If there is something characteristic of Apple Watch is its faces. In these we find different designs to which different complications can be added, which are a kind of widgets in watchOS that provide useful information about applications or serve as direct access to them. In this article, we tell you how you can share faces on your Apple Watch, receive them from your friends, and even download those from third parties.
Important: this functionality is available from watchOS 7 onwards, a version that is still in beta and will be released to the public in September or October.
Limitations of sharing spheres
In 2020, with the introduction of watchOS 7, Apple announced the expected functionality of sharing spheres with our contacts. This, despite not being something revolutionary, is very useful in order to further customize our watches and not have to manually configure the faces, this being a quick and easy process. However, there are several limitations. The first is that you must have watchOS 7 or later as a software version. This in itself limits functionality to Apple Watch Series 3, Series 4 and Series 5 , as they are the only watches from the Cupertino company that can upgrade to this version of the operating system.
On the other hand, we find some obvious limitations when we share an area in which there are third-party complications . This means that if you have something that belongs to a non-native app in the sphere, the person who receives your sphere will have to install that application if they do not have it in order to have that complication. It is not a serious thing, since this installation should not be too much effort, but it must be taken into account in any case.
The third and final limitation is that some faces are not compatible with other watches. In Series 4 and Series 5 there are no problems, since both share the same screen dimensions and in fact bring the same spheres in each of them. The problem comes when you want to share an exclusive sphere of these devices with an Apple Watch Series 3, since in this we find a smaller screen in which it cannot be seen.
Send and receive watchOS faces
We are fully into the possibility of sharing spheres on our Apple Watch. It should be noted that this process is carried out through the Messages app, more specifically the iMessage service to which Apple devices have access. It is possible that in the future they can be shared through other messaging services or even AirDrop, but at the moment it is the only option.
To share a watch face you must follow these steps:
- Place yourself in the sphere you want to share on your Apple Watch.
- Make a long press on the screen.
- Click on the share button to the left of “Edit”.
- Press “Add a contact” and select the person you want to send the sphere to.
- Write a message if you wish to accompany the sphere.
- Swipe down and click “Send” .
Once you have done this, your contact will have received the sphere by iMessage. At that time, your contact, like you, if you receive a sphere , will have to carry out the following steps:
- Open the message from the iPhone.
- Click on the image of the sphere.
- The Apple Watch app will open in iOS and you will have to click on Add to my spheres.
From that moment, both you and your contact when you receive it, will already have this face available for your watch. If it contains a third-party application as discussed in the previous section, permission will be requested to access the App Store and download it. If you decide not to do it, it will be possible to install it in the same way, although in this case the space of the complication not installed will remain empty.
Once the face is set on the watch, it will be possible to completely personalize it to the taste of each one. Perhaps it is not the most interesting considering that if you have asked that a sphere be shared, it is because you like it the way it is, but there is the possibility for anyone who wants to use it.
Download third-party spheres
At the moment this possibility is not available, considering that watchOS 7 is still in beta. That is why we do not have too much information about it, but Apple announced the possibility of finding third-party spheres in the App Store with the possibility of installing them on our watch. There may be free and paid, as with any application. A new method for downloading them from a website or social network was also announced. For this, the developers themselves will have to create and share it, showing a quick link so that the user can carry out the installation in the same way as when receiving it from a contact.
We will continue to update this article when there is more information on this point.