Apple Previews watchOS 11 With New Health and Workout Features

Apple today previewed watchOS 11, the next major software update for the Apple Watch that introduces several new health and workout features.

watchos 11 training load
Activity Rings can now be adjusted by day of the week and paused for a rest day, allowing users to keep their award streak going. Users can set workouts to alert a friend that they have been safely completed, such as a late-night run.

watchOS 11 includes a new "training load" feature, helping users to track intensity over time. A new algorithm uses heart rate, altitude, workout duration, and age and weight data to give a calculation of your estimated effort rating and training load.

A new Vitals app provides an overview of daily health, comparing daily health statistics to historical data and highlighting when health data is outside your typical range. If multiple metrics are out of range, you will receive a tailored message to see how they could be affecting you.

Cycle tracking now shows estimates of gestational age, showing pregnancy across charts to review metrics like high heart rate notification thresholds.

Widgets will be automatically added to the Smart Stack. For example, the Translate app will show automatically when you go to a different country and the Weather app will show up when rain is imminent. watchOS 11 also brings Live Activities to the Apple Watch for the first time.

An improved Photos watch face gives users more control and uses machine learning to automatically crop photos. The update also brings the Translate app to the Apple Watch.

The first developer beta of watchOS 11 is available starting today, with a public beta following in July, and official release to the public in the fall.

Related Roundup: watchOS 26
Related Forum: Apple Watch

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Top Rated Comments

JCCL Avatar
18 months ago
Rest day! Finally!
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vertsix Avatar
18 months ago

Apple has hit a wall with the Watch. This update is basically nothing.
It's actually decent for athletes.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vertsix Avatar
18 months ago
As an athlete, a lot of the new features look great. The training load metrics and analysis, something I use with Strava (as a subscription mind you), being readily available natively from Apple Watch data seems very promising.

Can't wait to try it!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scrapesleon Avatar
18 months ago
Finally I can pause my ring for a day
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
onlinespending Avatar
18 months ago
Another watchOS and another time Apple dropped the ball by not bringing out a Notes app. Pretty much the only major iOS app that doesn't have a watchOS companion app.

Very weird. Why can't we sync Notes to our Apple Watch and view them? Doesn't even have to offer editing capabilities
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DMG35 Avatar
18 months ago
Apple has hit a wall with the Watch. This update is basically nothing.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)