Developing for Apple Watch: Create Native watchOS Apps with the WatchKit SDK, 2nd Edition

You’ve got a great idea for an Apple Watch app. But how do you get your app from idea to wrist? This book shows you how to make native watchOS apps for Apple’s most personal device yet. You’ll learn how to display beautiful interfaces to the user, how to use the watch’s heart rate monitor and other hardware features, and the best way to keep everything in sync across your users’ devices. New in this edition is coverage of native apps for watchOS 2. With the new version of the WatchKit SDK in Xcode 7, your apps run directly on the watch.

On Apple Watch, your app is right on your users’ wrists, making your code closer than ever before. Create native watchOS apps by extending your iPhone app with a WatchKit Extension, giving your users quick access to your app’s most important features and an intimate user experience that’s always within arm’s reach.

You won’t just be creating apps – with Glances to provide timely information, notifications to inform your users of the latest updates, and watch face complications to show your users data as soon as they raise their wrists, your watchOS apps will be the best the App Store has to offer.

Any book can teach you how to make a watch app. This book will help focus your efforts and refine your app’s feature set. Which features make sense on the watch? How should you organize them? You’ll learn what to consider when judging watch app features, allowing you to come up with the best strategy for your app. You’ll test your apps on real Apple Watch hardware, and by the end of this book, you’ll be ready to ship to the App Store.

What You Need:

You’ll need a Mac running OS X Yosemite capable of running Xcode 7 or later. To build your apps for your Apple Watch, you’ll need to be running watchOS 2 or later, connected to a compatible iPhone.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. An Overview of Apple Watch
Chapter 2. WatchKit Extension Overview
Chapter 3. WatchKit User Interfaces
Chapter 4. Organizing Your UI with Groups
Chapter 5. Delivering Dynamic Content with Tables
Chapter 6. Navigating Between Interfaces
Chapter 7. WatchKit Extension Lifecycle
Chapter 8. Communicating with WatchConnectivity
Chapter 9. Creating Complications with ClockKit
Chapter 10. Extending Complications with Time Travel
Chapter 11. Getting Personal with Sensor Data and HealthKit
Chapter 12. Unlocking Watch App Performance
Chapter 13. Being a Good Watch App Citizen