WatchOS 11 Available to Download Now for Apple Watch

Apple has released watchOS 11 for Apple Watch. The new software update includes a variety of new features and changes for Apple Watch, including new fitness and health features and insights, improvements to Smart Stacks, sleep apnea notifications on eligible devices, new watch face options, a Translate app, and more.

Apple Watch users will also need to make sure they are running iOS 18 on iPhone that is paired with their device.

Separate from watchOS 11, Apple has also released iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia 15.0, tvOS 18, and visionOS 2.

How to Install watchOS 11 Update on Apple Watch

You will first need to update iPhone to iOS 18, since iOS 18 is required to run watchOS 11. Do that first, then you can easily update to the latest watchOS:

1. Place your Apple Watch on a charger and near your iPhone
2. Open the “Watch” app on iPhone that is paired with Apple Watch
3. Go to the “Watch” tab
4. Go to “General”, and then go to “Software Update”
5. Choose to download and install watchOS 11

Installing watchOS 11 will take quite a while and is quite slow, as is typical with major watchOS updates, so be patient and just let your Apple Watch sit on its charger as installation completes. Installing the update on my Apple Watch took over an hour, for example.

When finished updating, you’ll be running watchOS 11 on Apple Watch.

Which Apple Watch models support watchOS 11?

The following Apple Watch models are compatible with watchOS 11:

• Apple Watch Series 6
• Apple Watch Series 7
• Apple Watch Series 8
• Apple Watch Series 9
• Apple Watch Series 10
• Apple Watch SE 2nd generation
• Apple Watch Ultra
• Apple Watch Ultra 2

You will also need an iPhone that is updated to iOS 18 to be able to run watchOS 11. If you haven’t updated your iPhone yet, do that first.

Note that some features, like sleep apnea notifications, require an Apple Watch Series 9 or better.

WatchOS 11 Release Notes

Release notes included with watchOS 11 are as follows:

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.

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/en-us/100100

watchOS 11

Vitals
View your overnight health metrics like heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen, and sleep duration in one convenient location
See each metric classified as typical or out of your typical range for insights on your daily health status, with outliers highlighted in a bold pink color
Receive notifications when two or more metrics are outside of your typical range and review relevant information to better understand how these changes may be linked to other lifestyle factors

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
Intended 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)
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/100100