To the naked eye, the Apple Watch Series 5 isn’t much better than its predecessor, the Series 4. It looks identical, aside from the Series 5’s always-on display. It’s pretty similar under the hood as well. The Series 5 has a few expected upgrades, such as a newer faster processor and more storage, but it has essentially the same combination of sensors and can track mostly the same metrics as the Series 4.
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The one big internal difference is that the Series 5 has a built-in magnetometer. This enables an all-new Compass app, which no other previous Apple Watch has, and it can help you tell which direction that you’re facing just by looking down at your wrist. The new sensor also enriches the experience of using other apps, besides the Compass, on the Series 5.
The obvious example is the Maps app, which can now tell you which direction you’re heading. But there are many third-party developers working on different apps that can take advantage of this new sensor as well.
“In previous Apple Watches without the native compass, map orientation was accurate only while you kept moving since the direction was determined from the GPS coordinates,” explains Jordi Ramot, the founder and CEO of Wikiloc, an outdoor trail app for hikers. On the Series 5, however, hikers are able to stay oriented even when they’re standing still. “You just turn around while looking at your Apple Watch and the maps will turn effectively displaying your current location and the features you’re looking at in front of you.”
Of course, the built-in compass is still a new feature and not every — if many — Apple Watch app takes advantage of it yet. Those that do are mostly outdoor-related, which makes sense given it’s a compass and all. We rounded up a few of those apps below, but it wouldn’t surprise us if many more that are updated with compass support in the near future.
