Apple Watch Series 12 was a wonderful upgrade, at least for me. I’ve written about this many times and personally found the Apple Watch Series 12 to be a competent replacement for the WHOOP. That said, over the past month that I’ve been testing it, there’s one WHOOP feature that I realized I was missing.
Yes, I know: the 12 Series is old news, and there are much cooler things to think about, like the iPhone Duo and HomeView. That said, the Apple Watch Series 12 fascinated me, mostly because it seemed like a bit of a surprise.
We knew we were getting an always-on heart rate monitor, and we knew Apple was working on a new Health app, though we didn’t know when it would be available. Seeing the two together actually seemed like a truly unprecedented launch. But that’s not the point. Let’s talk about the redesigned Health app and what I feel is missing.
New Health app
Frankly, Apple has done very well here. For one thing, there’s the fact that the interface seems really easy to read and navigate. Plus, new features like Readiness and Health Age make it feel like a much more meaningful app. Plus, the integration of existing features like Vitals and Sleep means I’ll be looking at them every day.
This Health app has not yet shipped. It was available in iOS 27.2 for a while, but has since been removed. Apple says it will return in a later beta version of iOS before releasing it later this year. In all likelihood, this means iOS 27.3, which is expected to enter beta before the end of the month and ship before the end of December.
What I would like to see
For me, and this is more of a small personal preference than an actual flaw with the app or the way it’s designed, I’d really like to see Apple copy WHOOP’s approach to measuring days: sleep.
With WHOOP, your days aren’t measured on a fixed 24-hour clock, but are based on when you go to sleep. This means that if you do a workout after midnight, it still counts towards the existing day. Or, if you were out late at night, the commute home counts on the day you started, rather than the next day. I personally prefer this concept of tracking fitness goals.
Of course, that could be an option, although I think setting people’s “days” based on sleep makes a little more sense than basing it on a regular watch, especially when it comes to tracking physical activity.
What do you think of this concept? What do you think of Apple’s new Health app? Let us know in the comments.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
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