watchOS 6 Advances Health and Fitness Capabilities for Apple Watch

By Staff 5 years ago

Introducing Cycle Tracking, Noise App, Activity Trends and App Store
Right on the Wrist

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® today previewed watchOS® 6, which empowers Apple Watch® users to
better manage their health and fitness, and gives access to dynamic new
watch faces and the App Store® directly on Apple Watch.

“Apple Watch has become an indispensable part of our customers’ everyday
lives, from helping users stay connected to the people and information
they care about, to inspiring them to live a better and more active
day,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “watchOS 6
extends our commitment to helping users better manage their health and
fitness with powerful and personal new tools.”

Health and Fitness

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The new Cycle Tracking app gives women the ability to log important
information related to their menstrual cycles and see predicted timing
for their next period and fertile window using the convenience of Apple
Watch.1 The daily log function enables the quick addition of
information related to the menstrual cycle, including current period,
flow, symptoms, results from ovulation prediction kits and other
elements of fertility tracking. The new Cycle Tracking feature is
also available in the Health app on iPhone® with iOS 13.

Maintenance of hearing health positively impacts the quality of life and
studies have shown that hearing loss has been associated with cognitive
decline.2 With the optimal position of Apple Watch on the
wrist, the Noise app helps users understand the sound levels in
environments such as concerts and sporting events that could negatively
impact hearing. As the sound levels change, the app’s decibel meter
moves in real time. The watch can send a notification if the
decibel level reaches 90 decibels, which can begin to impact hearing
after four hours per week of exposure at this level, according to the
World Health Organization.

Customers are passionate about closing their Activity rings and the new
Trends tab in the Activity app on iPhone now gives users a long-term
view of their activity behavior to help them understand their progress.
At a glance, the tab shows whether the trends are up or down for key
metrics such as active calories, exercise minutes, walking pace and
others. If the last 90 days of activity shows a downward trend relative
to the last 365 days, the Activity app offers coaching to help the user
get back on track.

App Store and Apps

For the first time, watchOS 6 brings the App Store directly to Apple
Watch. Users can easily install third-party apps, search for apps using
Siri®, dictation or Scribble and view app product pages designed for the
watch screen right from the wrist. Developers can build Apple Watch-only
apps, created to work independently on Apple Watch without an iOS app.

Additional watchOS 6 Updates

  • watchOS 6 introduces dynamic new watch faces and customization options
    offering more personalization and access to favorite apps, contacts
    and information. These include: Modular
    Compact, Solar Dial, California, Gradient and Numerals faces.
  • New developer tools include an audio API to stream music, radio and
    podcasts, an API to give extended runtime to session-based tasks, such
    as physical therapy and meditation, and Core ML® now uses the Apple
    Neural Engine on Apple Watch Series 4, enabling faster processing of
    on-device inputs.
  • The popular Voice Memos app is now available on Apple Watch.
  • Audiobooks purchased on Apple Books are now available to listen to
    directly from the new Audiobooks app on the watch.
  • The new Calculator app helps with tip calculations and splitting
    checks right from the wrist.
  • Siri search queries can display webpage results in full on Apple Watch.
  • Apple GymKit™ compatibility extends to manufacturers Octane Fitness,
    TRUE Fitness and Woodway, connecting Apple Watch to more cardio
    equipment in clubs around the world.

Privacy

All Apple Watch features are designed to protect user privacy. None of
the audio or sounds in the environment are saved by the Noise app or
sent to Apple — only the decibel level is sampled. The information from
Apple Watch health features, including the new Cycle Tracking app, will
be visible within the redesigned Health app on iOS 13. All data is
encrypted on-device and if iCloud® back up is selected by the user, data
is encrypted in iCloud.

Summer Watch Bands

New colors of the Sport Band and Sport Loop in Canary Yellow, Dragon
Fruit and Cornflower are available beginning today, along with a new
Pride Edition Sport Loop with a donation being made to the following
LGBTQ advocacy organizations: Encircle, Gender Spectrum, GLSEN, ILGA,
PFLAG, the National Center for Transgender Equality and The Trevor
Project.

Pricing and Availability

The developer preview of watchOS 6 is available to Apple Developer
Program members at developer.apple.com starting
today. New software features will be available this fall as a free
software update for Apple Watch Series 1 or later paired with iPhone 6s
or later running iOS 13 or later. For more information, visit apple.com/watchos-preview.
Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in
all regions or all languages or on all devices.

New Apple Watch band colors are available to order on apple.com and
in the Apple Store® app, and will be available later this week at Apple
Stores, as well as select Apple Authorized Resellers and carriers in the
US and over 35 countries and regions.

1 Fertile window predictions should not be used as a form of
birth control.

2 JAMA Internal Medicine, 2013.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the
Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with
iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple’s four software
platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences
across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services
including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s more
than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on
earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple Newsroom (www.apple.com/newsroom),
or call Apple’s Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042.

© 2019 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, watchOS,
Apple Watch, App Store, iPhone, Siri, Core ML, GymKit, iCloud and Apple
Store are trademarks of Apple Inc. Other company and product names may
be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts

Apple
Lance Lin, (408) 974-5036
lance_lin@apple.com
Nikki
Rothberg, (408) 974-4427
nrothberg@apple.com

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