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watchOS 6 puts App Store and sound on users’ wrists
Apple has previewed watchOS 6, which allows Apple Watch users to manage more aspects of health and fitness, gives access to dynamic new watch faces, and the App Store directly on the smartwatch.
Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, said: “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. watchOS 6 extends our commitment to helping users better manage their health and fitness with powerful and personal new tools.”
Health and Fitness
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, on the 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.
Closing their Activity rings is important for many users and the new Trends tab in the Activity app on iPhone now gives them 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
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.
Click here to read additional features about the new watchOS update.
