Apple Watch's Time Travel

Apple is saying goodbye to Time Travel — one of Apple Watch's under-used features — with watchOS 5 this fall.

According to an Apple Insider report, the Time Travel feature debuted as part of the watchOS 2 update. It lets users turn back (or forward) time to display certain information from a different date and time. It lets you go back and forth in digital time to see everything that was — or going to be — displayed on your Watch face.

The feature is utilised by rotating the Digital Crown on the Apple Watch clockwise or counter-clockwise, which would move time on the device in the appropriate direction. The Time Travel feature was used by some watch faces and developers could integrate it in their own apps.

Some app categories that could integrate the ability, such as weather, travel, and health. However, it never got traction among users and remained only a darling of the developer community.

"Developers testing the beta releases of watchOS 5 noticed the toggle disappear from settings — before the feature stopped operating completely," said the report.

The watchOS 5 update will be rolled out later this year, with a bunch of new features. These include walkie-talkie, third-party app support on the Siri watch face, live sports scores, commute time from one place to another, and heart rate after a workout. The update will come as a free update for Apple Watch Series 1 and later, dropping the support for the original Apple Watch.