Nearly a decade into its life, theApple Watchis mature. Apple has zeroed in on the things that its smartwatch is good at, like health and fitness tracking, and largely ignored the things it isn’t. With the company’s annual developers conference on the horizon –WWDC 2024is slated for June 19, 2025 – we’ll soon have an understanding of how watchOS 11 fits into Apple’s wider strategy, but if you used an Apple Watch, you already have an idea of how it should change.
WithWatchOS 10, Apple redesigned core apps like Weather and Workout to take advantage of the larger screen on the Series 9 and the Ultra 2, and streamlined interactions, pinning the Control Center to the side button and adding widgets via a new Smart Stack, on top of the usual additions like new watch faces and workout options. The rumored Apple Watch X could completely reinvent Apple’s smartwatch hardware this fall, but the best way the software could improve next week is by deepening the things it does rather than grafting on yet another new idea.
What we know about Apple Watch Series 10
The Apple Watch Series 10 could feature a larger screen and new health tracking features when it arrives later this year.
1Detailed sleep tracking
I’m tired and need advice
Apple Watches first gained the ability to track sleep withwatchOS 7on theApple Watch Series 6. Apple has expanded that feature over the years, adding things like respiratory rate tracking, and bedtime schedules, and more recently, sleep stage tracking for identifying when you’re in REM sleep. Throughout all these changes, at no point has sleep tracking become useful. The data is all there in the Sleep app on your Apple Watch if you want to look at it, but at no point has Apple tried to explain what it means or what you might want to be looking for if you’re trying to sleep better.
Throughout all these changes, at no point has sleep tracking become useful. The data is all there in the Sleep app on your Apple Watch if you want to look at it, but at no point has Apple tried to explain what it means or what you might want to be looking for if you’re trying to sleep better.
One of the simplest things that could improve watchOS 11 is if sleep tracking was expanded. Why doesn’t Apple offer some kind of easy to understand score like theOura Ringdoes? Or better yet, why doesn’t it try and make a recommendation for a new bedtime if it’s clear from your chart that you need to sleep more? Reports indicate that watchOS 11 will include some kind ofsleep apnea detection feature, and that could be very helpful, but the heart rate and temperature sensors are there to do much more if Apple wanted to.
Apple Watch sleep tracking: What it does and how to use it
Here’s what you need to know about tracking your sleep with the Apple Watch, including how to set it up.
2More control over customization
This personal device doesn’t have a lot of personality
Apple has long held that the Apple Watch is the most personal item it sells because of both its intimate understanding of your health and the fact you physically wear it. The company provides multiple watch faces to choose from to make your Apple Watch unique, and usually adds a few new ones each year, so there’s always more to choose from. Even with that slow trickle of new styles, though, most Apple Watches feel remarkably similar. Swapping out a watch band can help, but making your smartwatch truly your own still feels more difficult than it does to customize an iPhone or iPad.
Swapping out a watch band can help, but making your smartwatch truly your own still feels more difficult than it does to customize an iPhone or iPad.
WatchOS 11 should change things, not only by adding more watch faces, but making the ones that are available more customizable, like finally allowing all complication types on all watch faces. The lock screen customization features added toiOS 16andiPadOS 17would make a lot of sense on the Apple Watch, with less of a focus on widgets and even more control over colors and font weights. At some point, Apple needs to give up control and allow for third-party watch faces instead of limiting developers to the small corners of a complication, but until that happens, customers deserve more control over what little options Apple does provide.
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3Recovery and rest
If Apple cares about health, it should encourage ample rest
Despite how some smartwatches and activity trackers behave, you can actually exercise too much. In fact, rest and recovery is a huge part of getting more physically capable over time and receiving the health benefits of being physically active in the first place. Garmin’s smartwatches, like theForerunner 165, track your recovery, suggesting less demanding activities and rest if you had a big workout the day before. ThePixel Watch 2, a direct competitor to the Apple Watch, even manages to include recovery tracking thanks to its Fitbit integration. And yet, the Apple Watch has nothing like it, with rings that always demand to be closed and notifications to remind you to close them automatically as scheduled.
The Apple Watch has nothing like it, with rings that always demand to be closed and notifications to remind you to close them automatically as scheduled.
It’s high time the Apple Watch tracked recovery and rest, and watchOS 11 is the perfect time to introduce it. Maybe if your watch detects you exerted yourself yesterday and woke up with an unusual body temperature or heart rate, it suggests going easy on yourself with a notification. Maybe if you run a marathon over the weekend your rings are hidden entirely until you’ve had more time to rest. Maybe there could even be an all-new ring for recovery if you enable it in the Settings app. However Apple does it, the company would be doing Apple Watch owners a service by reminding them to take it easy.
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4Additional gestures to go with Double Tap
Hands-free controls make the Apple Watch even more useful
TheDouble Tap gesture, added with the Apple Watch Series 9, was one of the first times Apple admitted the Apple Watch could be good for tracking things besides what its sensors are designed to capture. With Double Tap enabled, you’re able to tap your fingers together to pause a track, answer a call, or move through your Smart Stack. Unfortunately, the feature is limited to watchOS apps created by Apple, which means that tapping in any third-party app won’t be registered.
At a minimum, watchOS 11 should make Double Tap available to every app on the Apple Watch, not just the ones that come pre-installed.
At a minimum, watchOS 11 should make Double Tap available to every app on the Apple Watch, not just the ones that come pre-installed. In an ideal world, watchOS 11 should introduce new gestures that do new things on the watch or even be integrated with the device the Apple Watch is typically connected to: your iPhone. TheAssistiveTouch optionsbuilt into watchOS detect not just finger taps, but hand clenches and wrist movements. There’s no reason those controls couldn’t be adapted to control other parts of the Apple Watch or a connected iPhone.
This is how you can try Apple’s Double Tap Watch gesture right now
You don’t even need an Apple Watch Series 9 to double tap.
5A truly independent Apple Watch
It’s ready to move out and live on its own
Unless you’re a parent using Family Setup, Apple Watches need to be connected to an iPhone to be turned on and activated for the first time. Once you do that, you’re able to technically use your watch away from your phone, but an Apple Watch doesn’t work out of the box without a smartphone, even with a cellular radio built-in. It’s wishful thinking to expect it to happen, but with a larger screen, increasingly powerful chips on the inside, and battery life that lasts days instead of hours, one of the biggest changes Apple could introduce would be letting Apple Watches running watchOS 11 be set up and activated on their own.
One of the biggest changes Apple could introduce would be letting Apple Watches running watchOS 11 be set up and activated on their own.
If Apple doesn’t want to go that far, it could choose a simpler solution and just add the Watch app to the iPad. That way, you don’t have to be an iPhone owner to enjoy the benefits of the Apple Watch, but Apple is still maintaining some of the lock-in that it enjoys. There’s no precedent for this, but it’s not impossible to establish a connection between an iPad and an Apple Watch. When you useFitness+on an iPad while wearing an Apple Watch, the iPad can display your health metrics on screen. Why not deepen that bond with a constant Bluetooth connection?
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Q: When will watchOS 11 be released?
Most likely in Sep. 2024. Apple typically previews its new software updates for developers in June and then releases them to the public alongside new hardware in the fall. WatchOS 10 was released on Sep. 18th, 2023, so it wouldn’t be surprising if watchOS 11 came out the same week in 2024.
Q: What Apple Watches will run watchOS 11?
Apple will release an official list of devices that can run watchOS 11, so we should have a firm answer soon. For now though, rumors suggest that Apple might beadding the Apple Watch Series 4to the list of devices that won’t support watchOS 11.
