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What does WatchOS 7 add to an Apple Watch?
The Apple Watch Series 6 is expected to launch on September 8. However, many important and interesting software features that it will bring are already known.
Every Apple Watch comes with a major new revision of the watchOS software, and owners of older watches benefit from it, too.
I’ve tested several of the features in watchOS 7 before launch, to see what’s around the corner. These are available in the beta version of watchOS, which you can download by registering for Apple’s beta program.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of everything you’ll find in watchOS 7, just a sampling of a few things to play on day one. These features may end up looking a bit different at public launch as well.
Chronograph Pro watch face
The new WatchOS 7 watch face also acts as a timer
This is one of the new watchOS 7 watch faces, Chronograph Pro. It’s similar to the existing Chronograph watch face, but contains even more. There are four complication slots and the layout is a bit more visually dense too.
You can choose the color of the outer band and there are three mini dials inside. Tap the face and it will turn into a timer, with a little green button to start and stop the count.
In the face edit menu, you can set the timer display to make one revolution of the dial mark in one minute, 30 seconds, six seconds, or three seconds. Or it can function as a tachymeter, telling you how many instances of the timed duration can fit in an hour.
Chronograph Pro is a pretty lovely looking face if you like a classic look, but one that doesn’t genuinely try to supplant an analog watch.
Photos clock face
Photos watch face updates the look of your watch with every unlock
The Photos watch face turns your screen into a digital photo frame and has been redesigned for watchOS 7. You choose an album in the iPhone Watch app and choose a different image to display each time you wake up the watch.
Gradients and colored enamels make this watch something special. You can choose to color the images with more or less any color of the rainbow, or use a gradient overlay.
These give the watch an important sense of visual coherence, which may be important to you. Or you can just view the images as is, if you want to use a happy memory album. Or maybe a record cover album.
The complication of shortcuts
WatchOS 7 will make shortcuts even more useful
Complications are the little extras included in the watch faces, and they will get much more diverse in watchOS 7. Shortcut complications have been added, increasing what you can do from the watch face.
Shortcuts to iOS were added in version 12 (the similar features were previously called Workflows), they became a core part of the system in iOS 13, and are now untethered in Watch in iOS 13.
These allow you to do things like record audio, activate Shazam song recognition, or set a work interruption alarm right from the watch face. There are loads of potential here.
Sleep
Here’s the new Sleep app in WatchOS 7
The Apple Watch hasn’t had a built-in sleep tracking from the start, largely because that’s the time to set it to charge. That changes in Watch OS 7.
It has a new Sleep app. This records your sleep patterns, just like a fitness tracker would. You’ll see a log of your time in bed and your time asleep, which could be a helpful reminder that you spend too much time browsing Instagram at midnight.
There are also more. The Sleep application allows you to choose a time to sleep and wake up, and the alarm with which to wake up. These make brilliant use of the Apple Watch’s haptic motors and are a reminder that the watch’s little speaker sounds pretty good.
There are nine types of alarms in the watchOS beta, each with a different wake-up sound and a haptic touch pattern. “Sunny” seems like a particularly relaxing way to wake up. Its ambient soundscape gradually grows louder, and irregular, beat-timed touches are less insistent than the average alarm.
Apple has changed the way the battery works a bit too, so that overnight use works better with real-world use.
You’ll see an alert if bedtime is approaching and the Apple Watch is less than 30% charged, presumably what you need to ensure it lasts through the night. Recharge it in the morning and your iPhone will inform you that it is recharged via a notification.
Training improvements
This is what dance training looks like in WatchOS 7
watchOS 7 also adds some new training modes: dance, core training, functional strength training, and cool down. They all look pretty similar when you run them, but the smart stuff happens behind the scenes.
With activities like these, the watch has to rely on algorithms to calculate the number of calories burned. With a run, you can monitor your GPS location to calculate your pace and distance, but none of that applies here.
By using a different algorithm for each type of exercise, Apple is able to provide a more accurate estimate of the energy you have expended. Also, it is recorded as a “dance” rather than a generic exercise, which is good.
