Today we are here to review the latest watchOS 9 features. The Apple Watch is by far the greatest fitness tracker if you own an iPhone. Perhaps the battery life is the only drawback, given Apple’s health software has typically lagged behind. Users of the Apple Watch frequently move their data right away to more practical and user-friendly programs like Strava or Nike Run Club. But with a plethora of new fitness features coming with the new operating system, that might all change.
New watchOS 9 features
The Apple Watch may become the finest running watch and overall best watch for endurance sports if capabilities like monitoring stride length and vertical oscillation function as designed. Along with a slew of other brand-new features, the new Series 8 now has crash detection and a body temperature sensor to measure fertility in people who desire to get pregnant. Here, we list watchOS 9’s major new features in detail.
Don’t forget to check out the latest iOS 16 features and learn if it is worth the update.
Compatible Apple Watch models
WatchOS 9 compatible Apple Watch models are listed below:
- Apple Watch Series 4
- Apple Watch Series 5
- Apple Watch SE (2020)
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch Series 7
- Apple Watch SE (2022)
- Apple Watch Series 8
- Apple Watch Ultra
How to install watchOS 9?
Both the Apple Watch and the iPhone may be used to install watchOS 9. Whichever method you decide to use, make sure your iPhone is running iOS 16 and connected to Wi-Fi, and that your Apple Watch battery is at least halfway charged (at least). To maintain range, you’ll also need to keep your watch and iPhone close to one another.
Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and select the My Watch menu to update your watch. Next, select Software Update and Download under General. Your Apple Watch will then display a progress wheel letting you know the update has started. Make sure the Apple Watch is linked to Wi-Fi if you decide to install an update directly on it. Then tap General > Software Update > Install in the Settings app on your watch.
Make sure you won’t require access to your smartwatch throughout the installation of watchOS 9, which can take up to an hour. You can decide to update your Apple Watch over night if you need to. When you are notified that the new operating system is available for download, select Update Tonight. After that, confirm on your iPhone that you want to update your watch overnight. Make sure your Apple Watch and iPhone are fully charged up before you go to sleep.
Fitness and health features
There are a lot of new fitness and health-related watchOS 9 features that we will detail below.
New watchOS 9 features: Workout views
Apple’s Workout app has been upgraded to display more metrics to help you maximize your exercises. You can also cycle through other perspectives including Heart Rate Zones, Activity Rings, and Power and Elevation by rotating the Digital Crown. Additionally, you will have the choice to create Custom Workouts that include work and rest periods as well as notifications for your heart rate, speed, power, and cadence while you exercise.
New watchOS 9 features: Compass app
The updated Compass app now features a hybrid view that combines a new digital compass with the straightforward analog compass that displays direction and bearing. The navigational data, including latitude, longitude, elevation, and slope, are displayed as the crown is turned. New orienteering features like Waypoints and Backtrack are also included. To indicate a point of interest, tap the Waypoint icon. If a user gets lost and needs to turn around, Backtrack uses GPS data to show them where they’ve been.
New watchOS 9 features: In-depth running metrics
The ability to measure new metrics like Ground Contact Time, Stride Length, and Vertical Oscillation—all of which can help you improve your form—has been added to the Apple Watch, which will be excellent news for anyone who uses one while jogging. You can view them in the summary of the Fitness and Health apps, or add them to your Workout Views. Additionally, you’ll be able to spot patterns and trends over time.
New watchOS 9 features: Fitness+
You will finally be able to view your heart rate, calories burned, and Burn Bar in real-time on the display (if it is compatible) if you have been streaming your Fitness+ exercises to a second screen (like your TV) via AirPlay rather than Apple TV. Speaking of metrics, your stats now include a new “trainer callouts” feature that uses words like “Hard” and “All Out! —to encourage you to increase your exercise intensity levels.
New watchOS 9 features: Sleep tracking
Different sleep stages are now visible in sleep tracking. Your smartwatch can tell when you’re in REM, Core, or Deep sleep by using the heart rate sensor and accelerometer. Utilizing the Sleep app on the watch, you may check this information every morning. The Health app will provide a more thorough breakdown with information on things like time asleep, heart rate and respiration rate, and charts comparing different sleep patterns.
New watchOS 9 features: New Medications tab
In iOS 16, the Health app now features a new Medications tab. You can use it to log medications, create schedules, and set reminders. Those reminders will then appear on your Apple Watch (and your iPhone), with the ability to log the moment you take them by tapping the notification on your watch.
New watchOS 9 features: AFib history
You can now activate the AFib History feature if you have been told you have atrial fibrillation to receive a weekly update on more detailed information about your health. You can get a rough idea of how frequently your heart rhythm exhibits AFib symptoms and how other elements like exercise, sleep, and alcohol affect your AFib. The Health app also provides access to a thorough history, with the option to download a PDF to submit to your primary care doctor.
Later this fall, the feature will be accessible in Australia. According to Apple, the feature has “received a number of local clearances and approvals from health authorities around the world” and will be accessible in more than 100 nations and territories, including the US, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Mexico, South Africa, the UK, and more.
New watchOS 9 features: Temperature sensing
The Apple Watch Series 8 comes with a new feature that can help identify changes in your body depending on your temperature. It has a two-sided temperature sensor, one on the back of the smartwatch next to your skin and one under the display. It can test your wrist temperature while you’re sleeping to look for any variations from your normal temperature that could be brought on by an ailment or extreme weariness. You can get “retrospective ovulation estimates” to aid in family planning and enhance period predictions if you track your period with the Health app.
You’ll get a notification as part of a new feature for all Apple Watches running WatchOS 9 if your logged periods exhibit symptoms of irregularity, infrequency, persistent spotting, or if they appear to be protracted.
Design and safety features
There are a lot of new safety-related watchOS 9 features that we will detail below.
New watchOS 9 features: Watch Faces
Sick of your watch face collection? Four new watch faces are included in WatchOS 9, including Astronomy (an original watch face that has been updated to show current cloud data and a new star map), Playtime (created in partnership with artist Joi Fulton), Metropolitan, and Lunar. Lunar shows the relationship between the Gregorian calendar and Lunar calendar.
The bokeh effect is now highlighted on photographs of dogs, cats, and landscapes in addition to people on the Portraits watch face. The new Apple Watch Ultra also has a new Wayfinder face, which can be personalized for the mountain, ocean, and trail and has up to eight complexities.
Additionally, Apple added the new Focus function that was first announced in iOS 16. You can select a watch face that will always be displayed on your Apple Watch when you enable a specific Focus mode on your iPhone.
New watchOS 9 features: Accessibility
Apple’s Quick Actions were created to assist persons with upper body limb differences activate certain features on the smartwatch using gestures, building on the AssistiveTouch technology for the Apple Watch. With a double squeeze or clench, users can begin a workout, take a snapshot, take or finish a phone conversation, and play or pause media.
Apple also unveiled Apple Watch Mirroring for people with physical and motor impairments. You can use an iPhone’s voice control and switch control capabilities to operate the Apple Watch after casting it to the device. The Apple Watch Series 6 or later is required to access this feature.
New watchOS 9 features: Crash detection
If you don’t check in on the watch after 10 seconds in the event of a serious auto accident, your Apple Watch (Series 8, Ultra, and second-generation SE) will call emergency services on your iPhone. Then, both emergency responders and emergency contacts are informed of your location. Apple’s new smartwatches are powered by a new gyroscope, accelerometer, and powerful sensor-fusion algorithm that was developed using data from crash test labs, in addition to the barometer and GPS.
New watchOS 9 features: Low power mode
The Apple Watch doesn’t have the longest battery life, which is no secret. Now that the watch has Low Power Mode—the same function seen on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac—you may increase battery life without completely eliminating watch functionality. Certain sensors, like as heart health alerts, Always-On Retina display, and auto-workout detection, will be disabled and limited on the Series 8.
Upcoming
While WatchOS 9 presently offers all of the aforementioned features, there are a few more that will be added in upcoming versions.
New watchOS 9 features: Family setup
You can add your kids as members to the Home app if your home is full of smart home gadgets. Through their Apple Watch, consumers will be able to directly control the HomePod, smart lighting, and smart thermostats. When your children forget their own keys or get locked out, Wallet also lets you add hotel or home keys to remotely unlock the door for them. This feature is quite useful.
New watchOS 9 features: Roaming
You may now use your Apple Watch to stay connected to your cellular network while you’re traveling abroad if it becomes available later this fall. However, you will need to modify your cellular plan, which could result in additional costs depending on your carrier.
New watchOS 9 features: Best run
You’ll soon be able to test yourself against your greatest or most recent performance whether you’re out for an outdoor run or bike ride. Additionally, you’ll get real-time updates to keep you inspired to break your own record.
You can buy the latest Apple Watch Series 8 from this link. If you own an Apple TV you can also check out the new tvOS 16 features and learn how important is it to update.
