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In a few days, Apple will release its new operating system iOS 13 to all users - watchOS 6 will also be available to the majority of Apple Watch owners. Both systems bring with them a lot of new health and fitness features - we'll summarize what they are for you below.
Apple plans to release iOS 13 for all users on September 19th. watchOS 6 is also scheduled to be released at the same time, but only Apple Watch Series 3 and Series 4 owners will be able to enjoy the new smartwatch operating system on that day. Of course, owners of older Apple Watch models can also look forward to the update, but this will not be available for Series 1 and Series 2 until later in the fall - according to Apple. It should also be noted that not all major innovations will be available for the first two Apple Watch generations.
The Health app reorganized
When you first launch the Health app in iOS 13, you'll immediately notice that Apple has redesigned the overview. The bottom tab has been reduced from four to two selection areas – "Overview" and "Discover"! The "Overview" area highlights all relevant information. Which information is displayed varies from user to user. Apple Watch owners will see, among other things, their "Activities," while Withings Scale users will see their weight. Of course, the favorites bar can be customized. Various values are available to users here. The "Browse" area has been divided into two categories – "Health Categories" and "Clinical Documents." The former contains all saved values from the entire Health app, while the latter can be updated by medical providers – the individual health entries are saved in the form of CADs (Clinical Document Architecture). If you're looking for something specific, you can use the search bar and enter the keyword directly.
Health app on iOS 13 and watchOS 6 with three new tracking options
In iOS 13, the Health app gains additional tracking options. For example, users can record their daily toothbrushing behavior. The duration can be entered manually, as there is currently no app that automatically records toothbrushing and forwards it to the Health app. The second tracking option is under "Hearing." Headphone and ambient noise levels are recorded here. All noise notifications detected by the Apple Watch are also stored in this section. The individual values are monitored by both the iPhone and the Apple Watch. With watchOS 6, the so-called "Noise app" is introduced on the Apple Watch. This app records ambient noise and notifies the user when their environment is too loud for too long – a corresponding complication for the watch face will also be included. The third new feature is the cycle log. Here, the menstrual cycle can be precisely recorded – the recording includes a wide range of values. A corresponding iPhone and Apple Watch app is also available.
activities
Of course, the well-known Apple Watch Activities app has also been redesigned as part of the update. It now has a new section called "Trends" in watchOS 6. This section lists the collected data over time. "Trends" is intended to show users which training areas have been neglected.
Each individual value has an up or down arrow for better orientation. For long-term users, there are also new awards in watchOS 6. Of course, further optimizations were made during the update - but the ones mentioned above are among the biggest. Everything you need to know about iOS 13 - you can find out here. (Photo by Denys Prykhodov / Bigstockphoto)
