We are about a month away from Apple’s yearly iPhone event. Of course, they will announce the new iPhone lineup, but this event is also the jumping-off point for releasing new software to the public. Among those software updates will be watchOS 11. I have been using watchOS 11 since its developer beta release in early June, and I’m excited to share some of the best features!
Be sure to watch our hands-on view of watchOS 11 running on the Apple Watch Ultra. There are too many good features to include in the article, so check out the video below!
watchOS 11 compatibility
Before we jump into some of the best features, let’s find out if your Apple Watch will support the new software update. Below is the list of supported Apple Watches
- Apple Watch SE (2nd generation)
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch Series 7
- Apple Watch Series 8
- Apple Watch Series 9
- Apple Watch Ultra
- Apple Watch Ultra 2
Most features will work across all of these Apple Watches, but I will discuss some caveats based on Apple Watch hardware limitations.
Training Load
This new feature was the number one reason why I took the early plunge into the watchOS 11 beta program. I am addicted to the gamification process of working out and the Apple Watch does that very well. So adding a new metric to see how hard I am pushing myself was great. According to Apple this new tool has been introduced to help athletes reach their goals more effectively. This lets users track the intensity of their workouts and see how it affects their bodies over time.
This works pretty simply. After each workout, your watch will ask you to rate your intensity training from 1 to 10. The harder the workout, the higher the number. watchOS 11 takes this value into account and uses metrics like pace, elevation, heart rate, and personal details like age, height, and weight. The outcome is an intensity graph that lets you know if you are over-training, under-training, or just right.
I have been a huge fan of this feature. It really lets me see how hard I have been working and has been fairly accurate as well. For those wondering, I am using the Nomad Glow 2.0 band as my daily watch band. They just restocked, too! Feel free to jump on it while it is available!
Vitals App
This is another great example of Apple simplifying a ton of health metrics so we can take action if and when needed. As I stated above, I love gamifying the health process. For better or worse, I check my health app at least once daily. But there are so many health values and metrics that sometimes it can be overwhelming. So Apple decided to create the vitals app. It does exactly what you think. The Vitals app gives you a glance at your vitals to make sure everything is okay. It takes 5 metrics into account:
- Sleeping heart rate
- Respiratory rate
- Wrist temperature
- Blood oxygen
- Sleep duration
As long as your values for these metrics fall within a certain window, then you are good. If not, you will be notified and you can take action if needed. Now this is all done while you sleep, that is why you see my heart rate on the lower end. You need to wear your watch to sleep for about a week for the vitals app to have enough data. But once its set, you are good to go!
Sleep tracking improvements
It took me a bit to get used to sleeping with an Apple Watch Ultra on my wrist. But once I got used to the size, I now use it every night. There were two issues I had with the sleep tracking experience. With watchOS 10, you need to be in your sleep focus mode for your Apple Watch to actually start tracking your sleep. Otherwise, it would not be recorded. WatchOS 11 changes that with auto sleep detection. Whether you take a quick power nap or are in a deep night slumber, your Apple watch will detect it and automatically begin tracking your sleep.
The second quality of life update involves interacting with your watch while its in sleep mode. In WatchOS 10, you need to hold down the digital crown for 5 seconds for the Apple Watch to let you in. It was a very inconvenient way to interact with it. It always annoyed me when I wanted to turn off my smart lights quickly but needed to wait five seconds to get into my Apple Watch. WatchOS 11 gets rid of that annoyance. All you do is tap the digital crown, and you are in. No need to wait for that annoying time threshold!
Two new apps – sort of
Alongside the new vitals app, Apple gave us some dedicated apps for features that had already been baked into WatchOS 10. The translation feature has now turned into its own dedicated app in the Apple watch. It works with voice dictation as well as text. The app supports 20 different languages, and it works great. Having the translation app on your wrist is the most effective way to use an app like that.
The second app we got is a dedicated Shazam app. It’s technically called ‘Music Recognition,’ but it’s just the Shazam app. This is another great use case for this form factor. Easily pull up Shazam to see what song is playing at your coworking space or your coffee shop!
Other features and final thoughts
WatchOS 11 brings an abundance of other features, such as a brand new photo watch face, improvements to the widget cards, more nuanced fitness features, and much more. Be sure to watch our video here to learn even more new updates to WatchOS 11.
Overall, I think the new update for WatchOS 11 is welcome. I love the new training load and vitals apps. They help us take fitness tracking even further. Outside of those two headliners, this is all about quality-of-life updates. Features and the experience just got a bit better, a bit tighter, and feel more polished. The stability of the beta program has also been great since day one. If you want to give it a go, try the public beta; if not, it should be released in September for everyone to try.
What do you think? Are you using the WatchOS 11 beta program? Are you excited for it? Let’s discuss this in the comments below!
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