Apple Releases watchOS 9.4 With AFib History Expansion and Changes to Mute Gesture to Prevent Accidental Alarm Cancellation

Apple today released watchOS 9.4, the fourth major update to the watchOS 9 operating system that first launched last September. watchOS 9.4 comes two months after the release of watchOS 9.3.

watchOS 9.4 can be downloaded for free through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by opening it up and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it needs to be placed on a charger, and it needs to be in range of the ‌‌‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌‌‌‌.

The watchOS 9.4 update adds support for new emoji characters that include donkey, goose, black bird, shaking head, hyacinth, pea pod, and more. The update also introduces a change to wake-up alarms, preventing them from being silenced with the mute gesture to prevent accidental cancellations.

AFib History and Cycle Tracking have been expanded to new countries, with Apple's full release notes for the update below.

watchOS 9.4 includes improvements to Apple Watch and brings features to new regions.

• Wake-up alarms are no longer silenced with cover to mute gesture to avoid accidental cancellations during sleep
• Cycle Tracking with retrospective ovulation estimates and cycle deviation alerts now supported in Moldova and Ukraine
• AFib History now available in Colombia, Malaysia, Moldova, Thailand, and Ukraine

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

watchOS 9.4 is expected to be one of the last updates to the watchOS operating system as Apple works on transitioning to watchOS 10, expected to be previewed at WWDC in June.