Apple Releases watchOS 7.6, Bringing ECG and Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications to 30 New Regions

[Syzyg1y]

The update now makes it possible to monitor air quality in Canada… and not a moment too soon: smoke from fires upwind of Montréal making our air very smoggy (AQI is 7 or “high risk”).

 

[below sea level]

Is it still a hassle to upgrade in an s3...? (my guess is... yes.)

You guessed correctly. The last one was seamless but this one complained. I probably won't bother.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

I still hate updating the watch. It needs to happen, but I always worry about having an update take too long and I miss a Stand hour. It's stupid, and maybe I should just wait until I sleep at night, but I need to be away to put in the passcode multiple times. I wish they would allow you to update the watch while you are still wearing it, and the sensor on the skin will bypass the whole passcode thing.

 

[DeepIn2U]

System 7.6, the irony.

MacOS System 7.6 wasn’t too shabby really.

 

[zapmymac]

MacOS System 7.6 wasn’t too shabby really.

7.6.1 was great. Then 8 was rethinking 😳

 

[Slochevy69]

You are not able to disable handwashing data collection on watchOS 7.6! 😡😡😡

 

[Regbial]

I really can't believe they still sell that trash.

Hey, I got mine in January of the year the SE was released... Had I known I would've waited... but I really wanted an Apple Watch (mostly for the health features) and didn't want to invest too much so..

 

[ukbootlegs]

Are you using an Apple charging puck? I noted I've been having trouble with two third party chargers. So I have went back to the Apple cable/puck. Note this was before the update today.

No, a third party dual charger. A couple more reboots resolved it weirdly

 

[George Dawes]

Bizarre.. went from 100% to 61% after update which took about 10 minutes , watch got very very hot too !

 

[lartola]

Does the update only bring "support for the ECG" in some contries.. No other news ? Bugfixes? Not worth the time to upgrade then

I noticed another tiny change not mentioned in the release notes: upon updating to iOS 14.7 and watchOS 7.6, the notification that appears when the iphone automatically unlocks the paired apple watch now includes a red “lock” button. That button wasn’t there until iOS 14.6 and watchOS 7.5.

 

[lartola]

When I saw 30 new counties I immediately thought that had to include Mexico. Disappointed it's still not available here.

Worst of all, we now have evidence that Apple hasn’t even applied for clearance in Mexico. It’s now clear that ECG is the one feature Mexico will never get at all.

 

[lartola]

Exactly... the list of countries where ECG is supported is huge, Mexico is one of the notable exceptions. In Apple website apparently Apple Pay is also NOT officially supported. VERY dissapointed, it was one of the reasons I bought this S6 last year.
We need a "I will use ECG under my responsibility" disclaimer to circumvent the beaurocratic process.

Check again because Apple Pay IS indeed officially supported in Mexico since February 2021. It’s only ECG we’re missing and seemingly will never get now. And it’s not Mexico’s fault: Apple hasn’t even bothered to apply for ECG clearance in Mexico.

 

[Fordski]

Worst of all, we now have evidence that Apple hasn’t even applied for clearance in Mexico. It’s now clear that ECG is the one feature Mexico will never get at all.

Really!? Well that is disappointing to hear. Here I was blaming the Mexican Health bureaucracy for the delay...time for a message to Mr. Cook!

It seems Mexico is well off Apple's radar these days, given the lack of Apple stores outside Mexico City and the painfully slow release dates for new products here.

 

[lartola]

Check again because Apple Pay IS indeed officially supported in Mexico since February 2021. It’s only ECG we’re missing and seemingly will never get now. And it’s noe Mexico’s fault: Apple hasn’t even bothered to apply for ECG clearance in Mexico.

 

[lartola]

Just updated my S6 to 7.6 and "Unlock with iPhone" doesn't work anymore. Tried rebooting and switching the feature off/on again, no change. Always worked before the update, now I have to manually unlock on the watch. WTF Apple, do you not even thoroughly test such simple things? :-(

What iphone are you using? because there is a known bug that might prevent “unlock with iphone” from working on touch id equipped iphones. If you have one of those, you may have to wait until the next software update.

 

[lartola]

I'm still on a series 4 watch. Do the later models update any faster? These updates are always so painfully so on my s4.

I have no idea. What I did notice the last two times I updated my series 4 is that the apple with the filling circle around it no longer appears on the screen while the update is installing, so no way to know how it’s going until the watch reboots after the installation is completed. Also, they haven’t fixed a bug introduced by watchOS 14.4 where the screen sometimes stays turned on with maximum brightness and won’t turn off again, forcing me to restart the watch to get it to work normally again and prevent battery drain.

 

[lartola]

I’ve been running the RCs since last week. They’ve changed the unlocking behavior. You used to be able to just unlock your phone with FaceID without any additional action, but now you have to swipe out of the Lock Screen and then it goes through. You’ll see a notification at the top of the phone showing it is unlocking the watch.

The notification has been there for a while, but now they just added a red ‘lock’ button to it that wasn’t there before.

 

[Canyda]

So far, 7.6 has significantly improved my battery life again in my S6. Have 85% battery at 1 pm Alberta time after coming off charger at 6:15 this morning.

 

[lartola]

I’ve been running the RCs since last week. They’ve changed the unlocking behavior. You used to be able to just unlock your phone with FaceID without any additional action, but now you have to swipe out of the Lock Screen and then it goes through. You’ll see a notification at the top of the phone showing it is unlocking the watch.

It takes about a minute or so after you swipe up to go to the home screen. It’s not immediate as it was before. Not good.

 

[deathnite]

ECG app is now at version 2.18U63. Funny new region: Cook Islands. 😂
See spoiler for all new regions.

Spoiler: ECG app history

watchOS 5.1.2: ECG app v1.1 (initial US release)
watchOS 5.1.3: ECG app v1.2
watchOS 5.2.0: ECG app v1.10 (now available in Hong Kong and Europe: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK)
watchOS 5.2.1: ECG app v1.13 (additional European countries: Croatia, Czech, Iceland, Poland, and Slovakia)
watchOS 5.3.0: ECG app v1.18 (now available in Canada and Singapore)
watchOS 5.3.1: ECG app v1.18
watchOS 6.0.0: ECG app v1.30
watchOS 6.0.1: ECG app v1.30
watchOS 6.1.0: ECG app v1.50
watchOS 6.1.1: ECG app v1.51
watchOS 6.1.2: ECG app v1.51
watchOS 6.1.3: ECG app v1.52
watchOS 6.2.0: ECG app v1.70 (now available in Chile, New Zealand, and Turkey)
watchOS 6.2.1: ECG app v1.70
watchOS 6.2.5: ECG app v1.80 (now available in Saudi Arabia)
watchOS 6.2.6: ECG app v1.80
watchOS 6.2.8: ECG app v1.90 (now available in Bahrain, Brazil, and South Africa)
watchOS 7.0.0: ECG app v1.18R395 (now available in Colombia, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates)
watchOS 7.0.1: ECG app v1.18R395
watchOS 7.0.2: ECG app v1.18R402 (Resolves an issue that prevented some users from accessing the ECG app in regions where it is available)
watchOS 7.1.0: ECG app v1.18R590 (now available in Republic of Korea and Russia)
watchOS 7.2.0: ECG app v2.18S563 (now available in Taiwan. Cardio fitness notifications. AFiB notifications: Atrial fibrillation classification at heart rates above 100 BPM now offered in the ECG app in most regions where the app is available)
watchOS 7.3.0: ECG app v2.18S801 (now available in Japan, Mayotte, Philippines, and Thailand)
watchOS 7.3.1: ECG app v2.18S811 (update only for the AW5 and AW SE)
watchOS 7.3.2: ECG app v2.18S821
watchOS 7.3.3: ECG app v2.18S830
watchOS 7.4.0: ECG app v2.18T195 (now available in Australia and Vietnam)
watchOS 7.4.1: ECG app v2.18T201
watchOS 7.5.0: ECG app v2.18T567 (now available in Malaysia and Peru)
watchOS 7.6.0: ECG app v2.18U63 (now available in 30 New Regions: Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Estonia, Fiji, French Southern Territories, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Haiti, Isle of Man, Jersey, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Norfolk Islands, Seychelles, Slovenia, St. Barthélemy, St. Helena, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Martin, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Ukraine, Vatican City)
watchOS 7.6.1: ECG app v2.18U70
watchOS 7.6.2: ECG app v2.18U80

 

[sparkinstx]

You are not able to disable handwashing data collection on watchOS 7.6! 😡😡😡

I turned off that "feature" long ago, as it rarely ever worked, unless I was washing dishes. :-|

Oh, and, Wreck 'em Tech!