Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
TL;DR
- watchOS 11 introduces a Translate app that can recognize when you’re traveling and become more accessible.
- The Photos watch face can analyze your images and make recommendations.
- watchOS 11 launches in fall, 2024.
Artificial intelligence was a very important topic at WWDC 2024, as it has been in most recent tech announcements and events lately. Of course, macOS, iOS, and iPadOS got most of the AI love here, but watchOS wasn’t totally left out. If you’re specifically looking for AI and machine learning capabilities, Apple announced a couple of watchOS 11 features for Apple Watch users to look forward to.
For starters, watchOS 11 introduces a new Translate app. It allows you to translate languages straight from your wrist, without taking out your iPhone at all. Additionally, the app can recognize when you’re traveling to a different country, as well as which language is spoken there. It will automatically show a widget in the Smart Stack, when it deems helpful. It will support 20 languages.
Of course, this is part of the more intelligent Smart Stack, which will adapt to your needs and show different widgets depending on the time, date, location, daily habits, and more.
Another new AI-related feature is that the Photos watch face will be able to analyze “thousands of photos” from your library and offer recommendations. It will use machine learning to determine which images have the best composition, aesthetics, and facial expressions. Apple’s algorithm will then determine the best framing. With Dynamic mode, the user can also actively alternate the watch face image.
If you care for other watchOS 11 features, here are some of the main ones:
- The Vitals app will give you a better look into crucial health metrics, such as sleep duration, temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, and more.
- Health app will improve its support for pregnant users, showing more information like the gestational age and high heart rate notifications.
- New Training Load feature tells you the intensity and duration of workouts, and how they impact your health.
- Activity rings can now be customized to keep better metrics. You can pause activity to set rest days, or when injured.
- Check In will be available directly from the watch.
- Double tap gesture can be used to scroll through any app.
- Apple Maps will offer hikes for all US national parks.
- Tap to Cash will be available for watchOS, allowing people to send each other money using NFC, using your Apple Cash balance.
watchOS 11 will be available in a stable build this fall and will be supported on Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, as well as the Apple Watch Ultra and Ultra 2, and Apple Watch SE (2022) and newer.
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