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watchOS 11.4 Will Make Sure You Don't Miss Alarms

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Apr 12, 2001
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With the watchOS 11.4 update that's set to be released soon, Apple is making a small but useful change to the way that alarms work on the Apple Watch.

watchos-11-4-alarm.jpg

The update includes an option to allow the Wake Up alarm you set up for Sleep mode to break through when Silent Mode is activated on your watch, which means you'll be less likely to sleep through your alarm going off.

Right now, if you have Silent Mode turned on, your Apple Watch alarm will use haptic feedback vibrations to tap you on the wrist to wake you, but it won't make noise. Some people are able to easily sleep through the gentle tapping of the alarm, but a loud noise is harder to ignore.

The Break Through Silent Mode option can be found by going to the Sleep app on Apple Watch, tapping on Sounds & Haptics, and toggling on the setting. From there, wearing the Apple Watch to bed will cause the Apple Watch alarm to use both sound and haptic feedback to wake you up.

You can also turn on the Break Through Silent Mode option by opening up the Alarm app and tapping any active alarm you have set up.

watchOS 11.4 also includes support for Matter-compatible robot vacuum cleaners, and it solves an issue where face selection could become unresponsive when switching faces.

Apple provided developers with the watchOS 11.4 release candidate version today, and that represents the final version of watchOS 11.4 that will go out to the public should no additional issues be found. We're expecting watchOS 11.4 to launch in early April, as soon as next week.

Article Link: watchOS 11.4 Will Make Sure You Don't Miss Alarms
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/24/watchos-11-4-alarm-feature/
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This is the kind of thing that makes you wonder how this wasn't thought of in years of Apple Watch OS's

Also how 10 models and 11 OS's later if an atom moves in your room while it's on the charger in sleep mode it flashbangs you in bright green light still. Why not just have a simple rule to say if it's in sleep mode, and disconnects for just under a second and then reconnects, don't flashbang a sleeping user?
 
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tennisproha said:
This is great, but they also need to make the Wake Up alarm harder to turn off! It's silenced too easily by bedding when tossing and turning.
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I did this for the first time recently... The haptic alarm has always worked great, I find it a gentle way to wake up. But I must have done something and ended my alarm.

I slept SO LATE... But it was bliss, I have to say. There is no better sleep than when you shouldn't be sleeping.
 
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Cirillo Gherardo said:
This should just be the default behavior. Doesn't even need an option.
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No, it shouldn’t. I have my watch silenced because I wake up an hour before my wife. The haptic tapping is plenty sufficient to wake me up without needing a blaring alarm waking her up in the process.
Silenced devices should stay SILENCED.
THAT should be the default, but I’m fine with adding a toggle for those who prefer it otherwise.
 
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tipoo said:
This is the kind of thing that makes you wonder how this wasn't thought of in years of Apple Watch OS's

Also how 10 models and 11 OS's later if an atom moves in your room while it's on the charger it flashbangs you in bright green light still
Click to expand...

Well put! Seems like the brightness sensor just doesn’t work at all when it’s on the charger. It just sets itself to full brightness.
 
Johnny907 said:
No, it shouldn’t. I have my watch silenced because I wake up an hour before my wife. The haptic tapping is plenty sufficient to wake me up without needing a blaring alarm waking her up in the process.
Silenced devices should stay SILENCED.
THAT should be the default, but I’m fine with adding a toggle for those who prefer it otherwise.
Click to expand...
I agree, tapping only alarms are the best. I hate being woken up by loud alarms.
 
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The Cockney Rebel said:
Thanks for thinking of me, bud.

But I want it to be vibrate only, and no sound, without having to mute all sounds (silent mode.)
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I was thinking about that at first. But it is only to let it sound off regardless of having silent mode 📴 shut off the sound.
 
tipoo said:
This is the kind of thing that makes you wonder how this wasn't thought of in years of Apple Watch OS's

Also how 10 models and 11 OS's later if an atom moves in your room while it's on the charger it flashbangs you in bright green light still
Click to expand...
Hilarious. But absolutely true. It's another sign of the degradation of Apple products. They are missing all the basic 101 stuff they should be absolutely nailing. The apple watch, and iphone alarm 'ecosystem' should be absolutely rock solid and robust.

But we get alarms that don't go off, hard to set alarms, siri making random alarm settings. Actually multiple ways to set alarms that is non-obvious how to unset them and now 'band aids' like this.

I don't even understand what problem this solves. So if you have an alarm, but have your watch on sleep, then the alarm won't go off ? It's like the silent switch on iphones. Like sometimes the iphone will play sounds even if it's switched so is it a silent switch or not ?
 
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BigJohno said:
Why is snooze 9 min... Why can't we select how much snooze we want?
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This is an anchronism from back in the day. Snooze timers on alarm clocks would be 9 minutes because of technical reasons.
This was a problem, since they [alarm clock makers] couldn't adjust the clock's gear teeth to line up perfectly for a ten-minute snooze." This left them with a decision to have the snooze feature silence clocks for 10 minutes and 43 seconds or nine minutes and three seconds.
 
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I prefer to have just the tapping for my watch for alarms, but my phone goes off for any alarm that isn't a "wake up" alarm anyway, so it definitely gets me up. :p

Is there any change to allowing "silent mode" to be not broken through for "critical alerts" for different apps? I would like to have the critical alert noises to only go off on my watch/phone when it's in sleep mode for certain apps, for example.
 
macjaffa said:
This is an anchronism from back in the day. Snooze timers on alarm clocks would be 9 minutes because of technical reasons.
This was a problem, since they [alarm clock makers] couldn't adjust the clock's gear teeth to line up perfectly for a ten-minute snooze." This left them with a decision to have the snooze feature silence clocks for 10 minutes and 43 seconds or nine minutes and three seconds.
Click to expand...
Y’all remember that iOS 17 bug where iPhone alarms don’t go off with sound regardless if we have silent mode or not?

It’s due to attention aware features in iPhones with Face ID. I saw it on the news a couple of times
 
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