How to implement Live Activities to watchOS 11

To implement Live Activities for watchOS 11, you can follow these steps:

1. Automatic Appearance: When users update to iOS 18 and watchOS 11, your existing iOS Live Activity will automatically appear in the Smart Stack on Apple Watch. This means that your compact leading and trailing views from the Dynamic Island will be shown without any additional code changes.

2. Customizing the Live Activity View:

   • Preview in Xcode: Use the "All Variants" preview in Xcode 16 to see how your Live Activity will appear on watchOS. This allows you to visualize the default presentation and make necessary adjustments.
   • Supplemental Activity Families: To provide a custom Live Activity view for Apple Watch, you can specify that your Live Activity supports the small supplemental activity family. This is done by adding the supplementalActivityFamilies modifier to your activity configuration. The system will then prefer your custom content view over the default Dynamic Island views.
   • Environment Customization: Use the environment to further customize the layout of your Live Activity view for watchOS. This includes ensuring that your views are timely, relevant, and informative.

3. Interactivity and Relevance:

   • Smart Stack: In watchOS 11, the Smart Stack will automatically present your Live Activity widget when a Live Activity starts. This allows users to see the status of the activity just by raising their wrist.
   • Always-On Display: Ensure your Live Activity supports the dark appearance in always-on display mode with reduced luminance. Semantic colors like primary will automatically adjust to the appropriate color scheme.

4. Update Frequency and Budgeting:

   • Synchronization: Live Activity updates are synchronized automatically to Apple Watch, and you don't need to manage separate push tokens. The update frequency and budget are similar to iOS, and high-frequency updates are supported when requested in your iOS app.

For a detailed walkthrough, you can refer to the session Bring your Live Activity to Apple Watch (00:01:07).

Relevant Sessions

1. Bring your Live Activity to Apple Watch
2. Design Live Activities for Apple Watch
3. What’s new in watchOS 11

These sessions provide comprehensive guidance on implementing and customizing Live Activities for watchOS 11.