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watchOS 27 Introduces Workout Buddy Upgrades, Better Sleep Tracking, and More

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

watchos 26 workout app
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.

Related Roundups: watchOS 26, watchOS 27
Related Forum: Apple Watch

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Top Rated Comments

rotvaldi Avatar
22 weeks ago
Can’t they just remove those tiny buttons, literally when you are running you don’t have time to press them
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Johnny907 Avatar
22 weeks ago
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.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
22 weeks ago

Yes, it was much easier to tap the workout in order to start it, than to hit that dumbass tiny play button.
You can basically tap anywhere on the screen now. That was fixed a few versions back.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DocMultimedia Avatar
22 weeks ago

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.
Agree.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexandr Avatar
22 weeks ago

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.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
honglong1976 Avatar
22 weeks ago

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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Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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