Apple Watch Gets New Health Features, AI Summaries, Translation

Apple has unveiled new features for the Apple Watch, including improvements to its sensors and AI-generated notification summaries.

Unveiled at the company’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference, the watchOS 11 update includes new features to improve device personalization and sensing.

Chief among the OS updates is the new Vitals app, which displays key health metrics and context to help users make more informed day-to-day decisions. 

Tapping into the device’s array of sensors, the Vitals app lets users measure heart rate, blood oxygen levels and respiratory rate during sleep. 

Apple says the app allows wearers to “gain better context when it comes to their health.”

The new watchOS also includes a feature that measures workout intensity. The watch combines user data such as age, height and weight with workout data including GPS, heart rate and elevation. An algorithm then determines the intensity of the user’s workout, which users can manually adjust.

The watch will store workout data for 28 days, showing average intensity levels and workout duration, allowing users to track their progress and adjust their intensity as needed.

Other new features in watchOS 11 this fall include the ability to pause Activity ring goals, which track how long users stand and how many calories they burn during exercise.

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Apple Watch users will soon have new ways to customize their devices, such as the Smart Stack feature, which displays important information on watch faces. This feature can suggest widgets to add to the watch face based on the user's usage and can also dynamically show details. For example, the severe weather alerts widget can appear before a thunderstorm.

Watch devices are also set to get some generative AI features, notably summaries of notifications. Powered by the new Apple Intelligence AI software, the Apple Watch generates summaries of notifications from apps like Mail and Messages forwarded from the user’s iPhone 15.

The update will also give Apple Watches a translation app that can translate 20 languages from the user's wrist. The device will provide suggested responses and pronunciations for languages determined by GPS data to detect if the user is traveling.

“WatchOS is the world’s most advanced wearable operating system, supporting Apple Watch users throughout their day to stay healthy, active and connected,” said David Clark, Apple’s senior director of watchOS engineering. “This fall, watchOS 11 makes Apple Watch an even more essential companion by offering users additional actionable insights into their health and fitness, more personalization to fit their unique needs and new ways to stay connected while on the go.”

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