watchOS 9 is also introducing a new set of watch faces for even more user customization. There are four new watch faces to choose from including Lunar, Playtime, Metropolitan, and Astronomy. Each watch face also comes with some unique animations and a bit of extra data. Lunar for instance will show you the relationship between the Gregorian and Lunar calendars. Astronomy meanwhile is not a completely new watch face, but has been revamped to offer a new experience. It’s now based on a completely 3D model of the earth, moon, and solar system. And will shift throughout the day. It also now features a star map and current cloud data.
watchOS 9 includes richer fitness metrics and new training experience features
Most people use their smartwatches for fitness-related activities which makes them a big part of the exercise routine. With watchOS 9, users are getting access to a range of new features tailored to your workout. This includes custom workouts. A new feature in the Workout app that lets users create a structured workout plan that better fits their current goals. Custom workouts can include rest intervals, and they can guide users with the help of new pace, power, cadence, and heat rate alerts. There’s also new running form metrics that can be found within the Fitness app and Health app. These basically lay out a summary of your exercise data to help you learn from patterns in your routine. And can now include things like the length of your strides as you run. There are also new metrics for ground contact time, as well as vertical oscillation. Additionally, the there’s new swimming enhancements like a new stroke type for pool swim workouts, and a new pacer experience for runs.
Apple Watch now includes sleep stages
If you wear your Apple Watch to bed at night, a new sleep stages insight can help you keep track how long you were asleep. Based on metrics that record when you enter REM, Core, and Deep Sleep. Users can also now view their heart rate and respiratory rate during sleep from within the Health app in iPhone. Apple has also included a handful of other new updates to the software. Including new Family Setup features, additional Quick Actions to do more with double-pinch gestures, support for new languages on the QWERTY keyboard, and new editing features for the Reminders app. You can read the full suite of changes coming with watchOS 9 on the official blog.
