The launch of the Apple Watch Series 5 came and went without any mention of sleep tracking, but it looks like Apple is still thinking about the concept. There’s a listing on the App Store for an Alarms app for the Apple Watch, which is built by Apple and included a reference to a Sleep app in one of the app’s screenshots.
The reference in the app read that users can “set your bedtime and wake up in the Sleek app,” which seems to mean that users will be able to set a reminder to go to bed, and an alarm to wake up, from the unreleased Sleep app. The screenshot has since been removed from the App Store listing, but not before a number of outlets picked up on it.
Of course, that is similar to how the Clock app currently works on the iPhone, but a Sleep app might be able to take things to the next level. Some sleep-trackers track your sleep cycles during the night and can use that data to wake you up at the optimal time during a specified window, helping users feel more awake and ready for the day.
Rumors have circulated about Apple entering the sleep tracking market for some time now. In 2017, Apple all but confirmed those rumors with the acquisition of sleep tracking company Beddit. Since the acquisition, Beddit has continued to sell the products it developed before the acquisition and even released a new product in December 2018. That’s similar to the treatment Beats has received since its own acquisition — released new Beats-branded products that tie neatly into Apple’s ecosystem of products.
Apple has positioned the Apple Watch as the ideal fitness tracker, and sleep is a big part of a user’s health and fitness. In September, 9to5Mac published a report that the Apple Watch would be getting sleep tracking itself. The feature was tipped to be called “Time in Bed tracking,” and was said to be able to track how long users sleep, the quality of their sleep, and more, through the sensors built in to the Apple Watch. The feature never showed up alongside the Apple Watch Series 5 launch, but if the Alarms app is anything to go by, we could see it in a WatchOS update in the near future.
