The Apple Watch, which is sort of 10 years previous, has come a great distance — particularly in recent times. Apple’s smartwatch retains taking minor however essential steps ahead, as evidenced by its upcoming WatchOS 11 improve and the Double Faucet performance that debuted on the Apple Watch Sequence 9.
However the firm could have massive plans in retailer for this 12 months’s Apple Watch, if a report from Bloomberg seems to be correct. Apple may break free from its typical naming conference and name its subsequent smartwatch the Apple Watch X (learn as 10) in honor of the gadget’s tenth anniversary, just like the iPhone X, based on the report.
The so-called Apple Watch X, which can debut this 12 months or in 2025, may reportedly have a thinner design, a brand new mechanism for attaching bands, a micro-LED display screen and blood stress monitoring, Bloomberg says. The brand new watch might also be extra power-efficient due to a brand new kind of OLED show panel, based on Korean information outlet The Elec.
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There are many methods Apple may enhance its smartwatch. The corporate may flip its watch into an excellent smarter and extra useful well being assistant with extra synthetic intelligence integration. Since Double Faucet is comparatively new, there’s quite a lot of alternative for updates and optimizations that make it extra handy than truly tapping the display screen. Adjustments like these could possibly be significantly essential as Apple faces recent competitors from Google’s Fitbit, which plans to launch new AI-powered options this 12 months, and Samsung’s Galaxy Ring.
With WatchOS 11, Apple is beginning to handle a number of the Apple Watch’s shortcomings by including options I have been wanting for years, equivalent to the flexibility to customise exercise objectives by the day. However listed here are nonetheless some further methods the Apple Watch may evolve in 2024.
Extra AI smarts, particularly for health-related options
Siri will have the ability to reply health-related questions on the Sequence 9, due to a future software program replace.
Apple gave the Apple Watch Sequence 9 an AI enhance by making it the primary mannequin that may course of sure sorts of Siri requests domestically. Queries that do not require a solution from the web — equivalent to setting alarms or timers — will be carried out on the gadget itself with out pinging the cloud, dashing up the entire course of. Siri can even reply to health-related questions on this method, enabling it to reply requests about your sleep from the evening earlier than and about Exercise Ring progress.
However Apple may make its watch an much more intuitive well being agent, and it appears like this new Siri performance is only one step in that route. The rise of generative AI has opened up new potentialities for making information simpler to know by delivering solutions in a extra conversational method.
Google’s Fitbit, considered one of Apple’s rivals within the health-tracking area, is already experimenting on this space. In October, Fitbit teased a brand new program, referred to as Fitbit Labs, that’ll arrive this 12 months. It’s going to initially join the dots between sure information factors and use generative AI to reply questions equivalent to why you had been extra drained than standard after your morning run. The corporate additionally thinks AI can assist customers in setting practical health objectives, as Google’s Ajay Surie informed CNET. Samsung can also be trying to make extra sense of how sleep and exercise influence your present state with its lately launched Power Rating metric within the Samsung Well being app.
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All these insights transcend merely logging information and turning it right into a graph or chart. They make it simpler to truly change your habits based mostly on the knowledge coming out of your smartwatch. The Apple Watch’s Exercise Rings already encourage you to stand up and transfer or take a couple of further steps. And the upcoming Vitals app in WatchOS 11 will present you when sure well being metrics measured in a single day could also be out of whack. Now, think about how far more motivating and helpful data like that could possibly be if Apple had it is personal kind of well being assistant.
Future Apple Watches may certainly embody extra AI-powered well being instruments. Bloomberg stories that the tech large is engaged on an AI-fueled teaching program that’ll present Apple Watch wearers with tailor-made ideas and recommendation. Apple additionally simply introduced a bunch of upgrades to Siri, so it would not be stunning to see extra enhancements to Apple’s digital helper make their approach to the watch, too.
Extra Double Faucet performance
To Double Faucet on the Apple Watch Sequence 9, you faucet your index finger and thumb collectively.
Apple ought to double down on Double Faucet by including extra customization choices. The movement, which includes tapping your thumb and index finger collectively twice, at the moment allows you to scroll by way of your widgets, reply a telephone name, snooze an alarm, pause a timer and extra.
Double Faucet is not meant to be a alternative for touching your watch, so its performance is understandably restricted in contrast with different gestures like tapping and swiping. However I would like to see extra methods to personalize Double Faucet. You possibly can resolve whether or not Double Faucet advances your widget stack or selects a widget, or whether or not it pauses music or skips to the subsequent monitor.
Whereas I admire this flexibility, I want there have been different choices. For instance, it is best to have the ability to choose whether or not to repeat a timer as an alternative of ending it, or snooze an alarm versus dismissing it. Proper now, Double Faucet merely dismisses timers and snoozes alarms, with no choice to resolve to carry out the opposite motion. I want I may select, or maybe triple-tap, to carry out the opposite possibility as an alternative.
Now that Apple is opening up Double Faucet in order that app builders can select particular actions inside their app that work with the characteristic, we could certainly see extra use sooner or later.
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An up to date design
From left: The Apple Watch Sequence 9 in stainless-steel and in aluminum.
The Apple Watch has obtained a couple of design tweaks through the years, but it surely’s the pricier Apple Watch Extremely that is gained extra vital bodily upgrades, like an even bigger display screen and extra sturdy construct. Although Apple should not stray too removed from the present mannequin’s look, I would wish to see some adjustments. Apple revamped the iPhone’s design for its tenth anniversary, so I may think about the corporate doing one thing particular for the tenth technology Apple Watch — like maybe a brand new end or colour.
Bloomberg stories that Apple could have some design adjustments in its pipeline for the rumored Apple Watch X. The corporate is reportedly engaged on a slimmer case and microLED screens for the Apple Watch, which might make its tiny show look extra vivid.
A brand new magnetic methodology of attaching wristbands may also be in improvement for a future Apple Watch, based on the report, although it is unclear if it could debut on the Apple Watch X. Such a change would probably include benefits and downsides for Apple Watch homeowners, nonetheless. On the upside, it may make it simpler for Apple to slim down the watch’s case, since Bloomberg’s report says the present attachment methodology occupies quite a lot of area. However it could additionally probably break compatibility with the previous decade of present Apple Watch wristbands.
Design is not at all times an important factor on the subject of tech devices. However smartwatches are the exception, contemplating they’re meant to be worn in plain view all day lengthy. It is one of many uncommon situations by which a recent design could also be sufficient to persuade individuals with older watches to improve.
An Motion button on the common mannequin
The Apple Watch Extremely 2 (pictured) and Apple Watch Extremely have an Motion button.
Ever because the Apple Watch Extremely debuted in 2022, I have been awaiting the Motion button’s arrival on cheaper Apple Watch fashions. The Motion button turned out to be a helpful approach to rapidly launch a exercise or bounce between apps, and I’ve lengthy argued that it ought to be part of the default Apple Watch expertise. After I tried the Apple Watch Extremely in 2022, for instance, I beloved utilizing it to start out an outside stroll exercise with simply a few faucets. Utilizing the OnePlus Watch 2, which has a customizable shortcut button, additionally made me understand the worth of getting a devoted key for sure duties.
Now that Apple has introduced the Motion button to the iPhone 15 Professional, I am hoping it’s going to trickle right down to different units, just like the anticipated Apple Watch X. Placing the Motion button on premium merchandise just like the Apple Watch Extremely and iPhone 15 Professional was an excellent start line, but it surely ought to develop into normal throughout the board — even on cheaper iPhone fashions.
Since widgets play an even bigger position in how we usually navigate the Apple Watch’s interface due to final 12 months’s WatchOS 10 replace, there’s extra room for bodily buttons to shine on the subject of particular focused circumstances, like shortcuts. And that is particularly essential on a display screen as small because the Apple Watch’s. The usual iPhone 16 fashions are additionally anticipated to get the Motion button, based on Bloomberg and MacRumors, additional strengthening the argument that it ought to make its debut on cheaper Apple Watches too.
The Apple Watch is actually far more than only a smartphone companion and health tracker, however I would wish to see Apple push it to the subsequent degree by infusing extra intelligence into well being monitoring. Apple may additionally deliver the Watch up to the mark with helpful options we have seen in different merchandise, just like the Motion button. And it may embrace the gadget’s roots as a style accent with a recent look.
