Texting on Apple Watch: How to Send a text from a Watch App in WatchOS2

Hey Guys, In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to leverage the watchOS 2 for texting on Apple Watch. This tutorial will enable you to open the message app and send a text, using the open system URL in a native Apple Watch app.

Introduction:

As you know at the WWDC 2015 event, Apple announced the first major update to the Watch OS, the watchOS 2. Along with a number of new features and enhancements, the most important feature that this update brought to the Apple Watch was the ability to create native Apple Watch apps. These native apps not only give better performance and improved usability, they can also leverage the Apple Watch’s hardware (like the digital crown, the microphone, health sensors, etc.) to perform certain functions, such as for example, using the Open System URL for making calls and sending text messages. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to open the messages app for texting on Apple Watch, by using the Open System URL from a native apple watch app. This tutorial requires that you have XCode 7 running on Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10) or a later version, and an Apple Watch running watchOS 2, since the watch simulator cannot send and receive text messages like the iOS simulator. So let’s get started.

Setting Up the Project

First, open up Xcode and create a new project. You’ll notice that the project wizard includes a watchOS section on the left. Just select the iOS App with WatchKit App template from the watchOS > Application section and click Next (as depicted below).

Next, fill in the required information Just name the app SMS and uncheck all checkboxes at the bottom, since we don’t need any of those for this particular app (as shown below).

Before adding anything to the project, we first need to configure XCode to build and run the correct app target. To do that just click the active scheme SMS and choose the following option:

Now, click the play button to build and run your app.

2. Creating the User Interface

For the sake of simplicity, in this tutorial we’re just going to add a button and name it SMS in an interface controller.
 

Next, drag and drop an IBAction from the SMS button to the interface controller (as shown below).

 
Let’s name this IBAction onBtnSMS (as shown below)

Next, in the onBtnSMS IBAction access the shared instance of WKExtension and name its method as openSystemUrl(“sms:”). The WKExtension object basically manages the behaviors that are shared among all of your app’s interface controllers. Every WatchKit extension has a single extension object that is created and managed by the system.

Now, let’s compile and run the app on your Apple Watch. When you do that you’ll see the following screen.

Just tap the SMS button to launch the messages app. You’ll notice that it already has a predefined number and text added to the message.

Send out the text by pressing the Send button. And that’s it!

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