On Friday, Apple officially informed developers that starting on June 1, 2016, all watchOS apps submitted to the App Store must be native apps built with the watchOS 2 SDK or later.
This is a way to set a minimum standard moving forward for all apps on the Apple Watch, and, for users of Apple’s most personal device to date, it should hopefully mean faster apps on the device across the board. Original Apple Watch apps use the connected iPhone to handle all of the computational muscle, and then stream those results over-the-air to the Apple Watch, causing a bit of a delay.
Apple’s June 1 deadline for native apps hits two weeks before the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where it is expected to show off new versions of iOS, OS X, watchOS, and tvOS.