Update your Apple Watch now to get new WatchOS 11 features

You may have heard about Apple’s sleep apnea notifications feature, which can alert you to signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea when you wear Apple Watch Series 10, Series 9, or Ultra 2 while you sleep. There’s also a new Vitals app and you Maybe Finally, pause activity calls.

WatchOS 11 is compatible with any Apple Watch Series 6 and later, as well as the second generation SE. To try out WatchOS 11, you’ll need to have iOS 18 connected to your Apple Watch on your iPhone. And know that you won’t be able to go back to WatchOS 10 or earlier if you install the new version. To begin the installation process, go to View > General > Software Update. After installing the update, these are my favorite features that you should explore.

Change your activity rings

With WatchOS 11, you can finally set up activity rings and take a day off if you’re sick. In the Activity app, tap the three rings, then tap ring pause. You can pause for a day, week or month, or set your own goal.

Another great new option is the ability to change the targets for each ring: moving, training and standing. If you know the 30-minute exercise goal isn’t right for you, you can increase or decrease it.

Individual days of the week can also be customized. Go to the calendar icon in the top right corner and click schedule And regulate respectively. I know I usually don’t have a lot of workouts on Tuesdays since I’m in the office, so I set this goal lower and then increase my goals for the weekends when I’m away and more.

Vitals app tracks your nighttime health

When you wear your Apple Watch to track sleep, it also records other key metrics such as your heart rate, breathing rate, and wrist temperature. The Vitals app displays these metrics in the morning so you can see them on your wrist instead of opening the Health app to dig through menus. Use the screen or crown to scroll through the metrics.

One useful view is the last seven days view, which tells you if any of your vital signs are outside the normal range and highlights them in pink. You’ll also receive a notification on your wrist if two or more vital signs are offline.

Training Load helps you keep track of your workouts

Training load is a way of measuring the intensity of your workout so you can keep track of it if you’re training for a marathon or the like or want to avoid overtraining.

Open the Activity app and look for the new icon in the top right corner. Tap the chart symbol and a white line will show you a weighted average of your activity over 28 days and how your activity over the past seven days compares. You can scroll through the Digital Crown to revisit last week’s workouts. They will be categorized from “well above” to “way below” your average, and each will be given an effort rating.

Compatible cardio activities such as walking, running, hiking and rowing will receive an effort rating out of 10. Apple Watch calculates it based on data such as height, weight, and age, as well as your workout calorimetry data such as GPS and heart rate.

You can change this effort rating if you feel it does not accurately reflect your workout. Let’s say you were too tired after a late night and you were forced to go for a run, but it was slower than usual. You can change the effort rating to more accurately reflect how you feel. Touch the effort rating to open the chart and turn the crown to move the rating.

A nice perk if you have an Apple Watch Ultra or Ultra 2 is that you can see your vital signs and training load data on the Modular Ultra display by adjusting the sidebar complication.

Sleep Apnea Alerts

Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2 and upcoming Episode 10 can check for signs of potential sleep apnea, a potentially serious condition in which you stop breathing during the night. It is estimated that 1 billion people worldwide may suffer from this disease.

Using the Apple Watch’s accelerometer, it tracks a new indicator called breathing disturbances by tracking small movements of your wrist. You’ll be able to see this score in the Health app after each night of sleep, where it’s listed as high or low. An alert will be sent if the watch detects persistent signs of sleep apnea. This feature has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration and will also be available in more than 150 countries.

Check your Apple Watch for safety

There’s a new security tool on Apple Watch called Check In with WatchOS 11. It works from both the Workout app and the Messages app. Similar to how the Check-In feature works in iOS 17, you open the Messages app and select the plus icon to find Check-In. Here you can set it up to “check in” with a friend or family member based on a period of time or upon arrival at a given destination.

During a workout, swipe right and tap Sign Up. It will automatically send a text message to your chosen contact when you finish your workout. If Apple Watch notices that your progress is not as expected; your speed increases dramatically; or if your heart rate drops closer to resting during an intense workout, this will prompt you to respond.

Otherwise, it will give your contact your location with limited or full data depending on your choice.

Once you start checking, a live action will also start on your watch and appear in the Smart Stack. As with iOS 17, the Check In feature only works if your recipient is also using iOS 17 or later, and won’t work for other contacts who don’t use iMessage.

Updated Photo watch face

There are no new watch faces per se in WatchOS 11, but the Photos watch face has gained more functionality. Take out your iPhone and head to the Watch app, where you can choose people, pets, nature or city photos to highlight on your wrist.

In the background, your phone evaluates the best photos based on composition and facial expression to highlight the ones it thinks are best to display on the watch face. You can even go one step further and change the time size, font, and background colors in your images to make your watch face more personal.

The remote app gets even more tools

I use the remote app on Apple Watch more often than I care to admit, and in WatchOS 11 it has even more controls. Open the Remote app, then tap the three dots in the top right corner. Here, you can mute and unmute the connected Apple TV, turn on subtitles, or even turn off the connected device with a single tap.

Translate application

The translator app is now available on Apple Watch. Simply say a phrase and select the target language, and Apple Watch will play back the translation. In the settings you can change the speed to make playback slower or faster. Plus, you can download 20 different language packs, so it will work even if you don’t have your iPhone paired with you.

Here are some of my other favorite WatchOS 11 features:

• Additional tools to help you track your pregnancy in the Health app.
• Live actions now appear in the Smart Stack, such as when you call a car or snooze an alarm.
• Offline mapping in Apple Maps now lets you get turn-by-turn navigation for hikes with voice guidance.
• iMessage tapbacks have a different look, which is a nice little change.
• Tides app for tracking water conditions.
• Double tap now lets you navigate any app (messages, weather, anything) in two clicks.

Since you need to download iOS 18 to try out WatchOS 11, you can also explore some of its new features. Check out our iOS 18 cheat sheet to find out which features are worth trying.