Images swapping a hot pink Apple Watch band for an earth-tone green, and having your watch face automatically change to a matching color, eliminating (more annoying than it should be) manual customization process. According a patent application seen by patent apple, we can actually get something like this. The patent describes a wearable device and bands that have NFC chips, allowing the watch to act automatically when you attach or remove certain accessories.
Apple patenting something doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll get it in the future, but it does show that there are some pretty fun ideas floating around within the company. Beyond changing the color palette when you put on the band, the patent says the system could launch a fitness app when you put on an athletic-style band or activate the water purge sound when you remove the swimming band.
He also says that NFC could be used to communicate with components on the band, such as additional sensors and even displays. The idea of integrating things into the band isn’t new, but this approach might make it a bit more reliable than using another standard, like Bluetooth.
Again, it’s quite possible that we’ll never see any of these features. However, the company already has many of the pieces prepared for this. You do a color match when you pair some devices like AirPods Max or certain Beats models with your iPhone – the graphs show headphones with the same color as the ones you’re holding. It also has a system for NFC-based automations via the Shortcuts app on iOS. While the watch doesn’t support that, you can tap it on GymKit-enabled exercise equipment to automatically start tracking a workout and syncing fitness data.
Unfortunately, there are some more obscure ways of using this that also take precedent. The patent notes that the system could be used to tell if you’re using an official Apple band or a third-party one. “Upon determining that a band that is attached to the device is not an authorized band, a warning may be provided using an output component of the device, and/or one or more features of the device may be disabled or otherwise modified,” the patent says. Remember Apple’s unauthorized battery warnings? Imagine getting one of those because you bought an $8 silicone band instead of a $49 one, or not being allowed to start a workout because your watch is worried that your “unauthorized” band isn’t secure enough (that is essentially the justification the patent provides for this use case).
Still, I can dream that we’ll get the good (cool color matching and other automations) without the bad (DRM for bands). This feature might only work with a new Apple Watch, unless it’s secretly built into current ones or can be emulated with existing hardware, but it might actually provide a compelling reason to upgrade, something not all generations have.
