The Top New Features in WatchOS 11 (2024) Leave a comment

At this 12 months’s Worldwide Builders Convention, Apple introduced small however important updates to watchOS 11.

This 12 months is the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Apple Watch, and rumors abound that we are going to see a significant redesign of Apple’s wearable this fall, with a brand new suite of well being options which will embody blood pressure monitoring and sleep apnea detection. This summer season’s replace does not embody that stuff, however it does embody the brand new Vitals app, in addition to a complete algorithm known as Coaching Load. These options, mixed with new partnerships with the real-time glucose monitor Dexcom, make the watch a extra complete well being monitoring system.

The brand new capabilities come together with different upgrades, like a redesigned Pictures face and updates to final 12 months’s Sensible Stack, which helps you to scroll by means of your widgets extra simply. Right here, we break down the working system’s prime new options. And as at all times, don’t overlook to take a look at our guides to the Best Smartwatches and the Best Fitness Trackers.

Is Your Apple Watch Suitable?

WatchOS 11 is appropriate with the Apple Watch SE (2nd genration) and newer. Nonetheless, you will have an iPhone Xs or later that runs iOS 18. Not all of the options listed right here will probably be out there on each watch.

When Will WatchOS 11 Be Accessible?

The developer beta is at present out there to folks enrolled in Apple’s developer program. The general public beta will probably be out there quickly as an elective free software program replace for customers of the Watch Collection 6 or newer. The ultimate model of watchOS 11 will roll out this fall to everybody.

High WatchOS 11 Options

A lot of the prime new options are listed right here, however try Apple’s information for the full list.

A New Vitals App

Coronary heart fee, respiratory fee, pores and skin temperature, and blood oxygen (well, maybe) are only a few of the essential well being options that the Apple Watch at present screens. A brand new Vitals app in WatchOS 11 helps you to shortly view these metrics at a look in a tidy dashboard. The app additionally lets you recognize when these numbers drift out of a protected vary, utilizing real-world knowledge derived from Apple’s Heart and Movement study. In case your numbers drift too excessive or too low, Apple will ship you a notification to test if perhaps you’re sick, or for those who drank some wine final night time, or for those who’re doing one thing else unhealthy.

A type of behaviors (ahem) might end in being pregnant, which is why Apple can also be launching a brand new being pregnant characteristic within the Cycle Monitoring part of the Well being app. Cycle Monitoring will now additionally let customers document the gestational age of a fetus, in addition to monitor different knowledge factors that may present perception right into a mom’s well being throughout a being pregnant, resembling their coronary heart fee.

Coaching Load

For the previous a number of years, Apple has included increasingly more granular health options into its watch. These superior options are supposed to permit the Apple Watch to raised compete with Garmin’s premium outside sports activities watches. One massive gap in Apple’s characteristic checklist? A complete algorithm, like Garmin’s Physique Battery or Fitbit’s Each day Readiness, that helps wearers perceive what to do with all that granular knowledge.

At WWDC, Apple introduced Coaching Load, which measures how the depth and period of your exercises affect your health over time.

Coaching Load takes into consideration calorimetric knowledge like coronary heart fee, tempo, and elevation, plus private knowledge like age and weight. If you happen to’re doing a preferred cardio exercise whereas carrying your watch, the wearable can robotically generate a 1 to 10 effort ranking rating. In any other case, you’ll be able to enter your individual effort ranking by selecting a quantity between 1 and 10. Apple then generates a 28-day Coaching Load rating that may allow you to examine your previous month of exercises to the final seven days to see for those who’re enhancing in your subsequent aim, whether or not that is a 5K or a marathon. You can even manually modify this estimate to account for elements like soreness or sickness.