Apple released watchOS 11 today, bringing a range of new health and fitness features to the Apple Watch Series 6 and later models, as well as the Ultra. One of the key additions is the Vitals app. It tracks several important metrics while you sleep, such as heart rate, breathing rate, wrist temperature, sleep duration, and blood oxygen levels.
The app summarizes this data to give you a daily health status. If two or more metrics are unusual, you will get a notification with more details. Apple says the Vitals app can show how things like drinking alcohol, being sick, or even small changes like being at a high elevation affect your body.
WatchOS 11 also has new features for people who are pregnant. If you log a pregnancy in the Health app on your iPhone or iPad, the cycle tracking feature on the Apple Watch will display how far along you are. It will also let you record common pregnancy symptoms like nausea.
The update will review high heart rate alerts more closely and warn users faster about possible fall risks using Walking Steadiness. A new training load feature in watchOS 11 will help you see how your workouts affect your body over time. Workouts will be rated on a scale from 1 to 10 to track intensity.
For cardio workouts, a new system will use data like your age, height, weight, heart rate, and elevation to give you a 28-day training load summary.
Health upgrades in watchOS 11
This helps you plan workouts by seeing how they impact your body, avoiding injury, and monitoring progress.
WatchOS 11 lets you customize your Activity Rings and schedule rest days, something fitness enthusiasts have wanted for a while. You can now pause your rings when you need a break or have an injury without losing your award streaks. Finally, the workout app has some upgrades.
You can now measure distance with GPS for various sports, such as soccer, football, skiing, snowboarding, and golf. Along with the health and fitness improvements, watchOS 11 has some other changes:
Smart Stack has new widgets and can recommend widgets based on the time, date, and your daily routine. The Photos Watch Face now selects your best photos using AI.
Apple’s Check In safety feature is available on the Watch, even during workouts. The Translate app is now on the Apple Watch. Apple Maps includes hikes for all U.S. national parks, which you can save to your Watch and access offline.
Tap to Cash allows you to send and receive Apple Cash using your Watch (only available in the U.S. for now). WatchOS 11 shows a strong focus on health and wellness, making the Apple Watch a useful tool for today’s users. Make sure to update and try out all the new features to improve your health and fitness routine.
