Apple today released watchOS 11with sleep apnea notifications, the Vitals app, training load, additional customization for Activity rings, a more personalized Smart Stack, and more.
Here are the new features as announced by Apple:
Sleep Apnea Notifications
Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 now offer a feature to help identify signs of sleep apnea. To detect signs of sleep apnea, Apple Watch uses the accelerometer to monitor small movements at the wrist during sleep that are associated with interruptions in normal respiratory patterns, tracked by a new Apple Watch metric called Breathing Disturbances. Users can view their nightly Breathing Disturbances in the Health app, where they are classified as elevated or not elevated, and can be viewed over a one-month, six-month, or one-year period.
Following an onboarding for the feature, the new sleep apnea notifications algorithm analyzes breathing disturbance data every 30 days, so Apple Watch can notify a user if it identifies signs of sleep apnea. The notification includes the time period when potential sleep apnea occurred and educational materials on the importance of seeking treatment, along with a PDF providing three months of breathing disturbance data, notification details, and additional information to reference during a conversation with a healthcare provider.
Sleep apnea notifications use the advanced processing power of the S9 SiP and S10 SiP and scientifically validated algorithms. The feature was developed with advanced machine learning and training data from thousands of nights of clinical-grade sleep apnea tests, and validated in the largest study ever conducted for the FDA clearance of a sleep apnea device. Following FDA 510(k) clearance and additional global health authority authorizations, sleep apnea notifications are now available in more than 150 countries and regions, including the U.S., the EU, and Japan.
Vitals App
The new Vitals app gives users a way to check in on their daily health status and explore noteworthy overnight health metrics at a glance, so they can easily see when the metrics are out of their typical range. When two or more metrics are out of their typical range, users can receive a notification, along with a message detailing how the changes in these specific metrics may be linked to other aspects of their life, such as elevation changes, alcohol consumption, or even illness.
With the new Vitals app, Apple Watch users can quickly view key overnight health metrics, receive alerts when two or more metrics are out of their typical range, and gain better context when it comes to their health.
To inform out-of-range classifications and notifications, Vitals uses an algorithm developed using real-world data from the Apple Heart and Movement Study, research that aims to advance the understanding of the links between heart health and physical activity.
Training Load
Training load is a way to measure how the intensity and duration of workouts are impacting a user’s body over time — a concept used by elite athletes and coaches to assist with training and performance. Apple Watch now offers users unique insights to understand their training load, which can help them make informed decisions about their training each day, particularly when preparing for an event.
Apple Watch will establish a 28-day training load, a weighted average taking into account both the duration of users’ workouts over this period and the intensity of the workouts, which is measured by a new effort rating. Effort ratings are available after each workout to track how difficult it was on a scale from 1 to 10, and popular cardio-based workout types will use a new algorithm and a combination of workout metrics to automatically generate an estimated effort rating that users can manually adjust. For workouts where an automatic estimate is not provided — like strength training — users can still enter an effort rating at the end of each workout.
In the Activity and Vitals apps, users can see how their training load for the most recent seven days compares to their 28-day training load, classified as well below, below, steady, above, or well above. This offers actionable insight into whether the current strain on their body is ramping up, staying the same, or easing off, so they can adjust their training for the best results. Additional information in the Fitness app on iPhone further details the possible impact on their fitness if they continue to train at that current level, like potential changes in fitness or risk of injury.
More Customizable Activity Rings
With watchOS 11, Activity rings are even more customizable. Activity ring goals can now be customized by the day of the week, so they are perfectly suited for users’ schedules. Whether users are planning a rest day during their training or just need a day off, they also now have the ability to pause their rings for a day, week, month, or more — without affecting their award streak. The Fitness app on iPhone also offers users the ability to customize the Summary tab.
Additional Support During Pregnancy
watchOS 11, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18 offer additional support for users who log a pregnancy in the Health app, to reflect changes in their physical and mental health during this important time. On Apple Watch, the Cycle Tracking app will show a user’s gestational age and allow them to log symptoms for things frequently experienced during pregnancy. In the Health app, they will also be prompted to review things like their high heart rate notification threshold, since heart rate tends to increase during pregnancy.
More Personalized Smart Stack
The Smart Stack is designed to help users quickly access important information from any watch face, and now uses intelligence to add and suggest widgets based on time, date, location, daily routines, and more, so it is even simpler to access features on Apple Watch when a user needs them. New widgets — including Photos, Distance, Shazam, and more — are also now available; new interactive widgets allow users to interact with an app directly from the Smart Stack; and Live Activities is now available on Apple Watch within the Smart Stack.
Designed to help users quickly access important information from any watch face, the Smart Stack is even more intelligent with watchOS 11. Live Activities is also now available on Apple Watch within the Smart Stack.
Check In, the Translate App, and Scrolling with the Double Tap Gesture
Check In comes to Apple Watch, and can be accessed directly from the Workout app in addition to Messages. Users can now start a Check In for the duration of their workout — whether it’s an early morning run or late-night gym session — so a friend or family member can keep an eye out for their workout to end.
The Translate app is now available on Apple Watch, using machine learning for speech recognition and rapid translation that users can access directly on their wrist. The Smart Stack can even automatically surface the Translate app widget when users are traveling to a location with a language that is different from their Apple Watch.
The double tap gesture can now be used to scroll through any app, making it even easier to interact with Apple Watch with one hand.
New Watch Faces
watchOS 11 introduces three new watch faces:
- The updated Photos face can now help a user select their best photo options by using machine learning to make recommendations based on aesthetics, composition, and even facial expressions. A custom algorithm then finds the best composition by optimizing for the subject’s position within the frame and creating a sense of depth, and the Photos face now offers Dynamic mode so a new image can appear every time a user raises their wrist.
- The Flux face features a bold graphic design that fills the screen with color second by second, taking advantage of the bigger display and 1Hz refresh on Apple Watch Series 10.
- The Reflections face features a distinctive shimmering dial that reacts subtly to user movements.
Tides App
To help users plan and enjoy open water activities and stay aware of changing conditions, watchOS 11 introduces a new Tides app to Apple Watch. Users can access seven rolling days of forecasted tidal information for coastlines and surf spots around the globe, including information on high and low tides, rising and falling tides, tide height and direction, and sunrise and sunset, all plotted against a timeline. Users can also view beaches near their location on a convenient map, and new complications show current tide information for their favorite spots or the closest beaches at a glance.
Apple says that additional watchOS 11 features include:
- More workout types available in the Workout app — like Soccer, American Football, Australian Football, Outdoor Hockey, Lacrosse, Downhill Skiing, Cross Country Skiing, Snowboarding, Golf, Outdoor Rowing, and more — can now track distance. Route maps are also available for more workout types.
- Custom Workouts can now be created for pool swims, and a new Up Next workout view for all types of Custom Workouts can show what remains in the current interval and provide a snapshot of the upcoming interval.
- Apple Maps offers hikes across U.S. national parks, and users can also create their own custom hiking and walking routes within the Maps app on iPhone. These routes can be saved to Apple Watch and accessed offline with turn-by-turn guidance, even without an iPhone nearby.
- Summarized notifications, powered by Apple Intelligence, will be forwarded from iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max to Apple Watch.3
- The new tickets in Apple Wallet experience provides even more information, such as when a venue opens, as well as a Live Activity that displays seat and other relevant information at the top of the Smart Stack.4
- With Tap to Cash, users can send and receive Apple Cash by simply holding their Apple Watch near another Apple Watch or iPhone.
watchOS 11 is available today for Apple Watch Series 6 and later, and requires an iPhone XS or later running iOS 18.
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