Apple today released watchOS 11, the latest version of the Apple Watch operating system. watchOS 11 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2.
The new operating system brings several new features, including new health and workout features, new Activity Rings features, and much more.
The new Vitals app allows users to quickly view several key health metrics and gain better context when it comes to their health. Apple Watch measures important health metrics during sleep: heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, sleep duration, and blood oxygen. Users can now check in on their daily health status while also exploring noteworthy metrics at a glance, easily seeing when they are out of a user’s typical range. When two or more metrics are out of their typical range, users can receive a notification, as well as 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.
Activity rings are now more customizable, while the Apple Watch and the Health app on iPhone and iPad offer additional support for users who are pregnant. Check In, the Translate app, and new capabilities for the double tap gesture come to Apple Watch for added connectivity and convenience.
watchOS 11 introduces training load, a new way to measure how the intensity and duration of workouts are impacting a user’s body over time. Training load helps users to understand the strain on their body from their workouts over the last seven days to the last 28 days.
Cycle tracking now shows estimates of gestational age, showing pregnancy across charts to review metrics like high heart rate notification thresholds.
Widgets are automatically added to the Apple Watch’s Smart Stack. The update also brings the Translate app to the Apple Watch. The app will display automatically when visiting a different country, The Weather app will appear when rain is coming. Live Activities is now available on the Apple Watch for the first time.
An improved Photos watch face gives users more control over photos and machine learning automatically crops photos.
Apple’s full release notes for watchOS 11 are below.
watchOS 11 brings powerful health and fitness insights, along with even more personalization, intelligence, and ways to stay connected, to the world’s most popular watch. It has new experiences that provide deeper insights into your daily health status and help you understand the impact of your workouts over time. watchOS 11 uses the power of machine learning to help you easily create the perfect Photos watch face and the Smart Stack becomes even more intelligent and capable with suggested widgets, interactive widgets, and Live Activities. To further support your fitness journey, you can now adjust your Activity ring goals by day of the week or even pause them for a rest day. watchOS 11 also includes Check In, the Translate app, new ways to support you during pregnancy, sleep apnea notifications, and more.
Fitness
– Track the impact that the intensity, based on effort ratings, and the duration of your workouts have on your body over time with training load
– Review estimated effort ratings automatically provided after completing popular cardio workouts, including running, cycling, swimming, hiking and more
– See how your effort is categorized into one of four Effort labels: Easy, Moderate, Hard, and All Out and modify to match your perception of the effort required to complete the workout
– Include distance as an in-session metric for a wider variety of sports in the Workout app including Soccer and American Football, and route maps have been added to additional outdoor workouts like Outdoor Rowing and Cross Country Skiing
– Create Custom Workouts for Pool Swim workouts with support for sets of work and recovery
– View the time left in your current interval and prepare for your next interval with a Up Next workout view in Custom Workouts
– Customize your Activity rings goals by the day of the week in the Activity app
– Pause your Activity rings for a rest day, week, month, or more without affecting your award streak
– Personalize the Summary tab in the Fitness app on iPhone with metrics that are most important to you like step distance, step count, running power, and moreTranslate
– Dictate phrases and have them automatically translated and played out loud with support for 20 languages
– Easily access the Translate app with the widget in the Smart Stack which will intelligently be added when traveling to a location where the language is different than your Apple Watch
– See the pronunciation of languages using the Latin alphabet, to help make your interactions more conversational for Mandarin (CN simplified), Japanese, and Korean
– Download languages to access offline translation without a cellular or Wi-Fi connection (Available on Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2)Tides
– Review tide data for over 115,000 beaches and 5,000 surf spots worldwide including high and low tides, rising and falling tides, tide height and direction in new Tides app
– Discover beaches near your location with detailed map views or search for a beach by name
– Customize your watch face with tide complications to show the current tide information for your favorite surf spot or the closest beachSmart Stack
– View timely information in the Smart Stack with suggested widgets that will automatically appear intelligently using signals like time and date, location, wake-up and bedtime, and more to determine priority
– View up-to-date information from apps to see the progress of an activity, event, or task at a glance with Live Activities
– Interact with an app right from a widget in the Smart StackWatch Faces
– Create a dynamic Photos watch face using image categories like People, Pets, Cities, or Nature to intelligently curate the best photos from your iPhone based on aesthetics, composition, and facial expressions
– Visualize the passing of time with the Flux watch face which uses dynamic typography and color to fill the face from the bottom to the top as seconds count up
– See how the Reflections watch face reflects light with a metallic sunburst dial that changes in response to the movement of your wrist)
– Customize how time is displayed on Apple Watch with one of nine major Indian scripts (Bengali, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Meitei, Odia, Ol Chiki, Telugu) and three new languages (Burmese, Khmer, Urdu) available on select watch faces (Astronomy, California, Memoji, Modular, Modular Duo, Modular Compact, Utility, World Time, and X-Large)Sleep Apnea Notifications
– Receive possible sleep apnea notification when breathing disturbance data shows consistent signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea over a 30 day period (Available on Apple Watch Series 9 and later and Apple Watch Ultra 2)
– Estimate interruptions in respiratory pattern during sleep with Breathing Disturbances metric which is classified as Elevated or Not Elevated
– Review sharable report for richer conversations with healthcare providers after receiving a sleep apnea notification
– Support for users 18 years or older without a previous diagnosis of sleep apneaOther features:
– Start a Check In from Messages, Workout controls, or the Smart Stack to automatically alert friend or family member when you reach your destination, after a pre-determined time, or when your workout ends
– Use Maps on Apple Watch to view custom walking and hiking routes downloaded to your iPhone and access turn-by-turn directions for your route even when offline
– View relevant information about your tickets, like directions to parking, or show start times, with updates to tickets in Wallet
– Scroll through any app like Messages, Mail, or Weather, using the double tap gesture (Available on Apple Watch Series 9 and later and Apple Watch Ultra 2)
– Use Tap to Cash to send money to someone by simply bringing your Apple Watch near their iPhone or Apple Watch (US only) (Available on Apple Watch Series 7 and later, Apple Watch SE (2nd generation), and all Apple Watch Ultra models)
– Unlock your door on approach with UWB home keys without having to move Apple Watch close to the lock. Available on Apple Watch models with UWB
– Browse personalized recommendations and discover new workouts and meditations with a simple navigation system that includes; For You, Explore, Library and Search
– Review current gestational age and log symptoms experienced during pregnancy in Cycle Tracking when you log a pregnancy in the Health app on iPhone
– Access additional controls with Remote including volume, power, Siri hold-to-talk, and moreSome features may not be available for all countries or all areas, for more information visit:
https://www.apple.com/watchos/feature-availability/
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/100100
watchOS 11 can be downloaded for free through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to “General” -> “Software Update.” The Apple Watch needs to have at least a 50% battery charge, needs to be on a charger, and needs to be in the range of the iPhone.
