WatchOS 11 Revealed: Big new features coming to Apple Watch

As part of its WWDC event, Apple just pulled back the curtain on watchOS 11, teasing a ton of new features looking to shake things up for Apple Watch users.

In addition to updates for VisionOS, iOS and MacOS, Apple just revealed the next big software update for Apple Watch in the form of watchOS 11. While Apple software updates can sometimes be a little iterative, watchOS 11 feels like anything but.

From fitness to watch faces and everything in between, watchOS 11 is set to bring certain features to the table that fans (this journalist included) have been clamouring for. To know exactly what’s in store, keep on reading.

Training Load is a fitness boon

Taking a page from the Whoop and Garmin, the Apple Watch can now track the amount of effort that you’ve put into a particular exercise with Training Load. This feature will now show you the level of your exertion on a scale from 1 to 10, and give you personalised text-based advice as to whether or not you need to step up your game or take the time to rest.

Given that certain wearables, like the Whoop Strap 4.0, place a huge emphasis on strain and recovery, this is a huge area where the Apple Watch was previously lacking but Training Load could be about to change this completely.

The all-new Vitals app

Working in tandem with Training Load, sleep and heart rate tracking, the all-new Vitals app can learn your baselines and alert you when anything is out of whack. This could be a big help when it comes to paying better attention to your bill of health.

Fitness rings can finally be paused

It’s a small gripe but the Apple Watch’s previous insistence on exercising every single day always felt at odds with other wearables like Fitbit devices which allow you to work towards a goal over a single week. Well, Apple seems to have finally taken this onboard as you can now pause the Watch’s fitness rings for a predetermined amount of time, so if you need to rest due to an injury, you won’t be pestered by rings during that period.

Improvements to Smart Stack

The Smart Stack came to Apple Watch as part of watchOS 10 and now it’s been given a minor but helpful update which sees widgets swapped in and out depending on the current context of where you are and the time of day.

The example that Apple showed off is that when you’re abroad, a widget for the translation app will appear at the top of the smart stack so that you can access it in a pinch, and it’ll be set to the language of the country you’re visiting.

AI-infused Photos watch face

While there are no new watch faces with this year’s watchOS release, Apple did announce that a moderate update was on the way for the existing Photos watch face to make it far more user-friendly.

Not only will this update now automatically find the best pictures from your library to suit the watch face design, but it will also determine the ideal spot to put the time itself. Much like the wallpaper and lockscreens on the iPhone, you can also change the photo to adopt one of several different colour profiles to make it pop on your wrist.

WatchOS 11 release date

If you’re part of Apple’s Developer Program then you won’t have to wait long to try out all of these new features as the beta version of watchOS 11 is available today. A public beta will be released sometime in July while the final version will likely drop in September, alongside the release of the anticipated Apple Watch 10.

This is a developing story and this page will be updated when we have more information.