watchOS 11: Sick and recovery days for the activity rings for the first time
Small feature, big impact: With watchOS 11, Apple takes pity on you for the first time and allows you to switch off activity tracking without consequences.
(Image: Apple)
Anyone who owns an Apple Watch usually also uses the activity tracking functions it contains. By default, the watch tracks exercise (at least 30 minutes a day of "fast walking"), active calories (i.e. calories burned during exercise) and getting up (at least one minute of exercise per hour). There are users who have been closing all their activity rings for years and thus achieve a "streak", which Apple rewards with virtual medals (e.g. for monthly goals). It has long been possible to set the individual values yourself, for example to change the sports minutes or standing goals. What was not yet available, however, was the ability to pause the counter. Apple has implemented this for the first time with watchOS 11.
Interrupted streak is very demotivating
"The 'Move', 'Exercise' and 'Stand' rings show your daily activity," writes Apple. "And the goal is to close them every day." However, if you ever need to take a break, there was previously no way to do so "so that your streak keeps going". watchOS 11 now makes it possible not to track for a day, a week, a month or even longer without the streak ending.
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This is also helpful to keep motivation up: There are definitely users who simply don't want to continue when a streak is interrupted – which was certainly not Apple's intention. Why it still took so long for the feature to be implemented is a question that only the manufacturer alone knows – demanded it for years.
Practical implementation of the pause
Apple has implemented the new feature in the Activity app on the Apple Watch, but also in "Fitness" on the iPhone. On the Watch, you click on the ring (where you could previously only change the goals) and can then choose how long you want to pause – including the current day. At the bottom there is also a setting for a more precise adjustment up to a desired date. On the iPhone, this feature can be found at the bottom of the day view.
Another new feature in watchOS 11 is that you can set customized goals per day, for example to do less or more sport at the weekend. There is also a new calendar function. Finally, the Apple Watch records sporting activities better even after pausing a tracking session during training – the app then asks whether the pause should be ended and whether it can credit the minutes that may have been missed.
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