WatchOS 8: New features coming to Apple Watch By CNET

Watch OS 8 is set to bring some new features to your Apple Watch, including a new mindfulness app, some extra workout types as well as messaging improvements. So let's dive in and see what's new, so first up, these features will be coming to the full release of watch OS 8, which is expected sometime in the fall. If you are a developer, though, you can download the developer beta right now and the public beta will be available sometime in July, and there is good news if you own a series 3, because watch OS 8 will be compatible with the series 3 and later. So that's good news if you are an owner of an older Apple Watch. So let's talk about some of those smart features. First up, so you'll be able to use car key with the Apple Watch, so it's going to utilize, the ultra-wide band or USB chip in the Apple Watch.

Series 6 and you'll be able to do things remotely with your vehicle as long as your vehicle is compatible, including things like locking or unlocking your car. Maybe it's turning on the air conditioning or even starting your engine. The wallet app will also get a bit of an overhaul as well you'll, be able to add not only keys for your home and maybe even your office badge, but also hotel keys. You can access those on your wrist and similar to how we've seen in iOS 15 you'll also be able to access your digital ID. If you decide to put that on your phone or watch, you can use your driver's license or state issued ID at certain TSA checkpoints you'll be able to use the watch and not have to physically carry your wallet.

If you don't want to now. This came as a surprise. To me, the photos watch face is actually the most popular watch face for users on the Apple Watch, at least according to apple, and so now what you'll be able to do is make a portrait mode watch face. So you can take a portrait mode photo taken on the iPhone and put that as your watch face on the Apple Watch and then the watch is going to use segmentation to be able to separate the subject from the background, so you'll be able to see more details that will pop out of the screen a little more and if you like to fidget with the digital crown and interact with the watch face, you can make the subject kind of move in and out a little and the watch face will also know where to place things like the time. So you'll probably see that on certain watch faces that the time will actually appear just behind the head of your subject, which is a nice touch.

Speaking of photos, the photos' app is also updated on the Apple Watch. You'll also be able to now share images from that app through mail or messaging itself from the watch, and you'll also have collections like memories and featured photos synced from the iPhone to the Apple Watch. One of the big headlines for watch OS 8 is this new mindfulness app. This actually houses? The breath app which you might already be familiar with from the Apple Watch as well as a new, reflect app. I like to think of reflect a little like a yogi or a guru on your wrist.

It's giving you some prompts to make you think of positive times or positive thoughts, focusing on your breath or particular moments in your life, for example, to help you relax and also reflect both the breath and the reflection part of the mindfulness app will give you some tips on what you can do to help improve, and you'll be able to see a mindfulness minutes log within the health app on the iPhone that will bring in information from those sessions that you've done on the Apple Watch, as well as third-party meditation apps iOS 15. Has this new mode called focus that helps you limit distractions and only have notifications from certain people or certain apps coming through now that will also carry over to the Apple Watch. You'll be able to see that in the control center from the Apple Watch, just by swiping up from the home screen, and of course it will sync automatically with whatever setting you already have set on. The iPhone there'll, also be more suggestions based on how you use the watch. So, for example, if you start say a workout, it might pop up and say: maybe you would want to put on the fitness focus method, so not so many distractions get in the way of your workout speaking of workouts.

There are two new workout types. The first is tai chi and the second one is Pilates. You might be thinking wait. There was already a Pilates mode in that other section on the Apple Watch. Well, these two new workout types have custom, algorithms that are actually determining your effort, rather than the more generic movement types that were counted previously, taking into account your heart rate and movement.

These are specific for these particular activities and if you use fitness plus, which is apple's subscription service, that is all to do with fitness classes and workouts that works directly with the Apple Watch. There are now a picture in picture mode, some new filters, as well as some specific playlists based around certain artists like Lady Gaga, some other health features to talk about include a new sleep respiration rate. Now we did see sleep tracking debut on the watch OS 7 last year, but that was really just focused on things like making you more aware of your bedtime, routine and creating some healthy habits. It didn't really dive that deep into data, like some other fitness trackers were doing. You would really be able to see things like resting heart rate and your blood oxygen level overnight.

If you were wearing this series, 6 for example, but now you'll be able to see sleep, respiration rate, and you'll be able to get an idea of trends over time now. Apple hasn't specifically said. This is designed to identify anything like any potential issue. It's just to give you an idea of your overall health and determine some trends, but maybe potentially it could be used to help look at conditions such as sleep apnea, again, not a medical device, and it would be used in conjunction with your doctor, but the more information the better. Now.

Let's talk about some new messaging tools. You'll be able to use a combination of dictation emojis and the scribble tool to be able to send and also edit messages. You can now send teeny, tiny, animated, gives or gives from your wrist, and the contacts' app is now available on the Apple Watch and, if you're using dictation, to send a message. Furthermore, you'll now be able to edit that message once the transcription pops up on your screen. I know I will definitely be using this quite a lot, because someone with an accent, you know it's not 100 accurate with getting what I'm trying to say.

One other app that has been redesigned is the home app, so you'll be able to see a lot of your home devices on the one screen. It will also re-prioritize the devices and how they show up. So, if you use say a home pod in your living room, much more than any other device in your house, it will surface that towards the top, and it will start to learn over time, which ones that you're using the most you can control different accessories room by room on your watch and if you have a home kit, camera you'll be able to see those cameras directly from the watch face itself and here's a feature to help annoy friends, family children and pets in your home. It is intercom, you'll, be able to essentially page different rooms devices in each room or the entire house itself to send your voice messages so no more being late for dinner, there's just no excuse anymore and finally, just a bit of a laundry list of all the other features that we're getting multiple timers. Finally, thank you so much I'm.

So I don't know why it took this for so long, but I'm just so glad that we now have the ability to set multiple timers on the watch. Now more of the apps are going to support the always on display. So if you have a series, 5 or series 6 or later, you will now be able to see some other apps surface on that screen, such as maps the phone app, the timers and the mindfulness app, and a couple more and one final feature coming to watch OS 8 that we did see announced a couple of weeks ago is assistive touch. Now this uses accelerometers and gyroscopes and heart rate sensors in the Apple Watch itself, to let users navigate the watch without having to physically touch the watch, screen itself or interact with any of the physical controls. So those are the main new features of coming to watch OS 8.

I would love to hear what you think. Are you excited about these new features, or do you think that they're just incremental updates? Of course, you can. Let me know in the comments below we'd love, to hear your thoughts and stay tuned. We will have more hands-on with watch OS 8 and lots more updates from apple's, WWDC or worldwide developers conference here on CNET.

Source : CNET