Five reasons to like the Apple WatchOS update

Apple Watch is only a year old, but what a year it's been. It's already on its way to the third release of its software, with WatchOS 3 coming in autumn as a free update. Here's some of the best bits to come.

It’s speedy

Waiting for the Apple watch to open apps isn’t the most time consuming thing we’ve ever done, but shaving a couple of seconds off the load times would make an enormous difference. WatchOS 3 grants that wish, claiming to be up to seven times faster. regardless of the numbers though, one thing we noticed from the live demo was that it zips along.

It’s also easier to find your favourite apps, with a dock just for that purpose that you access with a push of the side button. You can also change up your watchface at a swipe too. Those watchfaces are more customisable now too.

Activity steps it up

Ah Activity, those rings of yours are the bane of many a fitness conscious Apple Watch user, and also a source of great achievement, depending on how close to your goal you get each day. But WatchOS3 refines the experience a little more.

Activity not only gets some useful extra features for the current crop of users - the ability to access heart and other data in the background so you can monitor your heart rate during exercise for example - but the new version of the software will bring activity settings aimed at wheelchair users.

You can also challenge your friends and family, notching up more steps than them and sending the trash talking text messages to fuel the competition.

Breathe deeply

No, it’s not the punchline of a bad joke. Apple really is putting an app to remind you to breathe on the Watch. Not just any old breathing though: deep breathing, breathing that relaxes you. You can set the watch up to give you haptic clues for your session, and once it guides you through your breathing session, the watch will them reveal your heart rate after the exercise.

Messages

The Watch face is too small to try to type out a reply, unless you’re a masochist, so Apple fell back on canned replies and emojis to get users’ point across. But now WatchOS is getting some new features, including Scribble, which converts words written on the display into text.

SOS

One of those features you hope you never have to use. The new watch software will allow you to contact the emergency services with a press of a button. You’ll need some sort of access to a network though, with either your iPhone or wifi making the call for you.