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Apple Releases watchOS 9.4 With AFib History Expansion and Changes to Mute Gesture to Prevent Accidental Alarm Cancellation

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Apple today released watchOS 9.4, the fourth major update to the watchOS 9 operating system that first launched last September. watchOS 9.4 comes two months after the release of watchOS 9.3.

Apple watchOS 9 Feature
watchOS 9.4 can be downloaded for free through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by opening it up and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it needs to be placed on a charger, and it needs to be in range of the ‌‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌‌‌.

The watchOS 9.4 update adds support for new emoji characters that include donkey, goose, black bird, shaking head, hyacinth, pea pod, and more. The update also introduces a change to wake-up alarms, preventing them from being silenced with the mute gesture to prevent accidental cancellations.

AFib History and Cycle Tracking have been expanded to new countries, with Apple's full release notes for the update below.

watchOS 9.4 includes improvements to Apple Watch and brings features to new regions.

  • Wake-up alarms are no longer silenced with cover to mute gesture to avoid accidental cancellations during sleep
  • Cycle Tracking with retrospective ovulation estimates and cycle deviation alerts now supported in Moldova and Ukraine
  • AFib History now available in Colombia, Malaysia, Moldova, Thailand, and Ukraine

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

watchOS 9.4 is expected to be one of the last updates to the watchOS operating system as Apple works on transitioning to watchOS 10, expected to be previewed at WWDC in June.

Related Roundup: watchOS 26
Related Forum: Apple Watch

Top Rated Comments

sjsharksfan12 Avatar
sjsharksfan12
39 months ago
The watch just finished downloading. That whole process took a little less than an hour and a half. That just seems too long for a watch.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jbachandouris Avatar
jbachandouris
39 months ago
Finally started actually updating 30 minutes in from start. 10 minutes installing so far.

My biggest annoyance is the fact that you have to babysit your device to click install and enter password. What part of download AND install didn’t you get?!?!?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sjsharksfan12 Avatar
sjsharksfan12
39 months ago
I have the watch on the Charger and it's still saying paused.

Apple needs to make updating the watch a little more simplistic because this is dumb.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PrecisionGem Avatar
PrecisionGem
39 months ago
Thank god! New emoji. Glad to Apple so many useful new features.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
B
Brad7
39 months ago
Turn Bluetooth off and update via Wi-Fi. I did that last time and it was much faster.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
Skoal
39 months ago
Thank god! New emoji. Glad to Apple so many useful new features.
Guess a lot of people like the emoji updates or they wouldn’t add them huh?

Regardless I don’t get why people think they’re going to get a brand new amazing feature rich update every release. I’m sure folks would bitch about that too somehow.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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