watchOS 11 is available right now — here are the 5 biggest health and fitness upgrades
Everything new in watchOS 11
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Apple’s latest wearableoperating system,watchOS 11, arrives today with a slew of new features for the Apple Watch Series 6 and beyond, as well as the Ultra, and theApple Watch SE 2.
Unveiled atWWDC 2024, watchOS 11 comes replete with a heavy focus on health and wellbeing, an emphasis that broadly reflects the shiftApple Watchhas undergone over the years. Where Apple might previously have touted communication as Apple Watch’s primary function, in 2024, it’s indisputably a health and well-being accessory.
To that end, there are five major health and fitness upgrades you’ll encounter when you download watchOS 11, along with some other tweaks. Here are the best:
watchOS 11’s health features
watchOS 11’s best health features
1. Vitals
WatchOS 11 features a new Vitals app that tracks several key metrics while you sleep. Apple Watch will take your heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, sleep duration, and blood oxygen levels, summarizing them to let you check your daily health status.
If two or more metrics are out of whack, you’ll get a notification and more information. Apple says the Vitals app can help highlight the impact of alcohol consumption and illness or even subtle things like elevation changes.
2. Pregnancy
If you log a pregnancy in the Health app on your iPhone or iPad, cycle tracking on Apple Watch will show gestational age and let you log symptoms frequently experienced during pregnancy, such as nausea.
watchOS 11 will also prompt reviews of high heart rate notifications and alert users more quickly of a potential fall risk using Walking Steadiness.
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3. Training Load
A new training load insight in watchOS 11 will help you understand the impact of your workouts on your body over time. Workouts will be measured on a scale of 1 to 10 to monitor intensity.
Specifically for cardio-based workouts, there’s a new algorithm that can employ data such as your age, height, weight, heart rate, and elevation. Combined with your own adjustments for stress and soreness, you’ll get a 28-day training load readout that can help to plan your workouts. Understanding the impact your training has on your body is vital in order to prevent injury, but it can also be a solid indicator of progress or stagnation.
4. Customize rings and plan rest days
A feature gym goers have been begging for, watchOS 11 introduces customizable Activity Rings and rest days. Whether you just need a day off or you’re nursing an injury, you can now pause your rings for a day, week, or months without losing your award streaks.
5. Workout app enhancements
The final big fitness feature is some tweaks to the workout app. You can now track distance using GPS for a range of sports including Soccer, American Football, skiing, snowboarding, golf, and more.
watchOS 11’s other upgrades
There are several other tweaks coming to watchOS 11, here’s a quick summary of some of the other changes:
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Stephen Warwick is TechRadar’s Fitness & Wearables writer with nearly a decade of experience covering technology, including five years as the News Editor of iMore. He’s a keen fitness enthusiast and is never far from the local gym, Apple Watch at the ready, to record his latest workout. Stephen has experience writing about every facet of technology including products, services, hardware, and software. He’s covered breaking news and developing stories regarding supply chains, patents and litigation, competition, politics and lobbying, the environment, and more. He’s conducted interviews with industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. Outside of work, he’s a massive tech and history buff with a passion for Rome Total War, reading, and music.
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