Apple released watchOS 11 Beta 1 to developers on 10th June 2024 and here’s what’s new –
How to update – Open Apple Watch App < click my watch < click general < click software update < click download and install and make sure watch is charging
Build Number: 22R5284o
Devices installed on:
- Apple Watch Series 7
The update:
What’s new?
Vitals App:
Apple Watch tracks your sleep and measures various health metrics like heart rate, breathing rate, temperature, sleep duration, and blood oxygen. The new Vitals app in watchOS 11 lets you see this data easily and understand what it means for your overall health. You can check your daily health trends and see if any metrics fall outside your usual range. If two or more metrics are off-balance, Apple Watch will alert you and even suggest reasons why, considering factors like altitude, recent drinks, or even potential illness.
Apple’s health features are grounded in science and developed with input from clinical experts. To inform out-of-range classifications and notifications, Vitals uses an algorithm developed using real-world data from the Apple Heart and Movement Study, research that aims to advance the understanding of heart health and physical activity.
Pregnancy Support:
Expecting mothers get a helpful boost with watchOS 11, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18. These updates acknowledge the physical and mental changes that come with pregnancy. Here’s what’s new:
Be aware of fall risks: As your pregnancy progresses into the third trimester, your fall risk might rise. Walking Steadiness, a feature on your iPhone, can become more sensitive to potential falls during this time.
Track your journey: Log your pregnancy in the Health app, and your Apple Watch’s Cycle Tracking app will show your week-by-week progress and let you record common pregnancy symptoms.
Stay informed: Apple Watch will suggest you adjust your high heart rate notification settings, as your heart rate naturally increases during pregnancy.
Prioritize mental health: The Health app can remind you to take monthly mental health assessments, acknowledging the increased risk of conditions like depression during and after pregnancy.
Training Load:
watchOS 11 introduces training load, an insightful new way to measure how the intensity and duration of workouts is impacting a user’s body over time. Training load helps users understand the strain on their body from workouts over the last seven days compared to the last 28 days. These insights can help users make informed decisions about their training each day, particularly when preparing for an event — whether it is their first 5K, a bike race, or a marathon.
Training load is an insightful new way to measure how the intensity and duration of workouts is impacting a user’s body over time, established using effort ratings available after each workout.
To measure intensity, a new effort rating will be available after each workout to track how difficult it was on a scale from 1 to 10. Popular cardio-based workout types will employ an innovative new algorithm to automatically generate an estimated effort rating, using a combination of data sources like age, height, and weight, alongside workout data like GPS, heart rate, and elevation. Users can also manually adjust this estimate to take into account other factors such as stress or soreness. For workouts where an automatic estimate is not provided — like strength training — users can still enter an effort rating at the end of each workout.
Track Your Training Effort and Recovery:
- Your Apple Watch monitors your workouts over a 4-week period to calculate your training load. This considers both the intensity (effort rating) and duration of each workout.
- In the Activity app, you’ll see how your training load for the past week compares to your average over the last month. It’ll be labelled as “well below,” “below,” “steady,” “above,” or “well above” to show if you’re pushing yourself harder, maintaining your routine, or easing off.
- The Fitness app on your iPhone takes this a step further. It analyzes how your current training level might impact your fitness in the future, considering factors like potential improvement or risk of injury.
- Since overall health and training are connected, you can view your training load alongside other health data from the Vitals app, both on your Apple Watch and iPhone.
This revised version simplifies the technical terms and emphasizes the practical benefits for users. It highlights how the feature helps you understand your training intensity, optimize your workouts, and stay injury-free.
More Customisable Activity Rings and Fitness App
Apple Watch’s Activity rings are getting a flexibility boost with watchOS 11! Need a break from closing your rings every day? No problem. You can now pause them for a day, week, or even a month without losing your hard-earned streaks. This is perfect for planned rest days, injuries, or just needing a mental break.
On top of that, watchOS 11 lets you set different goals for your Activity rings each day of the week. So you can push yourself a bit harder on weekdays and have more relaxed goals on weekends. This personalized approach keeps you motivated and on track for your fitness goals.
Additionally, the Fitness app on iPhone offers users the ability to customise the Summary tab to see exactly what they want to see, including new metrics for workouts like running, hiking, swimming, and mindfulness.
Apple Fitness+ has been redesigned in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and tvOS 18 to help users make the most of its robust library, stay motivated, and keep consistent with their fitness routine. Updates include a personalised For You space, Explore and Library spaces, search features, and enhanced awards.
Smarter Smart Stack:
Apple Watch is getting a customisation makeover in watchOS 11!
- Access the info you need faster with a more intelligent Smart Stack.
- New widgets like Shazam, Photos, and Distance join the party.
- The Smart Stack now suggests relevant widgets based on your schedule, location, and habits. Imagine seeing a weather alert before a storm hits!
- Interact directly with apps from the Smart Stack with new interactive widgets.
- Live Activities are now on board, letting you stay on top of things in real-time directly from your wrist.
Overall, watchOS 11 makes your Apple Watch a more personalized and convenient companion.
Photos Watch Face:
And the best part? The Photos face now works in Dynamic mode, so you’ll see a fresh picture every time you raise your wrist!
The Photos watch face gets a smart upgrade! It uses machine learning to analyze your photos and pick the best ones based on looks, how they’re arranged, and even if there are people in them.
It then automatically positions the photo for a great view on your watch, creating a nice sense of depth.
Plus, you can customize the watch face with different time displays, layouts, fonts, and more.
Check In:
Apple Watch is getting even more helpful in keeping you connected in watchOS 11:
Stay Safe with Check In:
- Going for a run before sunrise or hitting the gym at night? No worries! You can now use Check In directly within the Workout app on your Apple Watch. Let a friend or family member know about your workout so they can keep an eye out for you until you’re finished. You can also start a Check In from Messages, just like you can on your iPhone.
Translate on Your Wrist:
- Travelling to a new place with a different language? No problem! The Translate app arrives on Apple Watch, giving you instant access to translations for over 20 languages right on your wrist. Plus, the Smart Stack is smarter than ever. If you’re travelling somewhere with a different language, it might automatically suggest the Translate app widget for easy access. The Translate app also now provides romanization, making pronunciation a breeze for languages that use the Latin alphabet.
One-Handed Scrolling:
Interacting with your Apple Watch just got easier! The double-tap gesture now works in any app, including Messages, Calendar, and Weather. So you can easily scroll through information with just one hand.
Additional updates in watchOS 11 include:
- The Workout app offers even more workout types that can track distance using enhancements in GPS positioning, including Soccer, American Football, Australian Football, Outdoor Hockey, Lacrosse, Downhill Skiing, Cross Country Skiing, Snowboarding, Golf, Outdoor Rowing, and more. Users can also see their route maps for more workout types.
- Custom Workouts can now be used for Pool Swims, allowing users to customize an interval-based workout with support for sets of work and recovery, and haptics to signal it is time to move on to the next interval. Across any Custom Workout, a new Up Next workout view can show what remains in the current interval and provide a snapshot of the upcoming interval.
- Apple Maps offers hikes for all U.S. national parks, which can be saved to Apple Watch and accessed offline with turn-by-turn guidance, even without an iPhone nearby. Users can also create their own walking routes within the Maps app on iPhone and save the route, so they can later navigate it with just their Apple Watch.
- Summarised notifications, powered by Apple Intelligence, will be forwarded from iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max to Apple Watch.1
- Enhanced ticketing improves information provided to users on tickets in Apple Wallet, such as when the venue opens and when the show starts. A Live Activity will start at the event so users can see their seats and other important information at the top of the Smart Stack.
- With Tap to Cash, users will be able to send and receive Apple Cash by simply holding their Apple Watch near another Apple Watch or iPhone.
That’s it for watchOS 11 Beta 1!
Supported Devices:
Future Software:
iOS 18 Beta 2 – We can expect the 2nd Beta of iOS 18 to release within two weeks of the first beta being released
watchOS 11 Beta 2 – We can expect this version to release alongside iOS 18 Beta 2
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