app provides. SwiftUI and UIKit can describe each piece of your UI, but only you know how those pieces work together. Review accessibility labels and other descriptions to make sure they provide helpful information, and make sure focus-based navigation is simple and intuitive.

    Internationalize and localize your app

    Embrace a global market by localizing your app for other regions and languages. Prepare your app using the Foundation framework, which provides code to format strings, dates, times, currencies, and numbers for different languages and regions. Ensure your UI looks good for both left-to-right and right-to-left languages. Localize app resources and add them to your Xcode project.

    Design for everyone

    Consider social and cultural differences when developing content. Empathy is an important tool because it helps you understand how people with different perspectives might respond to the content and experiences you create.

    Test and debug your app thoroughly

    During the development cycle, address problems as they arise using the built-in Xcode debugger.

    Optimize performance

    Identify bottlenecks and other performance issues in your code with the Instruments app tool in Xcode. Profile your running code, find memory leaks, analyze resource usage, and much more.

    Distribute your app

    The App Store lets you deliver your apps to hundreds of millions of people around the world. Learn about preparing your apps for submission.

    Choose a business model

    Distribute your app or game on 175 storefronts on the App Store. Choose from a variety of business models, including free, freemium (free with optional In-App Purchases), paid, and more. Select your business model early in your app development to better provide people with a great app experience.

    Go further

    Ready to level up your skills? Dive into watchOS app documentation, to access more advanced and comprehensive resources for growing and expanding your app’s features and reach.