6 of the best watchOS 11 features to try first

Key Takeaways

• You don’t need a new Apple Watch for watchOS 11 features
• Try the new Sleep Apnea detection and Vitals app for health tracking
• Use Tap to Cash and the new Translate app in watchOS 11

When a new version of iOS lands, it tends to hog the spotlight. The release of iOS 18, with its as-yet-unreleased Apple Intelligence features, has understandably been big news. The iPhone isn’t the only device that’s had an OS update, however, with watchOS 11 for the Apple Watch now available to install. If you own an Apple Watch Series 6 or newer, you can upgrade to watchOS 11, although some features aren’t available on older devices.

In all the excitement over Apple Intelligence on the iPhone, you may have missed some of the useful features that are being added to your Apple Watch in watchOS 11. If so, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are six of the best features of watchOS 11 that you should try first.

1 Sleep apnea detection

You may discover you have a condition you didn’t even know about

The Apple Watch has always had a strong focus on health and fitness. Your Apple Watch can already track your heart rate, look for signs of atrial fibrillation, tell you if you’re not getting enough sleep, and help you remember to take your medications.

Sleep apnea can affect how rested you feel, but it can also seriously impact your health, leading to dangerous issues such as heart disease and diabetes if left untreated.

New to watchOS 11 is a brand-new feature that monitors your sleep and alerts you to potential signs of sleep apnea. This is a common condition that affects millions of people, but according to Apple, is undiagnosed in 80% of cases. Sleep apnea can affect how rested you feel, but it can also seriously impact your health, leading to dangerous issues such as heart disease and diabetes if left untreated.

The sleep apnea feature in watchOS 11 tracks sleep disturbances during the night. Every 30 days, your Apple Watch will analyze the last month’s data to look for signs that indicate sleep apnea. If any are found, you’ll receive an alert, and can even download a PDF of your sleep data to share with a medical professional.

Sleep apnea detection is only available on the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

2 The new Vitals app

Keep a better eye on your overall health

New native apps are always a welcome addition, and watchOS 11 introduces us to the Vitals app. This app keeps track of several key health metrics and can alert you if any of them start showing readings that are out of the ordinary.

The app tracks your average heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, and sleep duration during the night, and can show you any results that are outliers in comparison to your usual results. It can also measure your blood oxygen if your Apple Watch supports it, although this feature is not available on current Apple Watch models sold in the US.

The app tracks your average heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, and sleep duration during the night, and can show you any results that are outliers in comparison to your usual results.

If you have outliers, you’ll receive a notification on your Apple Watch which can include a personalized message providing context about your unusual results and even offering possible reasons for the causes. It’s a simple but effective way to keep track of your health on a daily basis.

3 Optimize your workout intensity with Training Load

Know when you’re ready to increase your effort

Another useful health and fitness feature that’s part of watchOS 11 is the new Training Load feature. Your Apple Watch measures the duration of your workouts over the course of four weeks. You can also provide a rating for how intense a workout was, with a scale of 1 to 10, from easy to hard. Many cardio workouts will also automatically generate an estimate of your effort, which you can adjust if you disagree.

Once a baseline has been established, your Apple Watch will then compare your workouts during the last week to the last 28 days. You can quickly see whether the previous week’s workouts were well below, below, steady, above, or well above the current baseline. This helps you to adjust your workouts if they’re too intense or too light. The Fitness app on your iPhone can even provide additional information such as how much your fitness is likely to improve if you continue to train at the current level.

4 Pausing your Rings

Close your rings, or don’t if you want

Stress is something that can have a serious impact on your health, and although your Apple Watch can help you keep track of your health, it can also often be a cause of stress. Constant notifications can keep us distracted, and even supposedly helpful features such as closing your Activity rings can add to your stress if you find yourself about to lose your 700-day streak.

Thankfully, watchOS 11 adds a new feature that allows you to take the day off from closing your rings without affecting your streak. You can pause your rings for a day, but also for longer periods such as a week or a month if you wish. You can also customize your targets for different days of the week, so that you have a lower Move target on the day you always have back-to-back meetings, for example.

5 Tap to Cash

Transfer money with a wave of your wrist

Not all the new features in watchOS 11 are focused on health and fitness. The new Tap to Cash feature allows you to send and receive Apple Cash by bringing your Apple Watch close to another supported iPhone or Apple Watch. If you want to pay someone back for getting dinner, you no longer need to dive into banking apps or open PayPal; you can magically transfer the money from your Apple Watch to their Apple Watch or iPhone just by holding your device near theirs.

6 A translation app right on your wrist

Translate comes to the Apple Watch

The Translate app has been available on your iPhone since iOS 14 way back in 2020. The app has now finally arrived on the Apple Watch, making it even easier to communicate with people in a language you don’t speak.

The app works with more than 20 different languages; you select the language that you speak, and the language that you want to translate into. Speak aloud in your native language and your Apple Watch will pick up what you’ve said and translate it into the target language. You’ll see both the English phrase and a translation of the phrase on your Apple Watch, and you can tap the speaker icon to get your Apple Watch to read the translation aloud.

The Translate app will even automatically appear in your Smart Stack when you’re in a different country, set to the language of the country that you’re in, meaning that you can start using the app with just a single tap.