If you wear your Apple Watch to bed and have Silent Mode activated, your morning alarm will be silent too, attempting to wake you with soft haptic taps rather than any noise. Many users find this sufficient, but others sleep through the alarm with potentially dire consequences. Apple has unveiled a new feature that should solve this problem.
The upcoming watchOS 11.4 software update, as spotted by MacRumors, includes a new feature called Break Through Silent Mode. When this option is turned on, the watch will attempt to wake the user with both haptics and sound.
MacRumors says the new option toggle is accessible in two different ways. You can use the settings for the Sleep app and tap on Sounds & Haptics, or you can open the Alarm app and tap one of your alarms.
watchOS 11.4 isn’t yet available to the general public: the current software version is 11.3. But it shouldn’t be long. The final version of 11.4 has been released to developers and it should be rolled out to the public in early April.
To update watchOS on your Apple Watch, open the Settings app and go to General > Software Update and tap Download and Install. Alternatively you can install the update by opening the Watch app on the paired iPhone and go to General > Software Update and following the instructions.
