What’s New in WatchOS 11: Key Features You’ll Want to Try

Apple’s WatchOS 11 brings a variety of exciting updates, focusing on health, fitness, and safety tools that enhance the Apple Watch experience. Here's a quick look at the top new features.

1. Sleep Apnea Notifications: WatchOS 11 introduces a feature for Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 models that detects potential signs of sleep apnea. By monitoring breathing disturbances during sleep, it can alert you to irregular patterns, helping identify a serious health condition early.
2. Pause Your Activity Rings: Now you can pause your activity rings for the day, week, or month, providing flexibility if you're taking a rest day or dealing with illness. You can also adjust your exercise, stand, and move goals for a more personalized fitness routine.
3. Vitals App: The Vitals app provides a summary of key health metrics—like heart rate and respiratory rate—straight to your wrist after a night’s sleep. If any of your vitals fall outside your normal range, you'll be notified.
4. Training Load Tracking: For fitness enthusiasts, the Training Load feature helps track the intensity of workouts. It compares your current performance with your 28-day average to ensure you’re neither overtraining nor underperforming.
5. Check In Feature: A new safety tool that lets you inform a friend or family member of your location and activity. It works during workouts and even tracks your health data to ensure you're safe, sending alerts if something unusual happens.
6. Camera Remote Enhancements: WatchOS 11 improves the Camera Remote app, allowing you to pause and resume video recordings directly from your watch.
7. New Watch Face Options: The Photos watch face now lets you showcase your favorite pictures with more customization, while your iPhone automatically selects the best photos based on composition and facial expression.
8. Translate App: With the new Translate app, you can now translate phrases directly on your Apple Watch, even offline, making it perfect for travelers.

Other notable updates include offline maps, improved pregnancy tracking in the Health app, and the ability to adjust iMessage tapbacks.

For the full experience, ensure you're on iOS 18 before updating to WatchOS 11. Whether you're prioritizing health or enjoying the new convenience features, there's something for everyone.