Apple’s New iOS 10 And WatchOS 3 Have A Bunch Of Great Aussie Apps

iOS 10 is out today: it’s the most significant overhaul to the way you’ll use your iPhone in years. The latest and greatest version of WatchOS, too, overhauls the way that your Apple Watch works and what apps it can run. It’s also the most Aussie that iOS and WatchOS have ever been, too — with everything from Qantas stickers to homegrown fitness watch apps. If you’re just upgrading to iOS 10 or WatchOS 3 now, here are a few new Aussie apps to get you started.

The biggest upgrade in iOS 10 for most users, we think, will be the huge way that iMessage has evolved; lots of these apps below have new hooks into iMessage thanks to Apple opening the platform up to third-party developers. The new, fancier WatchOS 3 keeps multiple apps alive in the background, too, so you’ll actually use them. Here are a few Aussie apps that we know make good use of iOS 10 and Apple Watch.

ETA: Travel

ETA is a simple app; it collates your favourite destinations — home, work, a friend’s house, your local Macca’s — and gives you a straightforward guide to how long it’ll take to get there, whether you’re leaving right now or if you plan to make the trip later today. You can then translate those directions straight into your favourite nav app.

New in iOS 10 is ETA for iMessage, where you’re now able to share your arrival time to any destination from within Apple’s rich-messaging app. ETA also gets a bit more love on the Apple Watch, too — the digital crown lets you quickly travel into the future to see what your travel time will be like. [iOS — $4.49]

Sweat With Kayla: Fitness

Sweat With Kayla actually got a shout-out at Apple’s WWDC press conference when iOS 10 and WatchOS 3 were previewed, and we can understand why: the app looks like an amazing use of the Apple Watch for tracking exercise and regularly checking in on your overall fitness goals. It’s tailored to 28-minute exercise sessions and hooks into the world’s biggest female fitness community.

WatchOS 3 means that Sweat With Kayla can run right from your wrist — without you having to touch your phone. It also hooks into the Apple Watch’s activity rings, so your daily steps and overall exercise contributes more clearly to your fitness goals. [iOS — Free]

Zova: Fitness

Zova is a fitness app built in Australia that’s also an Apple Design Award winner for 2016, with guided exercises like walks, runs and 10-minute workout sessions. It works with Siri, too, so you can use your voice to kick off a stretching session or begin a run. Inside the app, you even get your own personal trainer called Zara that keeps track of your fitness and motivates you further.

WatchOS 3 gives Zova access to real-time heart graphs and workout progress markers, with rep counts and a list of what exercises are next in your workout plan. It’s also just nice and clean and easy to understand when you’re mid-sweat. [iOS — Free]

HeartWatch: Fitness

HeartWatch is a fitness app for serious workouts — it can give you a guide to how you’re performing at the gym — but it’s also a way to holistically view your heart health while you’re relaxing or walking or sleeping, giving you more information about your heart health every minute of the day. As long as you have an Apple Watch tracking your heartbeat, HeartWatch translates that information into an easily understandable form.

iOS 10 and WatchOS 3 come alongside the biggest update for HeartWatch for some time, and includes a badge that you can add onto your home screen to quickly monitor your heart health at a glance. You can also kickstart a workout for HeartWatch tracking from the watch itself. [iOS — $4.49]

Streaks: To-Do Lists

Streaks is an app that reinforces good habits, giving you a way to track up to six tasks that you want to complete each day and motivating you to actually do them. Your goal from there is to build a streak of consecutive days, creating a habit at first consciously and then unconsciously.

Coming alongside the WatchOS 3 update, you can now set a Streaks reminder and goal to use the Breathe app to take some mindful relaxation minutes out of your day, as well as the ability to share your goals through iMessage with other people. [iOS — $5.99]

Bonus: iMessage Stickers Galore

iMessage now has stickers in iOS 10! To be honest, they seemed a little bit lame at the presentation, but we’ve really come around to them in the few months since then and the few days and weeks that we’ve been using iOS 10. If that’s not enough to convince you to give them a go, maybe the fact that there are some genuinely fun Aussie-themed stickers might.

Qantas has a bunch of stickers, as does Hipster Whale’s ridiculously popular Crossy Road, Steppy Pants, Halfbrick’s Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja, and even cricket.


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