In this post, I want to talk a bit more about watchOS 9 and what it’s going to bring to the table. The current version is pretty solid but there are a few things in the new watchOS that will improve the apple watch experience.
Now there are a load more features that are coming but I am going to focus on some of the main ones that I think most of us will be most interested in. So let’s jump straight in.
Notification:
I am looking forward to seeing a change in the way that we will see notifications on the apple watch. Currently, it takes up the whole of the watch face but going forward you will get a banner notification as you see on the iPhone. You will only get these banner notifications when you are actively using your watch, so when your wrist is down you will still receive a full-sized notification on your watch face.
I think this is a welcome change as it sometimes irritates me that when you get a notification it takes over the watch face.
There is also a bit of an update on the calendar app. You will be able to create new events on your watch directly and you will get daily weekly and monthly views.
Sleep tracking:
I am looking forward to seeing the improvements that are coming to sleep tracking. Today when I track my sleep to get a more detailed view of how long I spent in deep sleep for instance I have to download an app as on the sleep health app it will only show you how long you slept and when you woke. With the new update, you will be able to see how long you were in the different stages of sleep.
This is certainly one of the updates that I am most looking forward to getting as I will no longer need to pay for a decent sleep tracking app or at least that is my hope from this update.
Workouts:
There have been quite a few updates here. You will be able to see more information about your workout with new views that you can scroll through using the digital crown. One of those new views that we will be getting is heart rate zones, this gives you a quick view of what intensity level you are working at and what training zone you are in. Great for if you are training for an event or just like tracking your training zones.
And there is good news for you triathletes out there, you will be able to track each of the disciplines under one Exercise. Your watch will be able to tell when you transition from swimming to cycling to running.
You will also be able to create custom workouts, so you can add in warm-ups and cool downs for instance. I think this will be useful for those of us who like HITT training so you will be able to set up the intervals as you want them.
New Watch Faces:
In the new update, we will be getting some new watch faces. There are a couple of nice additions from what I can see such as the Metropolitan and the Astronomy faces. You will also be able to customise your watch face with a range of colours but it will only be available on some of them such as the Modular faces.
It will be nice to get some new faces but I can’t say that it’s what I am looking forward to the most. I tend to stick to the same watch face so don’t change it up all that often but I know there are plenty of others out there that love to change it up.
Medications:
This allows you to set up what medications you need to take and at what time. There doesn’t seem to be much you can do on the watch other than receive notification to take your medication and confirm if you have taken it or skipped it. All of the detail and being able to add your list of medications will need to be added in the health app on your iPhone.
I think that this is going to be a useful addition and will certainly help track what medications you are taking and reminders when to take them.
Conclusion:
As mentioned at the start of this post there are several other new features and tweaks which will only add value on top of these. I am currently waiting for the Public Beta of all the new OS to come out so I can start to delve into using them and getting into the nitty gritty so I can provide a more detailed review for you guys.
I am certainly looking forward to putting my Apple Watch to test with watchOS 9. But until then hopefully, this give you a brief snapshot of some of the main changes that are heading our way.