14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that Apple plans to deprecate support for older Apple Watch apps that were built for the original version of its watchOS operating system with future releases.
While the news may be of concern for watchOS app developers as they will definitely need to update their Apple Watch apps if they didn't do so in a while, it's also important for users as it could mean a couple of things.
First, some of their favorite Apple Watch apps will no longer work in future versions of watchOS if the developers of those apps don't update them using the latest SDKs (Software Development Kits) provided by Apple on its Apple Developer website.
Second of all, this could mean that Apple is working on a major watchOS version that would add some exciting changes to Apple Watch's operating system, as well as to the watchOS ecosystem. Yes, we're talking about watchOS 5, which could be unveiled at WWDC 2018 this summer.
watchOS 4.3.1 early adopters receiving warnings for older apps
After releasing the watchOS 4.3 software update last month, Apple started working on the first point release, watchOS 4.3.1, which already received a first beta build last week. Those who managed to install it on their Apple Watch devices, are now getting warning for older apps.
The warning that we saw when opening an older Apple Watch was "This app will not work with future versions of watchOS. The developer of this app needs to update it to improve its compatibility." After tapping the OK button, we didn't saw the warning again, even after force closing the app.
Of course, this doesn't mean that Apple will deprecate older Apple Watch apps with the forthcoming watchOS 4.3.1 release, which would be a testbed and a first warning for application developers to update their apps made for the first watchOS version.
All in all, we'll take this as good news for the Apple Watch community because it can only mean we are about to experience a whole new era with the upcoming watchOS 5 operating system and the next generation Apple Watch series.
