WWDC 2020

Apple Watch will soon make sure you wash your hands correctly

Apple announced lots of new watchOS features at WWDC, including new workout modes, watch face options, and sleep tracking.

Apple introduced a slew of new watchOS features at today's WWDC conference, including watch face updates and expansions to the Workout app. Overall the updates in watchOS 7 will make the Apple Watch relevant in just about every area of your daily life (even while you're social distancing).

Wash your hands! — Never mind singing "Happy Birthday" twice — your Apple Watch will now count down to make sure you're washing your hands long enough. The feature uses machine learning to detect when you've started washing your hands. A cute little timer with bubble sound effects pops up on your watch face and congratulates you once you've successfully scrubbed for 20 seconds.

Complications — Apple spent a fair portion of today's watchOS update speaking to increased customization options for Apple Watch faces.

One of the biggest updates is to Apple's "Complications." This feature allows users to customize their watch face with app-specific information. They're basically on-screen widgets for your watch face.

You can also now share your customized watch faces with others with a feature called Face Sharing. This will be facilitated through the Apple Watch app store, but you'll also be able to post links to the faces on social media.

How's your sleep? — Apple is finally bringing one of the most-requested features to the Apple Watch: sleep-tracking.

The watchOS Sleep app is full-featured. Set sleep duration goals as well as a time you'd like to wake up. Use the Wind Down feature to minimize distractions and turn on Do Not Disturb as you're getting ready for bed.

With the Sleep app comes new alarm options, including a haptic-only alarm that vibrates on your wrist to wake you up with no sound.

Dance like Apple is watching — Apple Watch is perfect for tracking your workouts. Now Apple is extending that to include dancing as a workout option.

Tracking your dance workouts with Apple Watch couldn't be simpler, thanks to an intelligent gyroscope and state-of-the-art machine learning. The watch detects upper and lower body movements to track all kinds of dance styles.

Apple is also rebranding the Activity app — it will be called Fitness moving forward.