Detect user's watchOS version from iOS app

Question

I have an iOS app where I have some settings in the iOS app related to the watch. I only want to show them if the user has an Apple Watch that's compatible with my app.

In WatchConnectivity I can query WCSession's isPaired property to see if the user has a watch but I can't figure out how to determine the watchOS version (it needs to be >5.0 to use my app).

Is there a way to determine the watchOS version from the iOS app?

I do not think you can check the watchOS version from iOS. However, you could communicate between the watch app from iOS app to get information you need. — Lei Zhang
Thanks but I'm still not able to tell the difference between a user who has a watch on watchOS 4 and can't install the watch app vs a user on watchOS 5 that can install the watch app but hasn't — Stephen
@Stephen try to get from bluetooth info you are interested in Link1 Link2 — George
interesting idea, unfortunately the watch seems to have special handling where it's not available through the standard bluetooth methods — Stephen
Why don't you just restrict the watchOS Deployment Target to be 5.0 ? — Starsky

117MasterChief96 117MasterChief96 · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-25T18:14:45

Here are two possible solutions. Number 1 checks for the OS which if I understand your question you already know, but then 2 checks for the OS version which is WatchOS 5.0 and later. This is what I have done so I hope it helps you.

1.

#if os(watchOS)
    ...your code          
#endif

if #available(watchOS 5.0, *) {
    ...your code
}

Detect user's watchOS version from iOS app

1 Answers