Apple has already released beta releases for its next major updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS. And today it adds watchOS for the first time to the public beta mix.
The watchOS 7 update includes new watchfaces, plus easier ways to share them with friends and download custom settings from the web. But the biggest addition this year, and this one is worth one finally, is sleep tracking. watchOS 7 comes with a new Sleep app that will show you how many hours you sleep each night – although Apple has yet to dive into the quality of sleep and various cycles.
The Apple Watch will get more fitness tracking with watchOS 7, including metrics for dancing, functional strength training, core training, and cooldown activities. The Maps app adds support for bike directions, and Apple’s smartwatch will now automatically detect when you wash your hands and provide a 20-second timer.
There are other small but useful improvements such as dictation on device – provides much faster speech to text – and translation support with Siri. Apple’s website has a complete list of new watchOS tricks, and from today you can try them out for yourself. Just remember that, as always, beta means beta and it’s probably best not to install the watchOS 7 public beta on your primary Apple Watch if you rely on it every day.
