A new patent suggests that future Apple Watches could come with the ability to detect the type of strap you’re wearing and automatically adjust the watch face to reflect that accessory.
In theory, this could mean that if you choose a refreshing Spring Green strap, your Apple Watch will adjust its face to a similar pastel hue. If you then switch to a deep red band, your smartwatch will reflect a more vibrant color. But there is a downside to this potential upgrade that will lock you in Apple’s walled garden.
Apple Watch and Band talk over NFC
News of this potential upgrade comes via a recent patent filing I spotted Obviously apples (Opens in a new tab). The patent describes a system where the smartwatch and the strap attached to it can use NFC chips that can interact with each other. This will allow the wearable to perform certain actions when it is attached to a specific band or when the band is removed.
The feature described in the patent will completely change the face of your watch based on the color of the band used.
Somewhat similar technology can already be seen on popular products like the Nintendo Switch, which can detect the color of attached Joy-Con controllers and display those colors on the system’s user interface. Some Apple devices such as the AirPods Max also do the same thing when connected to an iPhone, showing the correct colored headphones in the iOS menus.
The feature described in the patent will take this pre-existing concept a step further as the entire face of your watch will change based on the color of the band used. On the surface, it looks like a killer upgrade for the Apple Watch, but it could actually be a way to turn your wrist into a walled garden.
Upgrading the Apple Watch may have a dark side
An Apple Watch that detects the type of strap attached to your wrist can be used in more sinister ways than simply adjusting the color of the watch face to match.
In fact, the same patent indicates that the technology can be implemented to evaluate whether you’re using an official Apple band or a (cheaper) third-party accessory. Things get even more concerning when the patent notes that “when it is determined that the range associated with the device is not an authorized range, a warning may be given with an output component of the device and/or one or more features of the device. The device may be disabled or otherwise modified.”
Essentially, this could mean that Apple is looking to disable certain features if an Apple Watch owner opts for a third-party accessory over an Apple brand or officially licensed product. The patent attempts to justify this by stating that it would be a safety measure because an “unauthorized” accessory would not pass Apple’s quality checks. The patent claims that a third-party band “may not be properly secured to the device, which may cause damage.”
Perhaps Apple is spinning the feature as a way to protect the user from damaging their expensive smartwatch, but this seems like a lame excuse to put a hard limit on the accessories an Apple Watch user can buy.
It’s just a patent for the Apple Watch, for now
It is important to note that this new Apple Watch “upgrade” has not been officially confirmed for any future Apple smartwatches. For now, we only know about it thanks to the aforementioned patent, and it may never see the light of day.
Technology companies like Apple regularly file patents for all kinds of software features and product ideas. It is not uncommon for such patents to not reach the level of anything tangible. Heck, in 2020 Sony filed a patent for a system that lets you do that Control the PS5 console with a banana – And the last time you checked that you can’t play God of War Ragnarök with a piece of fruit.
While this patent could eventually lead to the described feature being implemented in a new Apple Watch somewhere, it is far from a guarantee. And even if the feature does make its way to an Apple wearable someday, it may have been changed to work differently than described above.
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