Future Apple Watches might routinely decorate with their bands

Imaging swapping out a scorching pink Apple Watch band for an earth-tone inexperienced one, and having your watchface routinely change to an identical colour, reducing out the (extra annoying than it needs to be) guide customization course of. Based on a patent submitting noticed by Patently Apple, we may very well get one thing like that. The patent describes a wearable and bands which have NFC chips, letting the watch routinely take motion if you join or take away sure equipment.

Apple patenting one thing doesn’t essentially imply that we’ll get it sooner or later, but it surely does present that there are some fairly enjoyable concepts floating round inside the corporate. Past switching up the colour palette if you connect the band, the patent says the system might launch a health app if you connected an athletic-style band or activate the water-purging sound if you take off a swim band.

It additionally says that NFC could possibly be used to speak with parts within the band, equivalent to further sensors and even shows. The thought of constructing issues into the band isn’t new, however this method might make it a bit extra dependable than utilizing one other commonplace, like Bluetooth.

Once more, it’s very doable we gained’t ever see any of those options. Nevertheless, the corporate already has lots of the items in place for this. It does colour matching if you pair some gadgets just like the AirPods Max or sure fashions of Beats together with your iPhone — the graphics present headphones with the identical colour as those you’re holding. It additionally has a system for NFC-based automations through the Shortcuts app on iOS. Whereas the Watch doesn’t help that, you’ll be able to faucet it on GymKit-enabled train gear to routinely begin monitoring a exercise and syncing health knowledge.

Sadly, there are just a few darker methods this could possibly be used that even have precedent. The patent notes that the system could possibly be used to inform if you happen to’re utilizing an official Apple band or a third-party one. “Upon willpower {that a} band that’s coupled to the system just isn’t a licensed band, a warning could also be offered utilizing an output part of the system, and / or a number of options of the system could also be disabled or in any other case modified,” the patent says. Keep in mind Apple’s unauthorized battery warnings? Think about getting a kind of since you purchased an $8 silicone band as an alternative of a $49 one, or not being allowed to begin a exercise as a result of your watch is frightened that your “unauthorized” band isn’t safe sufficient (that’s basically the justification the patent supplies for this use case).

Nonetheless, I can dream that we’ll get the great (cool colour matching and different automations) with out the unhealthy (DRM for bands). It’s doable this characteristic would solely work with a brand new Apple Watch, until it’s secretly constructed into present ones or could possibly be emulated with current {hardware}, but it surely might truly present a compelling cause to improve — one thing that not each technology has.