What features do you think are missing in the Apple Watch Ultra?

[TSE]

As an owner that loves his Apple Watch Ultra, here are features that I think would be amazing to see in the Apple Watch Ultra:

1. Better diving features & depth capabilities: anyone that dives knows that the Apple Watch Ultra's diving capabilities are nothing & basically in there for marketing ads

2. Better battery life: While I am not unhappy with the battery life here, as I often barely squeak out two days, I would love to see if Apple can hit 3-4 days for their "outdoor lifestyle" watch.

3. A real flashlight: I've tried the flashlight feature that uses the screen, and it's just not enough nor is it direct enough. Imagine a band that has a built-in flashlight and physical button that turns it on or off and charges through the Apple Watch. Even if it costs extra, I could see that being so handy.

4. More gesture controls: I would love to see Apple add more and more to their gesture navigations slowly but surely.

5. Take away the phone requirement: Self explanatory.

6. A camera: If the iPhone goes away, a camera to act as a facetime selfie camera and take pictures in a pinch would be amazing.

 

[AsherN]

As an owner that loves his Apple Watch Ultra, here are features that I think would be amazing to see in the Apple Watch Ultra:

1. Better diving features & depth capabilities: anyone that dives knows that the Apple Watch Ultra's diving capabilities are nothing & basically in there for marketing ads


5. Take away the phone requirement: Self explanatory.

6. A camera: If the iPhone goes away, a camera to act as a facetime selfie camera and take pictures in a pinch would be amazing.

1. If you mean out of the box, correct. The built-in Depth app only shows the data from the sensors. At depth, your dive computer is a lifeline. It made no sense for Apple to try and re-invent that technology. Teaming up with an established computer manufacturer is what made sense. I've used to oceanic+ app next to my regular computer for a while, and they were dead on.

5. Why? It was never designed to be a stand alone watch.
6. People already complain about the size, and now you want to add the optics required for a camera?

 

[Howard2k]

Battery life for me. 5 days would be super.

 

[TSE]

1. If you mean out of the box, correct. The built-in Depth app only shows the data from the sensors. At depth, your dive computer is a lifeline. It made no sense for Apple to try and re-invent that technology. Teaming up with an established computer manufacturer is what made sense. I've used to oceanic+ app next to my regular computer for a while, and they were dead on.

5. Why? It was never designed to be a stand alone watch.
6. People already complain about the size, and now you want to add the optics required for a camera?

5. But... what if.... it was?!

6. It's almost like... progress occurs in engineering and increasingly smaller design of the components can make it possible! I'm not asking for a 24 megapixel camera. I'm asking for a camera to occasionally facetime and the occasional photo in a pinch.

 

[Supermallet]

Battery life and more advanced Siri. It’s so convenient to lift my wrist and start a timer, add a reminder, etc. If Siri were more advanced I’d use it all the time.

 

[Shirasaki]

I’m in support for point 2. Longer battery life is always better.

As for 3 I also find it surprisingly lacking and hard to use in practice. But I am not confident dedicated flashlight watch band is a good idea. Still gonna be limited by the form factor and you can’t get good result via a tiny array of LED. that’s just not how physics works.

Point 4 definitely. Current support is lackluster to say the very least and doesn’t have much practical use.

As for point 5…what do I say? Tiny screen alone is enough to make Apple Watch forever dependent on iPhone to manage almost everything, no matter how strong you think Apple Watch Ultra should be independent from iPhone. It just won’t happen. Can’t compete that with iPhone factor.

Point 6? Same reason as point 5. For factor limits how practical it is. And you can’t produce good results with tiny components. That’s just not how physics works.

 

[jz0309]

As an owner that loves his Apple Watch Ultra, here are features that I think would be amazing to see in the Apple Watch Ultra:

1. Better diving features & depth capabilities: anyone that dives knows that the Apple Watch Ultra's diving capabilities are nothing & basically in there for marketing ads

2. Better battery life: While I am not unhappy with the battery life here, as I often barely squeak out two days, I would love to see if Apple can hit 3-4 days for their "outdoor lifestyle" watch.

3. A real flashlight: I've tried the flashlight feature that uses the screen, and it's just not enough nor is it direct enough. Imagine a band that has a built-in flashlight and physical button that turns it on or off and charges through the Apple Watch. Even if it costs extra, I could see that being so handy.

4. More gesture controls: I would love to see Apple add more and more to their gesture navigations slowly but surely.

5. Take away the phone requirement: Self explanatory.

6. A camera: If the iPhone goes away, a camera to act as a facetime selfie camera and take pictures in a pinch would be amazing.

re 1 - get the Oceanic+ (?) app, that does it for you
re 5 - that will result in asking for more iPhone-like features and apps and will result to be contradictory to your #2
re 6 - will result in battery drain. If Apple should ever decide to put a camera into the AW, I'll be out. Camera just does not make sense in a small device like AW

 

[delsoul]

#1 for me would be better software engineers at Apple that quit wrecking things with every update. They fix one thing while ruining another. For example, you have to hold your breath and pray that with each update your battery life doesn’t tank, etc. Either let AI start writing the code, or get better software engineers in there that can do the job properly.

 

[NME42]

As an owner that loves his Apple Watch Ultra, here are features that I think would be amazing to see in the Apple Watch Ultra:

Love my Ultra 2 too.
From a hardware perspective not so many wishes. Maybe a better battery, but it is very good already.

So some software features, both in the Training App:

1) Support for more sensor functionality (eg footpods, more cycling data)
2) Turn by turn navigation with pre designed routes

 

[tolili alert]

24/7 heart rate readings in all Apple Watches.

 

[jz0309]

24/7 heart rate readings in all Apple Watches.

I have 24x7 readings on my AWs, what am I missing in your statement?

 

[NME42]

6. It's almost like... progress occurs in engineering and increasingly smaller design of the components can make it possible! I'm not asking for a 24 megapixel camera. I'm asking for a camera to occasionally facetime and the occasional photo in a pinch.

A small and basic camera would really be useful from time to time. When I do long runs without my iPhone, I had some occassions where I would have liked to take a photo. Quality not important.

A real game changer also would be a blood pressure monitor.

 

[cubodado]

Since there is a water temp sensor, why can’t it be used also for swimming?

 

[AsherN]

Since there is a water temp sensor, why can’t it be used also for swimming?

What do you mean? The watch or displaying the temp on the exercise app?

 

[Crowbot]

A small and basic camera would really be useful from time to time. When I do long runs without my iPhone, I had some occassions where I would have liked to take a photo. Quality not important.

A real game changer also would be a blood pressure monitor.

Believe me, people would complain about low res images and put pressure on Apple to make the watch bigger to accommodate the better camera.

While Apple may get NIBP to work on the watch, with some sort of compressing wrist band, wrist NIBP has never been seen as accurate enough for clinical use. I was a Biomedical Engineering Tech for many years and saw some serious designs. They all basically sucked for serious use.

 

[NME42]

While Apple may get NIBP to work on the watch, with some sort of compressing wrist band, wrist NIBP has never been seen as accurate enough for clinical use. I was a Biomedical Engineering Tech for many years and saw some serious desings. They all basically sucked for serious use.

Thanks for the information. If this sensor would be suboptimal, I guess Apple would not release it. No values are better than wrong values in this case. Same goes for blood sugar, where I expect nothing from Apple in the next years.

 

[tolili alert]

I have 24x7 readings on my AWs, what am I missing in your statement?

No, you have not.

One reading every 4-5 minutes is what all of us have, except in training for example. During training it does continuously measure heart rate.

You just have to go to Health app. Go to Heart Rate section and look all recorded data (or whatever it says in english). There you can check for yourself all the readings.

There apps like Heart Analyzer that shows you this kind of metadata directly. In my case, a measurement every almost 5 minutes on average.


For that reason, I hope we can have soon real 24/7 HR measurement. I hope that hypothetical 4th gen HR Sensor bring it to us.

 

[throAU]

2. Better battery life: While I am not unhappy with the battery life here, as I often barely squeak out two days, I would love to see if Apple can hit 3-4 days for their "outdoor lifestyle" watch.

Pretty sure you could get this today if you were to turn on power save mode.

I can get 2-3 days without it on an ultra 2. YMMV of course depending on usage and how much you use cellular away from the iPhone.

Personally - camera? Don't want. Its space that could be more battery or screen...

 

[Crowbot]

Thanks for the information. If this sensor would be suboptimal, I guess Apple would not release it. No values are better than wrong values in this case. Same goes for blood sugar, where I expect nothing from Apple in the next years.

Right. It's the same with glucose monitoring. The sensor just isn't there yet. Apple has hopes for an optical device but it just may not be up to the job.

 

[jz0309]

No, you have not.

One reading every 4-5 minutes is what all of us have, except in training for example. During training it does continuously measure heart rate.

You just have to go to Health app. Go to Heart Rate section and look all recorded data (or whatever it says in english). There you can check for yourself all the readings.

There apps like Heart Analyzer that shows you this kind of metadata directly. In my case, a measurement every almost 5 minutes on average.


For that reason, I hope we can have soon real 24/7 HR measurement. I hope that hypothetical 4th gen HR Sensor bring it to us.

yes, a reading every few minutes 24x7 ... so you want readings like during a workout 24x7?

 

[PaladinGuy]

yes, a reading every few minutes 24x7 ... so you want readings like during a workout 24x7?

I think you’re missing the point. The current optical heart rate sensor only takes a reading every few minutes right now. Many other fitness watches take readings every second. This gives a much larger amount of data. The same is true for Heart Rate Variability. It takes very few readings at night or day. You have to turn on Afib history to get more. This makes recovery analysis more difficult.

A new sensor might be needed that is more efficient. If they can’t do blood oxygen, they should at least devote more attention here.

 

[jz0309]

I think you’re missing the point. The current optical heart rate sensor only takes a reading every few minutes right now. Many other fitness watches take readings every second. This gives a much larger amount of data. The same is true for Heart Rate Variability. It takes very few readings at night or day. You have to turn on Afib history to get more. This makes recovery analysis more difficult.

A new sensor might be needed that is more efficient. If they can’t do blood oxygen, they should at least devote more attention here.

Well I get that, the poster I responded to said “24x7” which we already have so I wanted to clarify what they actually want.

More data is great, but what are we doing with that? I’m not a cardiologist nor have I personally experienced issues, yet (though both my parents had afib). So what’s the benefit of that continuous data?
Thing us, being in my 60s, none of my doctors over the past 8 years of me wearing an AW have ever wanted to see the data.
While this points to yet another issue, data is only good if you know what to do with it…

 

[PaladinGuy]

Well I get that, the poster I responded to said “24x7” which we already have so I wanted tonclarify what they actually want.

More data is great, but what are we doing with that? I’m not a cardiologist nor have I personally experienced issues, yet (though both my parents had afib). So what’s the benefit of that continuous data?
Thing us, being in my 60s, none of my doctors over the past 8 years of me wearing an AW have ever wanted to see the data.
While this points to yet another issue, data is only good if you know what to do with it…

Granted - there is some stuff that is not totally agreed upon in the medical space and that can’t be validated. However, it’s useful to see things like Resting Heart Rate and HRV average to know how recovered your body is for exercise or even how it’s recovering from stress.

You can’t really get a decent understanding of these things if you don’t have many samples.

I agree that data needs to have a point. I think that point is to give more context to activity tracking. Apple currently pushes people to exercise every single day, regardless of their training load or recovery. That’s not ideal or healthy. Having more data points to analyze and give context helps with this.

 

[jz0309]

Granted - there is some stuff that is not totally agreed upon in the medical space and that can’t be validated. However, it’s useful to see things like Resting Heart Rate and HRV average to know how recovered your body is for exercise or even how it’s recovering from stress.

You can’t really get a decent understanding of these things if you don’t have many samples.

I agree that data needs to have a point. I think that point is to give more context to activity tracking. Apple currently pushes people to exercise every single day, regardless of their training load or recovery. That’s not ideal or healthy. Having more data points to analyze and give context helps with this.

Agreed. Personally, I don’t see Apple going that way but I could be wrong of course - I do see them getting into new and more sensors (eg blood pressure and glucose to name the obvious), that’ll drive more new sales…

 

[dk001]

Missing:

1. Ability to link to my iPad (or other device)
2. Ability to update by itself (no iPhone needed)
3. Ability to set my ring goals to a calendar instead of daily
4. Set the monitoring interval when training - every second, or few seconds, or…
5. A watch band that can act like a solar charger or external battery.

This would really help.