Since its reveal at WWDC 2024 this June, I’ve been incredibly eager to try Apple’s watchOS 11 update. What was initially expected to be a small, tepid update, watchOS 11 quickly proved to be much more exciting than we initially thought.
There are the big hallmark features, of course — specifically the ability to pause your activity goals, plus Apple’s new Vitals app. But there are plenty of smaller features, too, and they’re just as deserving of your attention.
I recently had the opportunity to talk with Eric Charles, senior manager of watchOS product marketing, and Lori Hylan-Cho, senior engineering manager for watchOS, to learn a bit more about these less-talked-about aspects of watchOS 11. They’re easy to overlook, but they could seriously impact how you use your Apple Watch every single day.
Big changes to Double Tap
When Apple added Double Tap to the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 last year, the feature felt underutilized, to say the least. The gesture works well and is a fun way to control the smartwatch, but it just doesn’t do all that much.
WatchOS 11 changes this in a couple of big ways. Once you download watchOS 11, you’ll be able to scroll through all of your apps using the Double Tap gesture. “Apps will get that automatically,” Charles told me. “All of the apps with scrolling views or tab views, a user can use the Double Tap gesture to go through them. It will be such a great experience; make it a little bit more convenient.” It’s admittedly a small change, but it’s one I’m excited to have.
The other Double Tap change, and arguably the more exciting one, is Apple’s new API for the gesture. This allows developers to use Double Tap in their apps however they’d like. Charles says developers “may have to rethink” how their apps are laid out to make the gesture work exactly how they want, but it has the potential to finally realize Double Tap’s true potential.
In the Sprout app, for example, Charles tells me that the app’s developers had to “come up with a new idea” for where to put its sleep-tracking button so it could be started/stopped with Double Tap. That means it’ll probably take some time for all of your favorite apps to add Double Tap support, but the wait should be worth it. I’ve waited nearly a year for a reason to use Double Tap more often, and watchOS 11 is finally doing something about that.
Smart Stack and Live Activities
Even more exciting, at least for me, are watchOS 11’s improvements to Smart Stack. Introduced in watchOS 10 last year, Smart Stack allows you to add widgets below your watch face and makes them accessible with a quick turn of your Apple Watch’s crown.
Smart Stack visually looks the same in watchOS 11, but it’s a lot smarter. Smart Stack already tries to surface widgets it thinks are most relevant, but in watchOS 11, it can do so much more effectively based on the time, your location, and other factors. For example, after you connect your AirPods to your Apple Watch, an Apple Music widget could appear in the Smart Stack.
First-party apps like Apple Music will take advantage of these new smarts, and third-party apps can too. Thanks to the existing Smart Stack API and the improvements made in watchOS 11, Hylan-Cho says developers will be able to “think about when their widgets would be most relevant.”
Speaking of widgets, they can also now have interactive elements in watchOS 11. Developers can now use a new widget design that can include up to three actionable buttons — for example, the Messages widget shows three contacts you can tap to jump into those conversations, while the Workout widget displays shortcuts to your three favorite workouts.
Similarly, watchOS 11 brings Live Activities to the Apple Watch — and the way Apple is adding them is pretty cool. As Hylan-Cho explained to me, “Developers who have built Live Activities for the iPhone will have them show up on watchOS 11.” In other words, the Dynamic Island version of your iPhone’s Live Activities — such as the progress of your DoorDash order or Flighty showing how much time is remaining before your flight’s departure — will automatically appear on the Smart Stack in watchOS 11. It’s pretty cool.
Developers can customize these Live Activities to be better suited for the Apple Watch if they want, and Hylan-Cho tells me it requires just “a few lines of code” to customize them for watchOS 11. All of this sounds a lot like the AI home screen pitch Nothing made earlier this year, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Other changes to health and fitness
Finally, there are other changes coming to the health/fitness side of your Apple Watch. Beyond the Vitals app and the ability to pause activity rings, Charles says there are “lots of exciting new APIs for the health and wellness space.”
For one, the custom interval and workout screen (part of the Custom Workouts API) is now available for swimming. Charles says this includes new distance and time goals for swimmers, which third-party apps can use. I’m not a swimmer myself, but if I were, this would be a nice touch.
Further, watchOS 11 allows developers greater control over their custom workout screens, specifically the freedom to rename the steps of a custom workout. For example, if you create a custom workout in the TrainingPeaks app, it could now say the specific steps of the custom workout you’re doing — such as “Freestyle” and “Rest,” as shown in the image above. As Charles explains it: “Now you can actually use a new display name property and give those steps actual names.”
Small updates make the difference
I didn’t need any more convincing to be excited about watchOS 11. The changes to how move rings work, plus all of the promise behind the Vitals app, were enough to suck me in. However, after chatting with Charles and Hylan-Cho about these smaller parts of the update, I’m completely sold.
Is watchOS 11 completely reinventing the Apple Watch from the ground up? Not at all. But I do think the changes Apple is making are a big deal. I’d still like to see even more done to Double Tap, but Apple’s heading in the right direction with it. I already love how Smart Stack works today, and the changes coming to it in watchOS 11 are incredibly promising. Although the health/fitness APIs don’t impact me personally with how I use my Apple Watch, it’s encouraging to see Apple make watchOS more capable and accessible to athletes of all types.
As we were wrapping up our chat, Charles ended the conversation by saying these changes in watchOS “can add so much more utility” and that they open up “opportunities I’m really excited about; surprise and delight moments.”
The watchOS 11 public beta is available now, and the update should be ready for wide release later this fall.
