WatchOS 5 comes to Apple Watch Series 1 and newer in autumn 2018 — and starting June 5 will be open for beta testing. You will need iPhone 5S or newer to support iOS 12 and WatchOS 5. The original Apple Watch will not support watchOS 5.
- Activity app - higher accuracy, fitness competitions with friends, new workout types: yoga, hiking.
- Outdoor run improvements - custom pace alert, rolling mile pace, cadence.
- Automatic workout detection for starting and ending a workout. Gives retroactive credit even if you started tracking late into your workout.
- A new Walkie Talkie app - behaves just like a walkie-talkie between Apple Watch users.
- Siri watch face - live sports, maps and commute times, heart rate, support for interacting with the Siri Suggestions and Siri Shortcuts mentioned in iOS 12.
- Raise your wrist and talk to Siri: you no longer need to say “Hey Siri” first.
- Interactive notifications - You can do more with the notifications you get on the watch now. Such as viewing web content and rating a restaurant etc.
- Web content with WebKit - ability to view web pages from Mail or Messages by opening them in watchOS integrated browser.
- The Podcasts app on iOS is now also on WatchOS. You can stream your podcasts from your watch.
- Background audio mode for 3rd party apps. Play music, audiobooks and podcasts from your favourite apps in the background.
Read about other Apple Software updates:
- iOS 12
- tvOS 12
- MacOS 10.14
Watch the full WWDC 2018 keynote at apple.com