Apple’s latest WatchOS 8 with its impactful new features make the world’s most advanced wearable operating system even more essential for users to stay healthy, active and connected. Updates to the Wallet and Home apps extend Apple Watch as an increasingly useful tool for convenient access across the car and places users live, work and visit.
Kevin Lynch, Apple’s vice-president of technology, said the Apple Watch is the most loved watch in the world – keeping users healthy, active and connected. “With WatchOS 8, we are bringing more convenient access to places users live, work, and visit with significant updates to Home and Wallet, expanding support for both physical and mental well-being, and enabling richer personal connections with the new Portraits face and updates to Messages,” he explained.
The much talked about wallet
It is incredibly convenient to use Apple Pay and Wallet to make secure, contactless payments in stores or ride transit. With WatchOS 8, Wallet brings even more powerful contact-free ways for users to access the places and things they care about seamlessly, safely and securely. Initially announced at the WWDC in 2020, Ultra Wideband support now arrives for digital car keys on Apple Watch Series 6.
Apple Watch wearers can securely unlock their car from a distance and start it from the driver’s seat. Later this year, users will be able to add keys for their home, office and hotel to Wallet and tap their Apple Watch to unlock.
Staying fit and healthy
The device introduces two new popular workout types that are beneficial for both physical fitness and mindful movement – Tai Chi and Pilates. These new workout types are supported by powerful, validated custom-built heart rate and motion algorithms to provide users with accurate metrics.
The WatchOS 8 also offers the Breathe app, which becomes the Mindfulness app. It features an enhanced Breathe experience, plus a new session type – Reflect. Reflect offers a mindful intention to focus on for as little as one minute that can be done anywhere and at any time. Each Reflect session welcomes the user with a unique, thoughtful notion to consider that invites a positive frame of mind. Both, the Breathe and Reflect experiences offer tips to help users get more from each session and feature beautiful new animations.
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Apple’s latest watch helps users meet their sleep goals by establishing a pre-bedtime routine and tracks metrics like time asleep, heart rate, and blood oxygen. It gives users even more insight into their overall wellness by tracking sleeping respiratory rate, which is the number of breaths per minute. The Apple Watch uses the built-in accelerometer to measure respiratory rate while sleeping, and this information can be viewed, along with trends over time, in the Health app on iPhone.
Additional WatchOS 8 updates include maps, mindfulness, now playing, phone, podcasts, stopwatch, timers and voice memos etc.
