JULY 17 — This is the last article I’ll write on the announcements from the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and it’s fitting I close the series with what I was most interested in: watchOS 11.

It also coincides with Apple announcing the release of the public beta of its upcoming software updates so I can finally talk about my actual experience using the software.

I was on the watchOS 11 developer beta since it was made available, but I’ll only touch on what is available in the public beta.

To be frank, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t appreciate the lack of a "pause” feature for Apple’s Rings, which were about reaching specific Move, Exercise and Stand goals.

Sometimes it made me feel a little ill seeing Apple Watch achievements/awards that included closing them for numerous weeks on end.

Imagine for instance not getting that one achievement of a whole year of closing your Rings because of things like catching a disease during the pandemic or being in a car accident.

With the update you can literally just press "pause” and do important things like not moving from your bed because you’re, well, sick.

I wasn’t all that thrilled about the new Fitness app home page summary customisation as it’s nice but not life changing and I think there could be more room for more fun widgets.

Still I did like, no I’m lying, I did not like having to wear my watch every night to collect at least a week’s worth of data to take advantage of the Vitals feature in Health.

The idea of Vitals is to capture and monitor your data, and let you know when something seems off.

To collect the data you need to spend at least seven days sleeping with your Watch on and the following metrics, according to Apple, will be collected: heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, sleep duration, and blood oxygen.

At a glance I could see where my usual numbers lie — for instance I could see that typically my blood oxygen would measure between the 91-100 per cent range.

With Vitals, your Apple Watch will track the metrics on a daily basis and alert you if your recorded numbers are out of the usual.

The Apple Watch isn’t meant to be a diagnostic device but realistically, it doesn’t hurt to track your health data as it will also give you more information to share with your GP at your next check-up.

Is your workout working?

Now, a feature I’ve been looking forward to: Training Load. Usually apps that help you keep track of your training load and how much effort you put into your workouts (as a metric) usually require subscriptions.

Having extra features to make your (not cheap) Apple Watch feel worth it is always good.

Apple will compare your seven-day training load to your 28-day load and what better way to test it than by five days a week of walking 15-20 minutes from my workplace to the train?

Unhappily, the data collected showed improvement in metrics such as my resting heart rate and walking steadiness and as I haven’t had to walk as much in the last week, Training Load has pointed out that if I don’t get off my butt soon my newly improved fitness level will drop very quickly.

As for the Effort Rating, watchOS 11 will automatically rate your workouts and how much effort you have been putting into them but only for some workouts.

Those are:

• Running (indoor/outdoor)
• Walking (indoor/outdoor)
• Swimming (indoor/open water)
• Cycling (indoor/outdoor)
• Rowing (indoor/outdoor)
• Cross Country Skiing
• Dance
• Hiking
• Kickboxing
• Elliptical
• Stair stepper
• High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

The rest of the time you will have to manually rate your workouts and try your best not to lie.

How is effort measured? It’s gauged by various data points (such as GPS and elevation) as well as taking in age, height and weight.

The effort score will range from 1 to 10, with 10 being the hardest effort put in and then there will be training load classifiers to gauge whether your load is Well Above, Steady, Below or Well Below what they should ideally be.

With time you will see your effort compared against one-, three- and six-month timeframes and contrast them with your Vitals readings.

My Apple Watch relentlessly reminding me to exercise because it’s good for me (Look! Look at this data!) aside, you also get tweaks to the Photos watchface so you can choose aesthetic photos of your cat, not some random pics you took of the not-open-yet ice cream place you passed by.

I’ve barely noticed the tweaks to the Smart Stack, which now suggests widgets on your watch face that will switch out depending on the time of day or your routine as I’m still in the habit of checking my phone for the time and my watch to know if I’m dying.

You can also now use the Double Tap gesture (tapping your thumb and index finger together) to scroll through apps, useful for those with low mobility or just happen to have your other hand full of other things like your phone or a coffee.

I regret to inform you that in summary I think watchOS 11 is a step up for those wanting to be empowered with more data to reach your fitness goals and it will (probably) be the number one reason I am still wearing my watch to sleep.