live activities

Live activities on Apple Watch have been significantly enhanced in watchOS 11. Here are some key points about live activities from the sessions at WWDC 2024:

1. Integration with Smart Stack:

   • In watchOS 11, live activities from your iOS app are available in the smart stack on Apple Watch. This means that even if you don't have a watchOS app, your live activities will automatically appear in the smart stack (What’s new in watchOS 11).

2. Automatic Appearance:

   • When a live activity begins on your iPhone, it automatically shows up at the top of the smart stack on Apple Watch, allowing you to track its progress just by raising your wrist (Design Live Activities for Apple Watch).

3. Customization:

   • You can provide custom content for the smart stack on Apple Watch by specifying that your live activity supports the small supplemental activity family. This allows the system to prefer your custom content view over the dynamic island views (What’s new in watchOS 11).
   • Developers can use the Xcode preview to see how their live activity will appear in the smart stack and customize it accordingly (Bring your Live Activity to Apple Watch).

4. User Interaction:

   • When a live activity starts, the smart stack is automatically presented and displays a widget for that live activity. This allows users to see the status of a live activity just by raising their wrist without having to first rotate the digital crown (Design Live Activities for Apple Watch).
   • If a user taps on the live activity widget, they are taken into the app. If there is no Apple Watch app, it will expand into a system-provided full-screen view with a button to open the app on iPhone (Design Live Activities for Apple Watch).

5. Design Guidelines:

   • There are specific visual guidelines for crafting great live activities on Apple Watch, ensuring that they are glanceable and provide the right amount of information at the right time (Design Live Activities for Apple Watch).

Relevant Sessions

• Design Live Activities for Apple Watch
• What’s new in watchOS 11
• Bring your Live Activity to Apple Watch

These sessions provide a comprehensive overview of how to implement and optimize live activities for Apple Watch in watchOS 11.