One of the features I miss most about my Pebble is third party watchfaces. The ability to mix up design, colors, individual elements, wallpapers, and other designs was fun. I could easily have different watch faces for different moods. With the Apple Watch, I only have the watch faces Apple has given me. I like having certain information available at all times. Time, of course, but also weather, date, my activity, and upcoming events. Only one Apple Watch face reliably gives me all of that, and it’s not very customizable or very attractive. A piece of code in the latest version of watchOS shows that Apple’s at least preparing for third party watch faces.
Code revealing that Apple is working on third party watch faces.
A Watch is Personal
Apple hasn’t been extremely in favor of customization in the past, but a watch is something very personal. A smartwatch is a wearable. It’s something you have on you all day. It’s a piece of jewelry. A smartwatch is not just a device. As such, Apple has released many watch bands, and third parties have made many more. I’m wearing one such third party watchband from Bezels and Bytes. Perhaps they’re ready to allow more customization in the watch now.
How Could Apple Do It?
Apple has a few options. They could open third party watch faces up to iOS and macOS developers, allowing people to write code in Objective-C and Swift to customize their faces. That’s almost too convenient though. If Apple did something like that, it would allow for some creative customizations, but could also open the Apple Watch up to new vulnerabilities. These watch faces could also cause the battery to drain more rapidly. Apple could potentially take care of security with an Apple Watch Face Store, like the App Store, but they wouldn’t be able to protect battery life as easily. So how could Apple possibly create customizable watch faces without sacrificing security and battery life?
My current (and favorite) watch band from Bezels & Bytes
We already have the answer in mobile and web development. A markup language. Something like HTML for the web, XML for Android layouts, or Apple’s XIB files. Basically, it’s a limited language that allows people to edit layouts, that is, where items go and how they display, but not the code they run. Those who make watch faces for the Apple Watch would likely use a GUI like that in Xcode to line up items, with a simple markup language in text files to get details down.
These watch face developers would have a lot of control over what complications are available for their watches, but not necessarily what’s in the complications. In a way, they’d be creating a layout, which the user could then further customize. It would allow users the ultimate level of customization. They can choose their face, their layout, and fill their complications up with whatever they choose.
Should Apple Do It?
There’s virtually no down side to allowing third parties to create their own watch faces. With a markup language to limit developers, users could be protected from malicious or overzealous apps. Third party watch face developers could make their own setups with ease, with only the levels of customization that Apple sees fit. Though users would finally get true watch face customization, Apple would still have all the control. That’s just how Apple likes it.
Source: Guilherme Rambo, 9to5Mac