Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Executives Discuss watchOS 9's New Health Features Like AFib History and Tracking Your Sleep Stages

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,240
39,044


Following the WWDC 2022 keynote last week, Apple's VP of health Dr. Sumbul Desai, operations chief Jeff Williams, and VP of fitness technologies Jay Blahnik spoke with TechCrunch's Darrell Etherington about new health features added in watchOS 9.

watchos-9-afib-history.jpg

One of the Apple Watch's new health features is AFib History, which allows individuals diagnosed with atrial fibrillation to view an estimate of how frequently their heart is in this type of arrhythmia, according to Apple. Apple says the feature is intended for individuals aged 22 years or older who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

Desai said the AFib History feature received FDA clearance in the United States after being validated in a clinical study.

"As Jeff alluded to, everything we do in health is based on the science, and AFib history was validated in a clinical study, with participants wearing both Apple Watch and an FDA-cleared reference device," said Desai. "In that study, the average difference in weekly measurements between the two devices is actually less than 1%."

Williams said the AFib History feature could prove useful when a patient receives an ablation treatment for chronic atrial fibrillation, but the treatment is unsuccessful at first attempt and the patient continues to experience atrial fibrillation.

AFib History is not currently approved in all countries or regions, according to Apple, so availability of the feature will be limited at launch.

Starting with watchOS 9, the Apple Watch also offers sleep stage tracking, which lets you see how much time you spent in REM, core, or deep sleep, as well as when you might have woken up. (Apple refers to what is typically known as "light sleep" as "core sleep.")

watchos-9-sleep-stage-tracking.jpg

"Prior to sleep stages, we were really focused on helping people meet their sleep duration goals, since that's really important — that consistency — but we wanted to go a little further and dig into the science, and provide users with more information around their sleep cycles," said Desai. "So using the signals from Apple Watch's accelerometer and heart rate sensor, users will now be able to see their sleep stages while they're in REM, core, and deep sleep."

On watchOS 9, the Workout app displays more information, including views of metrics like Activity rings, heart rate zones, power, and elevation, but Blahnik assured that the app remains suitable for "both beginners and advanced athletes."

The full discussion can be read at TechCrunch. watchOS 9 is currently in beta for developers and will be released to all users around September.

Article Link: Apple Executives Discuss watchOS 9's New Health Features Like AFib History and Tracking Your Sleep Stages
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/06/13/apple-watch-watchos-9-health-features/
nfl46 said:
I’ve been using the sleep tracking since the beta was released on Monday and it’s really accurate. I notice what time I go to bed each night and when I check it in the morning, it’s usually spot on. I also noticed I don’t sleep enough. Lol.
Click to expand...
can it now detect sleep even during the day?
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Spinn_
jav6454 said:
What good is sleep tracking if your watch's battery doesn't fast charge?
Click to expand...
If my battery is ever too low before bed, I can charge it when I get ready for bed and it has enough charge to get through the night. I try to not let it get below 20% battery though so getting up to 50+% is quick. I can charge again in the morning if needed. It’s not an issue unless you don’t have control when you go to bed and when you can charge your watch.

Doing this does not cycle through your battery life faster. Almost 4 years into an Apple Watch 4 and still going strong.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: whoknows2597, slineaudi and jav6454
I started sleep tracking since 2013, and it was a good habit to have. A productive day starts with a good night of sleep.

I always wanted something first party for doing this. I guess after watchOS 9, it will basically kill all the 3rd party sleep tracking apps, and smart bands.
 
And part of the discussion was:
“We won’t support the S3, shouldn’t we stop selling it, like, yesterday?”
“Nah, they’ll never know.”
 
pplfn said:
I'm hoping the new Apple Watch 8 will make this tracking easier (better battery? battery sleep mode?) and perhaps new bands for sleeping.
Click to expand...
I believe that even the S2 already had decent battery, and since the batteries on Apple Watch are rather small, they charge pretty quickly even without fast charging. Apple adding fast charging seems like a telltale sign that that’s their answer to battery life. Use it all day, and just fast charge it when you are not using the watch like showering, etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: johnnygee
robertmorris2 said:
I'm still not convinced that the detection of afib is accurate. I've had some issues with it recognizing apparent afib.
Click to expand...
I am FULLY convinced that this kind of detection is NOT accurate.

As a lot of other kind of measurement performed by Apple Watch (and the problem is not the Apple Watch itself, but the fact that it measures on the wrist, that it is not the best place for some measurement -like O2, temperature- or it is good but it is insufficient, in the sense that MORE sensor placed ALSO elsewhere are needed to gather full data, see EGC).

In this specific case of sleep tracking, the big problem is that it is based on accelerations (and heart rate), not by measurement of cerebral activity (the only thing that can tell you your REAL sleep phase). Me for e.g., sometime I had difficult to fall asleep but sometime will waiting sleep I stay motionless.

This is the reason because most 'health' related features are a complete ********. Instead of doing a real measure of you want measure, they measure ANOTHER thing, then they try to deduce what they want measure with machine learning.

Like for e.g. if I want to estimate how it is tall a person from a picture without having any reference size in this picture, but basing myself on suppositions about other objects in the picture. Yes, I could obtain a value that most of time is reasonable... but not real, only reasonable, and only some of the time.

Even the activity tracking is a ******** (BTW each ride with my electric scooter is recognised as a bicycle ride, and calories burned are are completely useless). Also drop detection sometime is triggered by a very fast arm movement (e.g. pound the table with fists because you are very angry :D ), even if you are sitting!

It would be interesting to place one sensor for each limb (maybe two), to have multiple accelerometers, multiple limb leads for ECG (and a real heart rate measurement, based on electric not on supposed color changes in blood). I could be an Apple Watch + multiple and lighter 'smart wristbands' on each limb connected to the Apple Watch.

In this case we could have real data and not simply ********. But it is too cumbersome for a consumer product, I dont see the interest to develop such product...so...smartwatches, for health related data, are simply toys.

(And I am an Apple Watch fan, I like a lot. But for another kind of usage)
 
h3ysw5nkan said:
I started sleep tracking since 2013, and it was a good habit to have. A productive day starts with a good night of sleep.

I always wanted something first party for doing this. I guess after watchOS 9, it will basically kill all the 3rd party sleep tracking apps, and smart bands.
Click to expand...
I seriously doubt it. Fan club members will always find an excuse to pay more for Apple products, but most others won't. I have a Garmin watch I bought many years ago for around $100 that keeps charged for 5 days, is small and more comfortable to wear at night, and likely tracks my sleep as well as an Apple watch. This isn't rocket science after all. Why on earth would I pay hundreds of dollars for a huge, clunky, overpriced behemoth that can't even run a full 24 hours without running out of charge? I just don't buy into form over function, especially when it comes to my health. And as buggy as all of the current Apple OSes are, I don't feel comfortable in trusting watchOS, or any other makers's watches either, with my health. For people who really need to monitor their health, wearing a fashion statement is not important, but accurate health data is. Apple still cares more about the fashion statement aspect...
 
  • Like
Reactions: m.dricu
I'm waiting for an adaptive system that will determine the next day's goals based on age, gender, and most importantly the previous day's activity. It's amazing how watchOS sets goals at the beginning of the week and then seeing based on the previous day's activity can't adjust the goal, insisting "You can do it!". Of course, I can give a damn about the rings, but that's not what I require from a smart device and an advanced system. watchOS 9 is a step in the right direction, but it's not a very big one.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: Caviar_X
jav6454 said:
Sounds like a hassle and a way of eating thru the charge cycles.
Click to expand...

Well we know what Apple's answer to that is...it's time to buy a new watch.

But seriously, with AppleCare+, your battery is covered if it goes under 80%.
And without coverage, it's only $80 USD to replace it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BeefCake 15
satchmo said:
Well we know what Apple's answer to that is...it's time to buy a new watch.

But seriously, with AppleCare+, your battery is covered if it goes under 80%.
And without coverage, it's only $80 USD to replace it.
Click to expand...
It's not about battery life as in how well it holds the charge, it's about how little the actual charge capacity lasts per day given the current capacity. If one is charging the watch twice per day, it's 2 cycles per day which wears battery life quicker.
 
  • Like
Reactions: m.dricu
It appears the S7 still uses a 7nm processor. As the M1 is 5nm, and the M2 is an enhanced 5nm process, perhaps a scale change will come through for the S8?
 
  • Like
Reactions: SFjohn
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back