Health & Fitness improvements

Completely customise your workouts and the information you see on screen

For many of us, the killer apps for the Apple Watch are its health and fitness features. watchOS 9 improves that already impressive collection with new SWOLF efficiency ratings for swimmers, better tracking of triathlons, significantly improved running features including form monitoring and the ability to save favourite routes, and the ability to build your own custom workouts directly from your watch. The new Heart Rate Zone training is particularly welcome, bringing the Apple Watch up to speed with rivals’ dedicated running watches.

Your Watch’s heart rate monitoring has been improved too, with a new Afib History feature that detects and records arrhythmic events that you might not be able to detect with the ECG feature. It’s designed for people who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and designed to be shared with their healthcare provider.

watchOS 9 also introduces a handy new Cardio Recovery feature to help you get the right amount of rest between sessions.

Check your tech

However, it’s worth noting that many of the new features require the gyroscope and accelerometer technology introduced in the Apple Watch Series 6, so unfortunately, and of course rather frustratingly, owners of older watches won’t get to benefit from the full suite of fitness features.