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Apple Watch App Development
Apple Watch App Development

Apple Watch App Development: Build real-world applications for the Apple Watch platform using the WatchKit framework and Swift 2.0

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Apple Watch App Development

Chapter 2. Understanding Apple Watch

During the launch of WWDC 2015, Apple introduced a new addition to their product lineup called Apple Watch, which runs the new watchOS platform. It has been designed and built from the ground up while borrowing design characteristics from iOS 8, with features and apps that take advantage of the hardware within the Apple Watch device.

Apple Watch comes with a variety of apps, such as Activity and Workout, which read data from the accelerometer and the heart rate sensor, while other apps contain communication features that enable users to send sketches, heartbeats, as well as animated emojis. Notification messages are sent from the iPhone device and delivered to Apple Watch with small haptic taps on the wrist, while Glances offers small pieces of information that can easily be digested in a few seconds without having to pull your iPhone out of your pocket.

Since the release of Apple Watch, the Apple developer community has embraced this new...

Introduction to the WatchKit platform

This section provides you with an overview of the WatchKit platform, which is a fundamental part of Apple Watch. When developing apps for Apple Watch, it takes advantage of the WatchKit framework that happens to be included as part of the iOS SDK, and both are embedded into the watchOS and iOS operating systems.

The WatchKit framework contains the necessary classes that provide the underlying functionality for both the WatchKit extension and the WatchKit application and is responsible for handling all of the communication between the WatchKit extension that runs on the iPhone device and its corresponding WatchKit application that is installed on Apple Watch.

Whenever you begin developing Apple Watch apps, you will notice that your project contains a number of different targets that make use of the WatchKit platform.

Note

A target is the final end product that is created by your application, and these can be either an app, a framework, or even a static...

Apple Watch Human Interface Guidelines

When designing apps for Apple Watch, these apps need to be designed differently from how you would go about designing apps for phone or tablets as they provide a different user experience. It is important to keep in mind and follow the Apple Watch interface guidelines documentation that Apple provides.

This document describes guidelines and principles that can help you design consistent user interfaces and experiences for your Watch apps as well as ensure that your applications are running efficiently within the Apple Watch platform. You need to consider the screen sizes for your custom layouts as well as the ease of use your app brings to the platform. Other areas are covered to ensure the consistency of your application while navigating from screen to screen; the principles of designing good user interfaces are also covered.

There is also information related to the proper use and appearance of views and controls for navigation, alerts, notifications...

What's new in watchOS 2

In this section, we will take a look at the differences between watchOS 1.0 and watchOS 2. One of the biggest highlights of the watchOS 2 platform is the support for native apps, which means that the apps will be able to run entirely on Apple Watch without having to rely on iPhone. This allows developers to access the device's built-in heart rate sensor, the Taptic feedback engine, accelerometer, and microphone with the ability to build custom watch faces to display information within the Apple Watch face.

The watchOS 2 version comes with two brand new watch faces called Time Travel, which displays information about future complications, such as weather and calendar events, and the Nightstand mode, which is activated when Apple Watch charges. There are also several improvements to Mail as well as support for FaceTime Audio, and it supports multiple colors for sketches and lets users add more than twelve friends to their list of contacts.

Apple has also...

Summary

In this chapter, you were introduced to the architecture behind the WatchKit platform, and we discussed how the WatchKit framework is responsible for handling the communication between Apple Watch and the paired iPhone over Bluetooth as well as the differences between the WatchKit app and extension. We then moved on to discussing the WatchKit application life cycle and took an overview of what happens when an app is launched on Apple Watch and the associated classes and methods that are called before taking a look at some of the limitations that the WatchKit framework currently has.

In our next step, you learned about Apple Watch Human Interface Guidelines to ensure that we develop our apps in accordance with Apple's best practices. Finally, we got an insight into some of the great new features and additions that are coming as part of the watchOS 2 platform.

In the next chapter, you will learn how to work with Xcode's Interface Builder and some of the controls that come...

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Key benefits

  • Find out how to download and install the Xcode development tools before learning about Xcode playgrounds and the Swift programming language
  • Discover everything you need to know about the WatchKit platform architecture, its classes, as well its limitations
  • This book introduces you to the very latest mobile platform with hands-on instructions so you can build your very own Apple Watch apps

Description

With the increasing amount of new wearable devices hitting the market, wearables are the next wave of mobile technology. With the release of Apple's WatchKit SDK, a whole new world of exciting development possibilities hasopened up. Apple Watch App Development introduces you to the architecture and limitations of the Apple Watch platform, followed by an in-depth look at how to work with Xcode playgrounds. Here, we'll introduce you to the Swift programming language so you can quickly begin developing apps for the Apple Watch platform with the WatchKit framework and the Xcode Development IDE. We then discuss more advanced topics such as Notifiations, Glances, Closures, Tuples, Protocols, Apple pay, and using Swift playgrounds, with each concept backed up with example code that demonstrates how to properly execute it. We also show you how to package and deploy your Watch application to the Apple AppStore. By the end of this book, you will have a good understanding of how to develop apps for Apple Watch platform using the WatchKit framework and Swift 2.0.

Who is this book for?

This book is intended for developers who are interested in creating amazing apps for the Apple Watch platform. Readers are expected to have some experience using Swift.

What you will learn

  • Navigate within the WatchKit interface using page-based, modal, and hierarchical navigation techniques
  • Work with context menus to interact with the Apple Watch Taptic Engine and respond to their actions by integrating Haptic feedback
  • Use the MapKit framework to display a map within the WatchKit interface
  • Build effective user interfaces for the WatchKit platform and integrate HealthKit capabilities to synchronize data between the iOS app and the WatchKit UI
  • Design your apps for the Apple Watch platform with the UI design guidelines
  • Reinforce image compression and caching to display animations within the Apple Watch user interface
  • Explore WatchKit tables to purchase products and pay for them using Apple Pay
  • Analyze the new layout system to ensure that your Apple Watch apps work with various screen sizes
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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Apr 29, 2016
Length: 358 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781785886362
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Table of Contents

12 Chapters
1. Introducing the Swift Programming Language Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Understanding Apple Watch Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Exploring WatchKit Controls Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Using the Core Location and Watch Connectivity Frameworks Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Navigating Around in WatchKit Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Implementing Tables within Your App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Adding Menus to Your App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Incorporating the Glance Interface in Your App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Incorporating Notifications within Your App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Image Compression and Animation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Packaging and Deploying Your App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.5
(2 Ratings)
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4 star 50%
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1 star 0%
Amazon Customer Jul 03, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
This book give a nice introduction for anybody who's interested in creating apps for the Apple Watch. It doesn‘t really matter if you have already done iOS development before or not. Some basic programming know-how is expected though.Code samples are all in Swift. Don‘t worry if you're not too experienced in Swift, it's an easy language to get the hang off. Any IDE specific workflow is well described with screenshots.Throughout the book the reader learns how to build different features of a watch app with a set of sample projects. They're realistic examples where you can see results and use as a base to experiment further.Disclaimer: I'm the technical reviewer for this book. I'm not being paid for this review and it solely reflects my own opinion.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
RichApple Apr 25, 2023
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
As a long time Apple developer, I still have issues with Apple documentation. This book helps kick start the core processes in your development cycle and really reduces your 'research' time to get a sample project running.Watch App development seems to be a bit under covered in the developer book world. This is one of my favorite 'how do I do that again' reference. Well worth saving your time being creative, and not wasting your time reading Apple docs on core processes.Reading/referencing this book makes going back to the Apple docs much less cryptic.Needs to be updated for current Swift and WatchKit OS
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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