Xcode 7 supporting watch OS1 and OS2

Question

I have been fiddling with Xcode 7 for sometime now, I get to know that it supports only Swift 2 and there is no way to support Swift 1.0 or 1.2 in Xcode 7. This is fine.

Now coming to WatchOS, can I have two targets one for WatchOS1 and one for WatchOS2 separately in Xcode 7 so that I can support for both??

I was looking into the deployment target setting in the build settings of both the watch target and the iOS app target but I could see only WatchOS2 in the list so

1. Can I support two targets one for WatchOS1 & WatchOS2 respectively in Xcode 7? If so should I install WatchOS1 SDK at some place?? or this it totally not possible, if not why?.

2. If both targets can be supported how can I prevent source duplicates for both targets since both OS have significant differences in terms of architecture.

3. Also since the introduction of WatchConnectivity framework the iOS counterpart app will also have some changes, how to maintain that for the two targets?

I am confused and I need to take a decision quickly, any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

You can support watchOS 1 apps in Xcode 7. You can also support watchOS 2 apps in Xcode 7.

If you want to support both watchOS 1 and watchOS 2 then you will need to have separate targets for each OS (due to the differences in architecture)

For a watchOS 1 app, add a new target and select the Apple Watch section from the left and then click on the WatchKit App for watchOS 1 from the list.

For a watchOS 2 app, add a new target and select the watchOS > Application section and then click on the WatchKit App option in the list.

Couple of things to note about making a watchOS 1 app in Xcode 7 (beta 1)...

Because I did my testing on an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.3 and my watch running watchOS 1.0.1, I needed to change my deployment target to iOS 8.3 but note that you want to do this at a project level rather than just target level (so that the extension also gets set to 8.3 and not just the main app) otherwise it won't let you deploy onto a real device.

Due to a known issue in Xcode 7 beta 1, a watchOS 1 app will fail to install on a real watch with the following error if your paired phone is 64 bit:

Jun 20 17:25:08 Liams-iPhone companionappd[271] <Notice>: (Error) WatchKit: validateWatchKitApplicationInfoDictionary, invalid Info.plist key 'UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities'

This is because Xcode 7 is adding arm64 to the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities info.plist key at build time even to your watchOS 1 extension when it shouldn't be.

You can temporarily get around this by setting Build Active Architecture Only to NO for DEBUG mode.

Hope that helps

Answer 2

You can have both a watchOS 2 app for an iOS 9 iPhone and a watchKit Extension for an iOS 8 device.

I would though say that if you haven't already made a WatchKit app (as in watchOS 1), then it's highly unproductive to make a watchOS 2 app and try to create and maintain a watchOS 1 app... just jump on board to watchOS 2 for sanity purposes!