watchOS 8 developer leak teases new Apple Watch apps — including Mind for mental health

A new leak has hinted that Apple could be planning to launch several new apps for watchOS 8 during today’s WWDC 2021 (7 June) event.

That’s according to MacRumors, which reports that developer Khaos Tian has discovered several updates to the App Store manifest, and now contains references to several mysterious app bundles.

If the information holds to be true, the Apple Watch could be about to shift further away from being a mere iPhone accessory, offering more standalone applications in a more independent software ecosystem. While there’s not much to go on, Tian has highlighted a new App Store profile that refers to a number of unannounced ‘Nano’ entries. 

‘Nano’ typically refers to watchOS apps, with the included entries thereby seeming to hint at new watchOS-native versions of both the Contacts and Tips apps that are found on other Apple devices, including those based on iOS and iPadOS.

In what perhaps marks the most intriguing of these new manifest updates is one that makes reference to a ‘Mind’ app that isn’t available on existing Apple products. 

Once again, there’s very little to go on, but some form of a mental health or mindfulness app would track with recent reports of watchOS 8 getting better health-tracking, amongst several other new health tools.

So, while this remains pure speculation for now, it hints at a possible path forward to a freer Apple Watch. The company certainly made vast strides towards greater independence with watchOS 7’s Family Setup, enabling kids to use an Apple Watch that’s linked to their parents’ iPhone.

But unlike the run-up to watchOS 7’s reveal, there haven’t been any major watchOS 8 leaks relating to software details. And though we might not bank on total autonomy for future Apple Watches, it does seem that the new software is inching closer to that place.

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