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watchOS 27 contains a series of enhancements to fitness and sleep tracking, including new Workout Buddy insights, improved indoor run tracking, and more.

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Workout Buddy is gaining new data-driven motivation features, delivering progress updates for pace, distance, and workout duration based on a user's fitness history. Apple is also enabling Workout Buddy to function without an iPhone nearby, allowing users to stay motivated during workouts without needing a phone in their pocket or hand. Workout Buddy is additionally expanding to Spanish, letting Spanish-speaking users receive personalized fitness motivation in their preferred language.

Indoor run and walk distance tracking is also getting more accurate in watchOS 27. Apple says improved motion tracking algorithms will more precisely measure treadmill distance directly from the wrist, without requiring a connected iPhone. Route maps in the Fitness app are also receiving an accuracy improvement, giving users a more precise view of their workout paths after the fact.

Sleep tracking is becoming more accurate as well, though Apple has not yet detailed the specific changes underlying the improvement. The update also brings a step count sync fix where steps counted in the Health app will now sync with the Fitness app directly.

Article Link: watchOS 27 Introduces Workout Buddy Upgrades, Better Sleep Tracking, and More
 
I'm already amazed by the indoor run tracking. My gym has a track where 15 laps = 1 mile, and the watch, during a five mile run, is within half a lap. That's really good for a 75 lap run. And I'm always amazed I survive that many laps (when the gym forgets to flip the daily direction I let them know about it!).
 
minor updates, sleep tracking will need a major overhaul as right now it doesn't really give you any insights into how to improve sleep etc ...
 
Can we pls get native intermittent fasting built into apple watch and apple health so we can see our IF widget including body status metrics across all watchOS, iOS, and Web? thx
 
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And still incredibly behind Garmin or Coros in terms of features for athletes. Pathetic. Looks like I'll get a Garmin soon.
I switched to Garmin mid WWDC actually, and when I saw the Series 8 (my watch) got dropped alongside the Series 6 and 7, it made me feel like I did the right thing...
 
More accurate sleep tracking would be nice as there are nights where AW claims I scored a 95 despite interruptions. Yet it will show that I scored that despite multiple interruptions. 15 of 20. That’s not a high sleep score.
 
Well that’s a paragraph of Zero F’s right there.
Apple apparently ignored all of the calls to bring back the old Exercise interface.


Yes, it was much easier to tap the workout in order to start it, than to hit that dumbass tiny play button.

I didn’t pick up on it originally, but it kind of seems like Craig was literally giving you guys the finger at the start of the video, when he poked the start outdoor walk button.

I didn’t realize it was that bad. But then the whole watch has been way too fiddly with difficult touch points in the entire interface so I guess I didn’t notice that in particular.
 
Nice to see all these small health and watch related updates. I don't use my watch for sleep tracking.
Mine doesn't seem really accurate for time I actually also, but I still wear my watch at night for keeping track of my heart rate. Every so often I find it mildly annoying at night and then I just toss it back to the charger.
 
So we get one language per watchOS update workout buddy and when you bought a recent watch for it it might as well be axed from watchOS updates before they ad your language?

This can’t be hard can it? Look at a small data pool and give the tiniest comment on it? Why dos this advertised feature take a year for a language?
 
I switched to Garmin mid WWDC actually, and when I saw the Series 8 (my watch) got dropped alongside the Series 6 and 7, it made me feel like I did the right thing...
I have a Garmin Fenix 8. With Glance watch face I get live HR, Altitude, a watch face that’s actually usable and my series 10 is sat in a drawer.

Why?
- battery life
- watch faces are awful (and that’s being polite - see my photos showing my s10
Vs F8)
- no 24/7 HR
- no live HR on the watch face

I don’t care about anything AI. I want to run, I start a run, I want to cycle - I cycle. I don’t need something to tell me I am running well, or keep
Up the good up the good work.

The Garmin is much better for everything. Except:

- voice assistant is worst than SIRI (but I never used it anyway)
- alarms triggered on the iPhone do
Not go to the watch

Anyone else switched AW to Garmin?
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