Apple releases watchOS 3.2 with new Theater Mode and SiriKit

Enlarge (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

The latest update for the Apple Watch is now available. Apple is pushing out watchOS 3.2 today to bring two key features to its smartwatch: Theater Mode and SiriKit. This is the second addition since Apple released the huge watchOS 3 update back in September 2016.

Theater Mode has been talked about a lot as Apple released betas of watchOS 3.2 over the past few months. It lets you mute sounds and disable the raise-to-wake feature of the watch, meaning its screen won't light up when it senses your wrist turning to check the time. This takes the Apple Watch's current Silent Mode onestep further, essentially eliminating all the lights and sounds the watch would make when triggered by movements or alerts. You'll still receive haptic feedback for incoming notifications (if you have that feature turned on), and you can still view notifications by manually waking the watch's display. Theater Mode can be activated by swiping up from the bottom of the Apple Watch's display and tapping the drama-masks button. Once you turn Theater Mode off, your Apple Watch will go back to your usual settings.

WatchOS 3.2 also brings SiriKit to the Apple Watch, which is a feature previously only available on iOS devices. This expands voice commands to third-party applications, letting you ask Siri on the Watch to do more for you like make a payment, call a car, or send a message. App developers must make extensions using Apple's Intents and Intents UI frameworks. So once third-party developers add those capabilities to their apps, you'll be able to do more with Siri from your Watch.

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