Apple unveiled new fitness features for the Apple Watch on Monday at WWDC, its annual developer conference, that will automatically detect workouts and encourage users to engage their connections in friendly competition.
Here are four features to watch with the rollout of WatchOS 5.
Automatic Workouts
WatchOS 5 will automatically sense when a user has started a workout, something Fitbit has been offering through its smartwatch since last summer. It will detect when the workout has been completed and automatically end the session.
New Workout Types
The watch will encourage users to challenge their friends on Apple’s activity app to a 7-day competition. The new watch system comes with new workout types and features for yoga, hiking and running. The yoga tracker will be based off changes in a user’s heart rate, while the hiking activity will measure the workout based on pace, heart rate and elevation gain.
Enhanced Running Features
The device has long tracked current and average pace. Now it will also track cadence, or current steps per minute, and rolling mile pace, which is how fast runners ran the preceding mile. Runners can setup custom pace alerts to be notified when they’re above or below their target pace.
Challenges
WatchOS 5 will let users challenge their friends on Apple’s activity app to a 7-day competition based on how quickly they close their daily “rings.”
SportTechie Takeaway
Apple made an effort this year at WWDC to encourage people to use their phones less and focus on health and wellness more. One way it’s looking to do that is by enhancing the fitness features of Apple Watch, many of which now compete with Fitbit Ionic.
Fitbit investors didn’t seem overly concerned by the Apple Watch updates, however. Fitbit’s stock closed higher on Monday despite the Apple conference and traded up 6% through Tuesday morning.
Fitbit, meanwhile, has been working to expand beyond general fitness and into healthcare. Fitbit hopes that all of the various aspects of a person’s health that it’s now tracking will enable it to unlock a new era of hyper-individualized healthcare.