Apple has officially released watchOS2. The update to the Apple Watch was supposed to have been made available to the public last Wednesday, but Apple found a significant bug at the last minute which caused the software to be delayed. Now that it is out, the big question is should you upgrade? While a lot of people take a wait-and-see attitude with new software updates, holding off until a x.1 version to upgrade, we see no reason Apple Watch users should delay in the update. WatchOS 2 feels like the first complete operating system for the device and over the next few months will change the way you use the device. To us, the original 1.0 OS never felt finished and it was well known that Apple pulled features at the last minute to make the April release date.
While watchOS does not have a laundry list of new features like a new version of iOS does, it does bring some very important improvements. The most significant by far is that developers now have the ability to create…
apps that can live and run on the watch. 
Previously apps worked by running on the phone and streaming to Watch. This change not only means faster performance (the new Weather Channel app launches in seconds), but also much richer and more capable apps. Developers also now have access to the Taptic Engine and all of the Watch’s sensors. While these are changes that might not make an immediate difference when you install the operating system, over the coming weeks and months it will be a big deal.
From a usability standpoint, the Apple Watch can now connect to the internet via any trusted WiFi network. This allows watchOS 2 apps to still function without the phone. You can still send and receive iMessages or check the score of the big game when your phone is out of range of the watch. The feature is automatic, with the Watch inheriting the list of trusted WiFi networks from your iPhone.
To go along with the new native apps, there are now 3rd party complications. The array of complications that were available to customize your watch faces were always a compelling part of watchOS, but the they felt limited at times. With the new operating system, things have gotten better as developers can include custom complications with their apps.
Speaking of complications, there is a new feature called 
Time Travel which allows you to scroll forward or backward in time and the complications update to reflect the time change. From the watch face, simply twist the Digital Crown and the device enters Time Travel mode. As you move forward in time, things such as the calendar or weather update to correspond to the time you have advanced the device to. Simply press the Crown and the Watch returns to the current time.
WatchOS 2 also brings some new watch faces…well sort of. Apple has added a beautiful Time-lapse watch face that offers 6 different scenes; when you lift your wrist to look at the time, the scene animates through part of the day and lands on a view that corresponds the the current time of day. Apple has also added two photo based watch faces; the first allows you to set a photo of your choosing as the watch face and the second randomly chooses an image from a selected photo album.
We say these are “sort of” new because we have seen them before. When Apple debuted the Apple Watch last September, these watch faces were shown but mysteriously disappeared from Apple’s website last March. If you are planning on picking up an iPhone
6s/Plus it is worth mentioning that the Photo watch face supports the new Live Photo 
feature, which captures 1.5 seconds of video on either side of an image. Like the Time-lapse watch face, the image will animate when you raise your wrist…pretty cool. Beyond the “new” watch faces, Apple has also added a new multi-color view to the Modular face and has included a ton of new color options for most of the watch faces, corresponding to the new Apple Watch band offerings.
Nightstand mode has also been added with watchOS 2. Simply charge your Watch at night and place it on its side and the watch automatically displays something similar to an alarm clock. Tap on the watch face and it will light up in a soft green color to clearly display the time, date, and alarm. When in nightstand mode, the Digital Crown serves to snooze the alarm and the contact button turns it off.
Finally, there are some small improvements that are worth noting. You can now reply to emails from your wrist, the music app has been improved (and includes Beats1), the screen-on duration can be adjusted, you can have multiple screens of contacts, and Digital Touch drawings can now be multicolored.
All-in-all watchOS 2 is a solid update and one that every Apple Watch user should make the move to without trepidation. While the surface level changes might seem minor, the improvements made under-the-hood are significant and will greatly shape the future and success of the Apple Watch.
