Apple WatchOS 7’s New Features Include Sleep Monitoring
June 24, 2020Apple has previewed WatchOS 7, the upcoming operating system for the company’s venerable smartwatch. It offers a myriad of customization tools as well as new health and fitness features that extend its functionality further.
One of the many appealing features of the Apple Watch, is the ability to choose from a plethora of custom watch faces. Now, said faces can be shared with friends and family through Messages, Mail or links via websites and social media channels. The Chronograph Pro function includes a tachymeter to calculate speed based on time traveled over a fixed distance.
In addition to this, more complications are supported on each watch face. The Dawn Patrol one, can show surfers tide, wind speed, and water temperature from a favorite surf spot. The same is true of parental ones that inform new parents of bottle-feeding, breastfeeding, pumping statistics, and nap times.
New to WatchOS is the Sleep functionality. It provides information on the user’s desired amount of sleep, help them get to bed on time, and create a pre-bedtime routine to meet their sleep goals. It can even gauge the quality of sleep by detecting micro-movements from the watch’s accelerometer, which signals respiration during sleep.
Each morning, the wearer will receive information on how well they slept, including periods of wake and sleep. And Wind Down, is another sleep based function that create a customized routine before bed, including listening to soothing sounds or launching a preferred app.
The Silent haptic alarm wakes the wearer by initiating more gentle vibrations or sounds and shows current battery level. If the battery is too low within an hour of one’s bed time, the watch will remind its user to charge it before going to bed.
Automatic hand washing detection, allows the Apple Watch to detect when the wearer is washing his or her hands, and sets a 20-second countdown timer. It uses motions sensors, microphone and AI to detect this, and remind users if they take less than 20-seconds to complete the task.
The fitness app has also been improved with new support for better functionality and new workout types. There’s also a streamlined view on the iPhone’s fitness app that facilitates a simplified view of health date such as daily Activity, Workouts, Awards, and Activity Trends.
There’s also a hearing monitoring function that alert wearers if the volume on their earphones are too loud or if they have exceeded the recommended tolerance level for loud music. Other worthy mentions include cycling directions and Siri’s ability to translate and transcribe messages. She can also let users know when new messages arrive.
