Apple announced that watchOS 9 was officially released today, bringing a new dial, an enhanced fitness training app, sleep stages, a new compass app, and a new medication app all in one. Apple today launched watchOS 9, bringing many new features and experience enhancements to the world's leading wearable operating system. Apple Watch users now have more watch face options, and richer complications to display more information and personalize the experience. The updated fitness app provides more advanced metrics, views, and a training experience inspired by elite athletes to help users improve their training. The Sleep Stages feature has been introduced in the Sleep App to provide a deeper understanding of your physical condition. The new Medication App allows users to easily and rigorously manage, understand and track medication usage.
New and expanded watch face options
watchOS 9 introduces enhanced modern features on some of the most classic watch faces, such as the "Utility" watch face, the "Simple" watch face, and the "Activity pointer" watch face, and adds background color editing to the "Modular" watch face and the "Compact Modular" watch face. , while adding a personalization function to the "Large Text" watch face. The “Portrait” dial brings depth-of-field effects to more photos of cats, dogs, and landscapes, while the “California” dial and the “Typography” dial add Chinese characters to choose from. For the first time, all Apple Watch owners (including non-Nike models) using watchOS 9 will have access to all Nike watch faces, including the upcoming new colorway "Bounce".
Focus Mode now allows users to select a watch face for a specific focus mode, and when the user turns on the focus mode on the iPhone, the Apple Watch watch face can automatically switch, such as showing a photo watch face in personal focus mode, helping users better focus on the moment.
The "moon phase" dial depicts the relationship between the solar and lunar calendars.
Updates to the fitness training app
Heart rate zones in the workout app can now be used to monitor training intensity.
For triathlon enthusiasts, the fitness training app now supports multi-sport fitness training types. It uses motion sensors to identify movement patterns and can automatically switch between swimming, cycling, and running. After each workout, the Fitness app on iPhone also provides more detailed information and interactive charts through a redesigned summary interface for a more precise analysis of all workouts.
For triathlon and duathlon enthusiasts, the fitness training app now supports multi-sport fitness training types, automatically switching between swimming, cycling, and running.
Update for runners
In addition, the new Pace feature allows users to choose distance and time goals for completing a run, thereby estimating the pace needed to reach their goals. During physical training, users can adjust their workouts based on pace reminders and metrics provided by the watch. With the Race Routes feature coming later this year, users can race their best or latest results on the routes they use most and receive pace guidance as they work out.
Users can race against their best or latest results on the routes they use most and receive pace guidance as they progress.
Swimming function enhancement
Pool swimming fitness training adds floating boards as a stroke. Apple Watch's sensor fusion will automatically detect whether the user is swimming with a floating board and include this stroke in the fitness training summary while showing the swimming distance. Swimmers can now track their efficiency using the SWOLF value, which is calculated as a combination of strokes per stroke and seconds. Users can view their average SWOLF per set of workouts in the workout summary.
Redesigned Compass App
The Backtracking feature uses GPS data to create a route the user has traveled, which is especially useful if the user is lost or disoriented and needs help finding their way back. The feature can also be automatically turned on in the background when the user enters the wild area. Users can quickly and easily mark locations or important places directly within the app using the "Compass Waypoints" feature. Tap the compass waypoint icon to place a waypoint, and select a waypoint to view the direction and approximate distance of the waypoint in a targeted manner.
The completely redesigned Compass app offers the "Compass Waypoints" feature to quickly and easily mark locations or important places directly within the app.
Insight into sleep
The machine learning model is trained and validated on the clinical gold standard, polysomnography, and is one of the largest and most diverse wearable device studies. As sleep science is still exploratory, users in the U.S. will also be able to contribute to it in the future by submitting their own sleep stage data through Apple Heart and Movement Research in the Research app.
With the introduction of sleep stages, Apple Watch can now estimate whether the user is in REM sleep, core sleep, or deep sleep, providing further insight into sleep.
Medication
Whether it needs to be taken multiple times a day, once a week, or on demand, users can create a personalized schedule for each medication, as well as set reminders to help users take their medication on time.
The new Medication app experience on Apple Watch and iPhone helps users manage and track their medications, vitamins, and nutrients.
New features for period tracking
New with iOS 16 and watchOS 9, users of Period Tracker will receive an alert when there is a possible deviation in their period history (such as irregular periods, infrequent periods, prolonged periods, or persistent spotting).
Privacy
Privacy is paramount in the design and development of all Apple features. When the user locks the phone with a passcode, Touch ID or Face ID, all health and exercise data in the Health App will be encrypted, except for the information in the medical emergency card. Any Health App data backed up to iCloud is also encrypted in transit or stored on Apple servers. When the default two-factor authentication is turned on in iOS and watchOS and a passcode is used, the data synced to iCloud by the Health App will be encrypted end-to-end, which means Apple cannot decrypt and read the data.
Other watchOS 9 updates
- Low Power Mode is designed to extend battery life and maintain core Apple Watch features such as activity tracking and fall detection while disabling or limiting the use of certain sensors and features such as background heart rate detection and 24/7 display.
- Users can now stay connected to cellular networks while traveling abroad with international roaming packages.
- Redesigned notifications will be less distracting and reminders, showing only a thin banner when the user is actively using the Apple Watch.
- Later this year, Family Setup will support the Family App, allowing you to invite your child as a member to control HomePod and smart home devices. They will also be able to use home keys and hotel keys in their "wallets".
- With the new Quick Actions feature on Apple Watch, users with upper extremity disabilities can use a two-finger pinch to do more, including answer or hang up calls, take pictures, play or pause media in the Now Playing app, and start, pause, or resume a workout.
- For people with physical and motor disabilities, Apple Watch is more accessible than ever with Apple Watch Mirroring. With the help of this feature, users can control the Apple Watch through the paired iPhone. With Apple Watch Mirroring, users can use their Apple Watch with accessibility features like Voice Control and Switch Control on the iPhone meaning they can use voice, voice commands, head tracking, and an external "Made for iPhone". ” device as an alternative to “tapping” the Apple Watch’s display.
- The QWERTY keyboard on Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra now supports French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish (Mexico, Spain, Latin America).
- The refreshed Calendar app lets you create new events directly from your Apple Watch. In addition to access to an updated list, of daily and monthly views, users can also access a new weekly view, which enables scrolling through more events on the calendar.
- Cardiorespiratory recovery is a useful health indicator that can be used as a bellwether for cardiovascular health. Apple Watch now provides estimates of cardiorespiratory recovery after a workout like outdoor walking, running, or hiking, even when the workout isn't at peak intensity. Users can track this indicator over a long period of time through the Health App.
Launch time
- Starting today, watchOS 9 will be available as a free software update for Apple Watch Series 4 and later and paired with iPhone 8 and later or iPhone SE (2nd generation) and later running iOS 16.
- Some features may only be available in some regions or languages, or in some models.
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