watchOS 11 can be downloaded for free on an iPhone running iOS 18 by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery and it needs to be placed on a charger.
watchOS 11 overhauls the Smart Stack that you can get to by turning the Digital Crown. There are new widgets like Shazam and Photos, plus the Apple Watch now supports interactive widgets and Live Activities.
The Messages Check In feature is now available on the Apple Watch, so you can check in when going to the gym or heading out on a nighttime run, allowing a family member or friend to get a notification when your workout ends to make sure you get back home safely.
A new Vitals app provides context about key health metrics measured during sleep, including heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, and blood oxygen, providing a daily report on whether everything is in a typical range. Training Load is available for athletes preparing for an event like a marathon, and the Workout app supports more workout types.
The Fitness app has customizable activity rings that can be changed on a per-day basis, so you can set higher goals on weekdays or weekends, for example. You can also now pause your streak for rest days or due to an illness or injury, providing a way to avoid ruining a long Activity streak when you're sick or need a break.
Apple added the Translate app to the Apple Watch so you can get translations right on your wrist, plus there's a Translate app widget. Apple Maps has hikes for all U.S. national parks, and you can create your own walking and hiking routes. 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 more
Translate
- 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 beach
Smart 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 Stack
Watch 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 apnea
Other 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 more
Some 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/100100More information on the new features in watchOS 11 can be found in our comprehensive watchOS 11 roundup.
Related Roundups: watchOS 10, watchOS 11
Related Forum: Apple Watch
This article, "Apple Releases watchOS 11 With Revamped Smart Stack, Vitals App, Activity Breaks and More" first appeared on MacRumors.com
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