In the decade after the original’s release, the best Apple Watches have advanced significantly. They began as a trendy piece of technology and have since evolved into a fantastic health and fitness device.
There’s a lot of talk about the Apple Watch X, or Apple Watch 10, which is likely to be the anniversary model of the Apple Watch in the same way that the iPhone X was the 10th anniversary model of the iPhone. But what about the software that runs on the Apple Watch? With substantial changes coming with watchOS 10 in 2023, including an entirely new way to interact and use Apple Watch, is watchOS 11 going to take a back seat this year with a minor update?
We are covering what we’ve heard thus far far about watchOS 11, including what features we can expect, when it will be released, and what features we’d like to see.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? When is the next big software release for Apple Watch? Likely September
- Which Apple Watches will be supported? Likely Series 5 or newer
WATCHOS 11: RUMORED RELEASE DATE
During its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), Apple normally announces which enhancements will be included in its next major software release. The conference is held once a year in early June, with the major keynote on a Monday.
This keynote is frequently used by Apple to announce what will be available in watchOS, iOS, iPadOS, and macOS later that year. Apple has not officially released dates for WWDC 24 – they are typically published in March – but based on historical trends, the conference is expected to begin on either June 3 or June 10.
Public and developer betas are typically issued roughly a month later in July, followed by the final build of the software in September, when the new Apple Watch and iPhone models are announced.
Again, the date for the September announcement is uncertain at this time, but it is normally the first or second week of September, with the software becoming available to compatible devices the week after the announcement. That means WatchOS 11 could come on supported Apple Watch models as early as September 9th.
WATCHOS 11: NEWS AND LEAKS
So yet, there have been few whispers and leaks about watchOS 11, which is not surprising given how early it is. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also stated at the end of 2023 that work on watchOS 11 and other key software releases was temporarily postponed, which could explain the absence of news thus far.
However, there has been some speculation that Apple would include a Large Language Model in iOS 18, making Siri more useful and allowing Apple’s assistant to stay up with artificial intelligence breakthroughs and absorb capabilities offered by competitors. If accurate, we’d expect some of that to leak down to Siri on watchOS 11, perhaps making Apple’s smartwatch more capable of Interacting with information and apps requires less involvement from users.
Apple has also confirmed RCS support, which is expected to arrive with iOS 18 – however this is not official, with Apple merely stating by the end of 2024. If RCS functionality arrives on the iPhone in September (aside from no more green bubbles surrounding your texts), it seems likely that it will also arrive on the Apple Watch with watchOS 11.
In terms of compatibility, there are presently no leaks indicating which Apple Watch models would lose support, but an educated estimate would be that the Apple Watch Series 4 will be discontinued, while the Series 5 and newer will support the new software. We will update this section as further news and rumors about watchOS 11 surface supported models.
WATCHOS 11: WHAT WE WANT TO SEE
Rumours about watchOS 11 are thin for the time being, but there are a few features we’d like to see when the next major software update for Apple Watch arrives.
1.A recovery ring
When the Apple Watch was first unveiled in 2014, the three activity Rings were crucial to the UI and the concept of the smartwatch – and they still are. Apple Watch uses the Move, Exercise, and Stand rings to calculate how well you’ve met your daily activity goals. You can now tailor all three to your tastes, but the underlying precedent remains same from a decade ago.
We’d like to see a fourth ring introduced in watchOS 11: Recovery or Rest. This may automatically replace the Exercise ring on days when Apple Watch analyzes all of the data it has acquired and determines you need a rest day, for example. Or it might be an additional ring that fills up during the week based on your activity and sleep, and once full, Apple grants you a rest day by blocking out the Exercise ring and allowing the user to accept or reject that day of rest.
2.Steps as complexity or objective
We remember when the 10,000 step per day metric was introduced as a decent beginning point for those who desired to stay active by walking. While the scientific evidence for whether 10,000 steps is enough or not is limited, it is nevertheless a popular metric, and one that Apple Watch does not yet emphasize especially effectively.
If you want to make sure you take 10,000 steps each day in addition to completing your Move and Exercise Rings, open the Activity app on your Apple Watch and scroll down four screens until you find your daily step total. If you hit the Digital Crown once on that page, the following time you access the Activity app, it will immediately display the steps screen – a helpful tip for anyone who didn’t know this – but we’d like to see steps made more accessible with watchOS 11.
It has never been a measure that Apple has prioritized, but the ability to add steps as a complication on Watch Faces without downloading a third-party app, or to adjust the Exercise ring to a step target rather than minutes of activity, would be fantastic.
3.More detailed sleep tracking
Apple updated the sleep monitoring on the Apple Watch with watchOS 9, however while it is now able to observe sleep stages and other statistics such as resting heart rate and respiratory rate, the Apple Watch still lags behind Fitbit and Whoop in terms of sleep tracking.
We’d want to see watchOS 11 integrate the sleep data obtained by Apple Watch to present you with a more holistic view of your overall fitness and more insights into whether you should take a rest and recovery day or whether you should be primed and ready to go in terms of activity. One of our top recommendations would be something like Garmin’s Body Battery or Fitbit’s Daily Readiness Score. Requests for WatchOS 11. This, of course, feeds back into our original desire for a recovery ring.
4.Flexibility of Watch Faces
Every major software upgrade for Apple Watch includes a few of new Watch Faces. For watchOS 10, this added Snoopy, which was hands down one of the nicest aspects of the new software. It was introduced alongside Palette, which was also enjoyable, but it was no Snoopy and Woodstock.
We’d want to see third-party Watch Faces in watchOS 11, but we know it’s unlikely, so we’d rather have a little more freedom with the Watch Faces that now exist. We’d like to be able to add a complication to Snoopy for example, or have Apple Watch recommend some useful complications based on our usage behavior and what apps we have on our Apple Watch for Watch Faces with complication capabilities.
5.Programmable side button
Just as third-party Watch Faces are doubtful, so is Apple’s decision to make the side button on the Apple Watch programmable, especially given the recent arrival of Control Centre with watchOS 10. Nonetheless, we may dream. The Watch Ultra and Watch Ultra 2 both contain an additional programmable Action Button, while the basic Apple Watch Series models do not have this capability.
With watchOS 11, the ability to rapidly start a workout or another app with a single touch of the side button would be very appreciated. Of course, this would need shifting the Control Centre: swiping left to right or right to left from the Apple Watch home screen currently serves no purpose, so the Control Centre could easily relocate there.
We can still open Apple Pay with a double press of the side button, but we’d love to be able to set the single click. Pretty please, Apple.
