14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has officially announced watchOS 7 at the company’s developer conference today, and just as expected, this new version comes with a series of improvements and new features that have long been requested by customers worldwide.
First and foremost, it’s sleep tracking. Yes, sleep monitoring is finally coming to the Apple Watch, years after it made its debut on the likes of Fitbit and Garmin devices.
On the Apple Watch, the sleep tracking feature will do exactly the same thing as on other smartwatches, so it’ll monitor things like how much you’re sleeping and then provide you with an overview of the periods of wake and sleep. Charts will be offered weekly to determine how you’re improving sleeping.
Together with the new sleep tracking, watchOS 7 also introduces a new alarm system.
“To help users wake up, Apple Watch offers a silent haptic alarm or gentle sounds, while the wake-up screen shows the current battery level. Depending on personal charging behavior, if the battery is too low within an hour of bedtime, Apple Watch will remind users to charge it ahead of sleep. Sleep data is encrypted on device or in iCloud with iCloud sync, and data is always in the user’s control,” Apple explains.
Then, Apple announces watch faces improvements, but there are good news and bad news here. First and foremost, watchOS 7 will bring updates for some of the faces already available, such as a tachymeter for the Chronograph Pro. The Photos face now comes with color filters.
Developers will be allowed to integrate more than just one complication per app on a single face, but the biggest chance is that Apple will allow the sharing of watch faces. So technically, you’ll be able to download the watch faces that others share online.
The bad news is that the custom watch faces will be based on the existing designs, so Apple still isn’t ready to fully unlock this part of the wearable operating system.
The Activity app on the iPhone is being renamed to Fitness, and watchOS introduces a series of new workouts to track, such as Dance, Functional Strength Training, Core Training, and Cooldown.
“To correctly capture calorie exertion for Dance, Apple Watch uses advanced sensor fusion, combining data from the heart rate sensor and inputs from the accelerometer and gyroscope, that accounts for the unique challenges of measuring different body-to-arm motions typical with dance. This workout type was validated and tested with four of the most popular dance styles for exercise: Bollywood, cardio dance, hip-hop, and Latin,” Apple explains.
Automatic handwashing detection is one of the new features that are supposed to help during health crisis like the one we’re dealing with. The Apple Watch will use its motion sensors, mic, and ML to determine whether you’re washing your hands correctly (for 20 seconds), with stats to then be displayed in the Health app.
The whole thing is based on automatic detection, and if you’re not washing your hands correctly, the Watch will prompt you to keep washing. There are new complications in watchOS 7 (Camera Remote, Sleep, and Shortcuts), Siri translations, and cycling directions right on the wrist.
The very first testing build of the new operating system is available today as part of the Apple Developer Program, while the public launch will take place in the fall.
Only the Apple Watch Series 3 and newer will get this operating system update, and the update will require an iPhone 6s or newer and running iOS 14, which itself is schedule to launch in the fall too.
