This is the fourth year that the challenge will be available. Some of you may not know that the launch of Apple Fitness+ a while back brought with it dancing workouts as a separate category.

To earn the reward in 2026, you’ll need to do a Dance workout lasting at least 20 minutes or more on the big day. As always, don’t forget to record that you have done so with the Workout app. It is your choice – you can do a standalone dance routine or use a dance routine in Apple Fitness+.

Here’s how Apple describes the challenge:

Show off your dance moves for International Dance Day. Earn this award by recording a Dance workout of 20 minutes or more on April 29. Record it with the Workout app or any app that adds workouts to Health

Those who are successful in completing the task will get a badge in the Fitness app as well as some nifty animated stickers. Shown below, they can be used in the Messages and FaceTime apps. You could even use them to copy some dancing moves!

This is not the only challenge dropping in the next few weeks. The other one is to celebrate Earth Day. On April 22nd it requires you to record a workout lasting 30 minutes or more. While some of Apple’s challenges are limited to certain countries, both upcoming late-April challenges should be available globally.

Source: MacRumours

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If you complete the workout on Wednesday April 22nd, the tech giant will reward you. You’ll get a shiny new icon in the Activity app and a custom iMessage stickers. As usual, the exercise will need to be recorded in the Fitness app or in any app that can send data to the Health app.

This Earth Day, April 22, record any 30 minute workout with the Workout app or any app that records workouts to Health to earn this award. The earth will think the world of you.

The challenge should become visible to Apple Watch owners in the week ahead. It will read something like “Let’s get moving and celebrate the planet” when it becomes available.

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

First celebrated back in 1970, Earth Day was founded to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Events in nearly 200 countries are now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. This year, the focus will be on providing information and inspiration needed to change human attitude and behavior about plastics.

Apple does not hold a challenge every year for Earth Day. But it has done this several times in the past. For added motivation, this year users will also get a few shiny animated stickers.

The last challenge was on February 14th. That one also required users put in thirty minutes of exercise on the day. So essentially, we are getting a repeat of the same.

Source: MacRumours

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A bigger AI push for Apple Watch

The most interesting part of Mark German’s new interview with Bloomberg, is the suggestion that Apple is leaning harder into AI on the wrist. Details are still limited, but the direction seems clear enough. The company wants the Apple Watch to do more with the health, fitness and behavioural data it already collects.

That could mean smarter Siri interactions, more useful prompts during the day and better interpretation of workout and recovery metrics. Instead of simply presenting raw numbers, the software may start surfacing insights in a way that feels more personal and timely.

We’ve seen a number of other wearable brands going down this route, and Apple is looking to join the fun. The hardware side has matured significantly over the past few years, so the next area of competition is increasingly about software intelligence. The real value is no longer just in collecting the data, it is in helping users understand what it actually means.

Apple is particularly well positioned here because of the sheer amount of data its watches gather over time. Sleep patterns, resting heart rate, activity levels, recovery trends and workout history all create a strong base for smarter recommendations. If watchOS 27 starts using that information more effectively, it could make the watch feel far more proactive.

A needed focus on fixes and performance

The second major upgrade is not as exciting. Apple is said to be focusing on bug fixes, performance improvements and overall system stability.

That may not sound especially exciting on paper, but for a device that many people wear all day and night, reliability matters a lot. Notifications need to arrive instantly, apps need to open quickly and workouts need to start without friction. Small delays or occasional glitches are far more noticeable on a watch than on a phone.

A smoother and faster watchOS experience could actually be the part users notice most. Sometimes the best software updates are the ones that simply make the device feel better to use without shouting about it.

Software over hardware this year

Another interesting takeaway is that this year does not appear to be about a major Apple Watch redesign. That suggests Apple’s attention is firmly on software.

The Apple Watch hardware is already highly refined. At this point, better intelligence and a smoother experience are probably more valuable than cosmetic changes. Having said that, it would be nice to see a some new health tracking features. Perhaps blood pressure measurements or glucose estimates. But don’t hold your breath for either of these.

We should get our first proper look at watchOS 27 on June 8 at WWDC. As usual, the developer beta will probably land later that same day, with a public beta likely following sometime in July for anyone who wants to try it early. The full public rollout is then expected in September, most likely alongside the next Apple Watch models.

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This builds directly on what was discussed in our earlier piece from February, where Apple’s workaround first came into focus. Back then, the key question was whether shifting functionality to the iPhone would be enough to sidestep the legal issues. Now we have the first real answer.

What the judge actually said

The latest development comes from ITC Administrative Law Judge Monica Bhattacharyya. In an initial determination, she found that Apple’s redesigned implementation does not violate Masimo’s patents.

The wording here matters. The judge stated there is no underlying act of direct infringement, even when the Apple Watch is paired with an iPhone. That effectively validates Apple’s redesign strategy, at least at this stage.

There is still a process to go through. This is not a final ruling. The full ITC Commission will now review the decision before making a final call. Still, initial determinations like this tend to carry weight.

Apple has welcomed the outcome and pointed out that many of Masimo’s claims over the past six years have been rejected. That gives you a sense of how long this dispute has been dragging on.

Why the redesign matters

The workaround itself is quite deliberate. Apple has shifted most of the processing away from the watch and onto the iPhone.

In practice, you can still initiate a blood oxygen reading from the Apple Watch. But the result does not appear on the watch itself. You have to check the paired iPhone to see the data.

That is a clear break from how the feature originally worked. Previously, everything happened directly on the watch, including the display of results.

From a user experience point of view, this is a compromise. It keeps the feature alive in some form, but it is less convenient and arguably less aligned with the idea of a standalone health device.

From a legal perspective, though, it seems to be doing exactly what Apple intended. It creates enough separation to avoid direct infringement, at least according to this initial finding.

The original ban is still very real

At the same time, a separate decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reinforces the constraints Apple is still under.

The court has affirmed the ITC’s original exclusion order from 2023. That is the same order that forced Apple to halt Apple Watch sales in the US briefly in December of that year.

Sales resumed not long after, but only with the original blood oxygen feature disabled. That situation is not changing.

The key takeaway is simple. Apple can sell watches in the US with the redesigned feature. It cannot restore the original version.

Apple has said it disagrees with this decision and is considering further legal options. So this is not the end of the road.

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iOS 26.4 changes

The headline news this time around involves the Health app’s Vitals graph. Apple has surprised everyone by reintroducing Blood Oxygen readings after their previous removal due to a patent dispute with Masimo.

To remind, in January 2024 Apple removed the Blood Oxygen feature from the Apple Watch. This was a major adjustment for users who relied on it for monitoring their health metrics. In August 2024, Apple revamped the Blood Oxygen feature allowing users to take readings but limited the access to iPhone viewing only. Unfortunately, this redesign excluded Blood Oxygen from the Vitals overview for users in the United States.

Now, iOS 26.4 restores that functionality. The Vitals graph displays five key metrics once again: heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen and sleep duration. This return to form is good to see. Being able to visualize trends in all these metrics over time is useful.

We don’t know exactly what allowed this change. Perhaps a deal with Masimo.

Sleep highlight feature

Alongside the Blood Oxygen restoration, iOS 26.4 showcases another addition with the new Sleep Highlight feature. This gives users a detailed breakdown of their bedtimes over the last two weeks, making it easier to track sleep habits.

The Sleep Highlight illustrates the user’s average bedtime, offering insights into their sleeping patterns. Additionally, it provides a comparison to the previous night’s bedtime.

This dual focus on both Vitals and sleep tracking reflects a growing understanding of how intertwined these elements are in managing overall health. Users can now recognize correlations between their sleep quality and other vital metrics, enhancing their ability to assess their wellness holistically.

Overall impact

iOS 26.4 feels like Apple tightening the screws. The Health app gets a bit cleaner and more joined up, especially with Blood Oxygen finding its way back into Vitals after a fairly messy year. Losing it in the first place was awkward, so this beta looks like Apple putting things back where they make the most sense.

The sleep update follows the same logic. Looking at bedtime trends over two weeks adds context that a single night never really gives you. Placed alongside heart rate, temperature, and other vitals, it makes the Health app feel more like a continuous record of how you live and recover.

via 9to5Mac

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Apart from keeping you fit, the aim of this challenge is to raise awareness of heart disease. As you may know, February is American Heart Month. This is a federally designated event to educate on the importance of cardiovascular health, including coronary heart disease and stroke.

2025 Heart Month challenge

You should start to get the notification about the 2025 Heart Month challenge soon. As always, successfully completing the task will earn a virtual trophy for your virtual mantelpiece. There are also a bunch of animating stickers that can be shared through the Messages app or on FaceTime.

This year you will be required to put in thirty minutes of exercise on February 14th. This will need to be logged through the Workout app on the Apple Watch, or another fitness app that works with HealthKit. The other option is to complete the exercise via Apple Fitness+.

This Valentine’s day, it’s all about heart. Close your Exercise ring on February 14 to get this award.

Here are the stickers you can earn.

The rules were a bit different in some of the previous years. In 2021 users were required to put in sixty minute of exercise on the big day. The year before that you needed to close the ring seven days in a row starting February 8 and ending February 14.

The Heart Month Challenge follows last month’s ‘Ring in the New Year’ challenge. That task boiled down to meeting all stand, exercise and move goals for 7 days in a row.

Source: Macrumours

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Hypertension alerts were cleared by the FDA in 2025 as a tool to raise awareness of potential hypertension. It uses optical sensors to look for patterns in blood flow, then runs the data through an algorithm to decide whether to show an alert. There’s no cuff involved. The idea is to flag risk, not diagnose anything.

So how well does it work in the real world? That’s what researchers from the University of Utah and the University of Pennsylvania wanted to find out.

It misses a lot of people

Using publicly available accuracy data from Apple and national health survey data from the U.S., the researchers simulated how this alert system would perform at scale.

What they found was pretty straightforward. If someone actually has undiagnosed hypertension, there’s a good chance the Apple Watch won’t pick it up. In fact, about 59 percent of those people wouldn’t get an alert. On the other side, around 8 percent of users who don’t have hypertension would still get flagged anyway.

So the feature isn’t very accurate if you think of it like a medical test. That’s because it isn’t one. It’s not built to diagnose or replace a cuff. It’s built to nudge you into paying attention.

The researchers focused on how meaningful the alerts actually are, depending on who you are. And that’s where things get more interesting.

Age and risk level change what the alert means

For younger users under 30, the chance of having undiagnosed hypertension is low to begin with. So when the watch sends an alert, the chance you actually have high blood pressure jumps from 14 percent to 47 percent. That’s a decent signal, but still leaves a lot of uncertainty. If there’s no alert, your risk drops slightly to 10 percent.

Older adults, on the other hand, have a higher baseline risk. For people over 60, the probability of having hypertension without knowing it is already 45 percent. If they get an alert, that jumps to 81 percent. But even if they don’t get an alert, their risk is still sitting at 34 percent.

That’s the point the researchers keep coming back to. An alert might help confirm risk, but the lack of an alert is not all that reassuring for older or higher-risk users.

The analysis also broke things down by race and ethnicity.

For non-Hispanic Black adults, getting an alert bumps the chance of having hypertension from 36 percent to 75 percent. Without an alert, it drops to 26 percent. For Hispanic adults, the same alert moves the probability from 24 percent to 63 percent, and silence brings it down to 17 percent.

Should you trust the alert?

Not entirely. It can be a helpful early warning, especially for people who wouldn’t otherwise think to check their blood pressure. But it doesn’t offer the kind of accuracy you get from a cuff-based device.

And that’s where this feature could backfire a bit. If someone sees the alert and follows up, that’s good. But if someone assumes they’re fine just because the watch is quiet, they could miss a diagnosis that needs attention. That’s a real concern for older users and people in higher-risk categories.

Current guidelines still recommend cuff-based screening every few years for adults under 40, and yearly after that. Apple’s alerts aren’t changing that advice.

Source: Jama Network

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Komoot steps up with full offline mode on Apple Watch

All of this means you can leave your phone behind and still find your way. You load the route on your Apple Watch via the Komoot app, and it handles the turn-by-turn directions on its own. As long as the map region is unlocked, it works offline and doesn’t need a subscription.

While you’re moving, it shows stats like time and distance, and saves everything to Apple Health after the workout. The maps are detailed enough to spot small trails, and you can zoom or scroll around if you need to reorient.

A useful update

This update has been a long time coming. According to the company, over 100 user interviews and surveys shaped the new watch experience. Full independence from the phone came up again and again. The result is something far more capable than the old mirroring system that just pinged directions from your phone.

While this new app already covers the basics, Komoot is planning more. Features like auto-rerouting, offline activity queuing, and real-time location sharing are already being tested. There’s also the promise of instant sync, which would push last-minute route updates from your iPhone to the watch before heading out. Customisation options for the in-app display are also on the roadmap.

These will arrive gradually over the course of 2026. But even in its current form, Komoot’s Apple Watch app makes a strong case for going phone-free on outdoor adventures. It matches what Strava is now offering on the watch, but with the added appeal of detailed route planning and offline support baked in from the start.

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Strava route guidance arrives on Apple Watch

This has been on user wishlists for a while. The new beta lets Apple Watch owners start a workout like usual, walk, run or ride, but with the option to pick from their saved Strava routes and follow them visually. The route loads on the screen with a bold line, showing direction, elevation gain, and progress, all in real time.

The feature looks tailored to the Apple Watch Ultra, but it’s not locked to that model. Some users have reported it working on Series 9 and SE 2 as well. It’s also showing up without users needing to actively sign up for a beta, though Strava labels it that way internally.

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

There’s no full breadcrumb trail, turn-by-turn directions or re-routing if you go off course. But for most people just trying to follow a route without constantly checking their phone, this fills a big gap. It works well for trails, road loops, or even just exploring a new neighbourhood with a bit of structure.

This also aligns with recent moves by Strava to shift more features to the wrist. The redesigned Watch interface introduced in 2023 simplified the start screen, and now with route support added in, it’s a more complete experience. You can scroll between routes, check distance and elevation, and launch the workout right there.

GPS lock-on still happens before starting the activity, and Strava’s watch app now clearly displays GPS status while waiting. The actual navigation screen shows your location on a dark street map with a tracking arrow and route overlay, which looks quite smooth in the current build.

Our takeaway

It’s still unclear whether this new route-following feature will require a Strava subscription. The screenshots and user reports do not show any paywall or subscription prompt, and the functionality appears to be available to some without joining a beta program. However, Strava has not confirmed whether this will remain accessible to free-tier users or eventually be restricted to subscribers.

This addition brings Strava’s Apple Watch app closer to the type of navigation tools already found on Garmin and Apple’s native fitness apps, though each has its own limitations. For Strava users who prefer training with an Apple Watch, it offers a way to follow a planned route without carrying a phone.

Via Reddit

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Apple testing camera-based AI wearable

The project is still early, but it’s getting serious enough that engineers are already refining the hardware design. According to a report by The Information, the current concept is a flat disc made of aluminium and glass. It is designed to be small, lightweight and screenless. The idea is for it to function more like an ambient assistant than a traditional smartwatch.

Reportedly, there are two cameras on the front, one wide-angle and one standard. These would allow the pin to visually interpret its surroundings. On top of that, the prototype is said to include three microphones and a speaker, allowing it to pick up nearby conversations or sounds and respond audibly. A physical button on the side serves as the main control point. Wireless charging is built in, using a magnetic puck similar to Apple Watch.

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

The device does not yet include a built-in clip or attachment system, though this would obviously need to be sorted before any release. One of the goals is to keep it close to the dimensions of an AirTag, though a bit thicker to accommodate components and the battery.

Launch unlikely before 2027

If the project survives internal vetting, the earliest launch window being floated is 2027. That gives Apple time to mature the hardware and find the right use cases. It also allows the company to watch how the fast-moving AI wearables space unfolds. Products like the Humane AI Pin and Meta’s smart Ray-Bans have already highlighted both the promise and the pitfalls of these kinds of devices.

A key unknown is whether the Apple pin would work standalone or tethered to an iPhone. Most AI wearables so far have relied heavily on the cloud or a nearby phone to do the heavy lifting. Apple tends to prefer tight integration within its ecosystem, so pairing with Siri and AirPods would make sense.

There’s also speculation that the pin could be a stepping stone toward smart glasses. So something that acts as a voice-based interface that anticipates what you see and hear.

Privacy and power will define the experience

There are still major gaps in what we know. Battery life targets, privacy features and network connectivity are not discussed in the report. These are crucial pieces. AI devices that constantly listen or capture the environment face high scrutiny. Apple has built its reputation on privacy, so this will likely be a key design focus. Physical controls, status lights and audio cues might play a role in how users interact and manage trust.

On the AI side, the device would likely tap into the company’s broader efforts to modernise Siri. Apple is working on a more conversational assistant and has hired talent from both large language model companies and interface design firms. It’s not hard to imagine a future where the pin acts as a mobile gateway to a smarter, more helpful Siri experience.

For now, this is still a concept. But it’s a concept Apple is building hardware for. That suggests intent. Whether it turns into a product is another question entirely.

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