Apple readies “TVKit” SDK for Apple TV, and Apple Watch updates like “Find my Watch”, irregular heart beat notifications, 3rd-party watch face complications
Apple readies first significant Apple Watch updates, ‘TVKit’ SDK for Apple TV
Context & Ripple Effects
This report slots between two milestones in the related coverage: in April, Apple opened the App Store to all third-party Watch developers, and weeks later sources said no new Apple TV hardware will be announced at WWDC. The TVKit SDK fills that gap — software first, with the hardware question deferred — while the Watch items extend an arc that began with January's leaked Companion-app features like monograms and activity reminders.
The significance is that both products are being converted from closed appliances into developer platforms: TVKit gives the Apple TV an SDK ahead of any confirmed refresh, and third-party watch face complications turn the Watch's most personal surface into app real estate, alongside safety-oriented features like Find My Watch and irregular heartbeat notifications.
First-order effects
- Watch developers who gained full App Store access in April can now build complications on the watch face itself — the highest-visibility placement on the device — while owners gain Find My Watch and irregular heartbeat alerts as headline reasons to keep wearing it.
Second-order effects
- With no Apple TV hardware expected at WWDC, a ready TVKit SDK signals Apple is courting app catalogs before the box ships, pressuring rivals' living-room platforms to match an App Store model rather than a content-only one.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — SDKs preceding hardware, faces becoming app surfaces, health sensors feeding proactive notifications — the Watch consolidates toward a health-and-platform device and the Apple TV toward an App Store play, a structure the corpus shows persisting through later releases like the Siri-driven watchOS 4 face.
The trend: Apple is systematically converting the Apple Watch and Apple TV from fixed-function devices into developer platforms, with software kits and health features leading each hardware generation.