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Apple Watch watchOS 4.3 Is Here As 1 Great Feature Reappears. Should You Upgrade?

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Apple

The latest software for Apple Watch has finally come out of beta, first seen on January 25.

Unlike iOS, there's no public beta for Watch software so, unless you're a developer, you won't have seen the improvements the update offers. These are mostly smallish extras and little, but worthwhile, interface improvements. But they also include the very welcome return of a feature which was available on every Watch until watchOS 4 came along. Let's address that one first.

David Phelan

Control the music playing on your iPhone (and more)

So, you're listening to music playing on your iPhone. Since the days of the first watchOS, you could use your Apple Watch as a remote control to change the iPhone volume playback, skip tracks and so on when it was just too difficult to actually walk across the room to the iPhone.

But this feature disappeared with watchOS 4, to many users' disappointment. Now, it's back, with extra features.

As before, you can control that music playback, but now you can also control the music playing on a HomePod - and perhaps this is why the feature vanished in the first place, so it could return in triumph in this improved form.

Additionally, it means you can now stream any music from your Apple Music Library from your Watch to your HomePod or AirPods, without even using your iPhone. It works with all versions of Watch, assuming you have a wi-fi connection between your Watch and the AirPods or speaker.

So, for instance, so long as your AirPods are paired with your Watch, all you need to do is go to the Apple Music app, simply called Music, on your Watch. Then use the Digital Crown to spool through the platters until you see the one that offers these choices: On iPhone, Shuffle All and Library. Pick the song, artist, album or playlist you want and it'll start streaming to the AirPods, for instance. You can use the Digital Crown to adjust the volume, and the Play/Pause, Next Track and Previous Track icons to control playback.

It's a neat feature that's making a welcome, and improved, return.

David Phelan

Nightstand improvement

Nightstand is that neat screen which appears when you place the Watch on its side and attach it to a charger. The time appears digitally in big green numbers and the date, plus the level of charge in the top right corner.

Well, now you don't have to place the Watch on its side for this to work. If your charger holds the Watch vertically, the display is savvy enough to check which way up it is and display the time and so on in portrait mode. Now it could be entirely coincidental that Apple's AirPower wireless charging pad would benefit from this extra way to display the time. But, well, it probably isn't.

Apple is always keen to improve the appearance of its software and this update also adds a cute animation to Nightstand. Previously, as you attached the Watch to the charging puck, it would show the level of the charge, with a circular image confirming it - the nearer to complete the circle was, the nearer to full the charge was.

This still applies but now, when you attach it to the puck, a green line sweeps around the circle, in a clockwise direction, until it reaches the charge level. It then switches to the Nightstand view and you get to see the animation again, in little.

David Phelan

Other improvements include bug fixes. So a previous situation where the battery charge was only shown in 5% increments has been fixed so you can see if it's 24% or 31% or whatever. Now, most people won't have seen this issue because it wasn't there in the last public version of the software, 4.2, it's something that cropped up in the 4.3 beta.

Battery life

I've been using the Apple Watch with the new software since it arrived and I haven't yet seen any change in battery life in either direction. The truth is that if you charge your Watch every night, as most users do, you're unlikely ever to see an issue as it powers through a full day with ease. I'll keep checking this and report back but at the very least, there's no negative impact that I've seen.

Apple

Should you upgrade?

I've found this to be a stable, solid upgrade that has caused me zero problems, is easy and quick to install and works well. So, yes, I'd say it's worth the upgrade.

How to upgrade

To do this, simply open the Watch app on your paired iPhone and choose Settings, General, Software Update. The app will check that the update is available and you can begin the process of downloading and installing the update by following the onscreen instructions. It took me around 20 minutes in total to download and install the update. For the install part you need to have your Watch charged to 50% or more and placed on the charging puck, connected wirelessly to the iPhone which is transferring the data to it. Good luck.

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