Chris Hannah

Automatic Workout Detection

If there’s one thing I forget to do, is start a workout when I go out for a walk (I don’t run). But thankfully, watchOS will now detect when you’re starting a workout, and then prompt you to start one.

It appears as a notification on your watch, and from there you can start a workout, without navigating to the app itself. I’ve also seen this appear on my watch (I use the Siri Watch face), but I’m not sure if this is a Siri suggestion based around past behaviour, rather than detecting a workout at that point in time.

You might think that you’d lose some of the data if you waited until the notification appeared, but it also retroactively collects all the workout data, and adds it to the new workout. That’s really an extra step, and makes it such a great addition.

I walk a lot, and I hardly ever start a workout on my watch, either because I’ve forgot, or I just can’t be bothered. I’m hoping this detection is reliable enough to make me never need to start one manually again. But that could just be me being lazy.

It supports 8 types of workouts, and they’re the most common:

  • Outdoor/Indoor Run
  • Outdoor/Indoor Walk
  • Elliptical
  • Rower
  • Pool/Open Water Swim

Oh, and if you think that isn’t good enough, it also has the same detection for when you’ve ended your workout, and it will prompt you to end it on your watch.

Read more of my coverage of WWDC here.

#Fitness #WatchOS #WWDC18

Reply via Email