iOS7 and Apple Watch

Question

I have a app with the minimum iOS target iOS7.

I am considering in add some extra features with the apple watch. Theres is any option to maintain the iOS7 as the minimum target and still add support for apple watch if the app is running on a iOS 8? Something like the extensions/widgets of the iOS8.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

In my case the only thing I had to do was creating the extension with Objective-C (Swift is not allowed on some iOS versions) and downgrading the Extension app target version to 8.2 instead of 8.3.

Answer 2

Yes, it's possible by weak linking WatchKit and performing runtime checks if required classes are available. Check this out on Raywenderlich.

Answer 3

You can set your deployment target to iOS7.x and make sure you build against iOS8.2 SDK. You will need to set the frameworks as optional (weak linking) in your build settings and perform run time checks to ensure you don't attempt anything with them on an iOS7.x device.

Optional frameworks will resolve as nil in an app where the framework is not linked.