WatchOS 7 adds much-requested sleep tracking feature

By Will Nicol June 22, 2020

This story is part of our complete Apple WWDC coverage

Apple announced the next generation of its software for the Apple Watch, WatchOS 7, at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday.

WatchOS 7 introduces some remarkable features that promote mental and physical health, as well as nifty UI innovations.

With the new and improved complications, you can customize watch faces for specific purposes (if you like surfing, make a watch face that displays stats about water, for example).

Face Sharing allows users to get watch faces from friends, family, even websites. When you install the face, you’ll be asked to install any apps you don’t already have that factor into that face.

Workouts is getting livelier with the addition of Dance, allowing users to track various styles of dancing from around the world. WatchOS 7 is also getting a revamped Activity app, now called Fitness, for tracking fitness goals.

WatchOS 7 is adding a much-requested feature: Sleep. The Wind Down function creates a new lockdown screen at your scheduled bedtime, dimming the screen and removing distractions. The watch uses machine-learning to track your breathing during your sleep, giving you more insight into your health.

The new Apple WatchOS is even suited to post-coronavirus society, tracking your hand-washing motions and letting you know if you still need to keep scrubbing.

Be sure to check out the rest of our WWDC coverage for the latest news on the next wave of Apple products.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Nicol is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends. He covers a variety of subjects, particularly emerging technologies, movies…

Mobile

5 features I want in the Apple Watch Ultra 3

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 laying on the ground, showing the Modular Ultra watch face.

When Apple debuted the Apple Watch Ultra in 2022, it was one of the company’s best new products that year. After years of rumors and speculation, it finally arrived and exceeded expectations with the best battery life for an Apple Watch, incredibly useful new features like the Action button, a super-bright and large display, and more.

A year later, Apple launched the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Though still a great smartwatch, it felt a bit more like an iterative upgrade than something big. It had a new S9 processor that allowed for the Double Tap gesture and localized Siri requests, and an even brighter display. But otherwise, it looked identical to the original Apple Watch Ultra.

Mobile

7 hidden iMessage features you need to be using

hidden iMessage features.

Apple's iMessage is a widely used messaging app with over 1 billion active users. It was launched in 2011 and is deeply integrated into Apple devices, allowing iPhone, iPad, and Mac users to exchange text messages, photos, videos, and more seamlessly across platforms.

Over the years, Apple has introduced many new features to the Messages app. You probably use some of them every day, but others are easy to overlook and forget about it. Below are a few of our favorite hidden iMessage features — and ones you should be using if you aren't already.
Pinning messages

Mobile

I need this iOS concept feature on my iPhone right now

An iOS concept showing a Smart Stack of widgets below the app dock.

It's always fun to imagine and speculate what new smartphone operating systems will bring. With Apple's iOS 18 update launching later this year — and reported to be a big one — there's a lot of anticipation over what Apple's next iPhone update will bring to the table.

We don't know much about what the next iOS update will offer, but there is one feature that I now need it to have. Product designer Gavin Nelson recently shared an iOS concept feature on X (formerly Twitter) and Threads, and it looks incredible.