Apple could finally bring sleep tracking to the fifth-generation of its Apple Watch smartwatch. Although a number of third-party apps already exist that bring the feature to the best-selling wearable, Apple does not offer sleep tracking itself.
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According to sources speaking to 9ToMac (opens in new tab), the ability to track sleep quality, number of disturbances during the night, and more, will be announced at the forthcoming special event on Tuesday September 10, 2019 where the Cupertino-based company is already tipped to unveil three new iPhone models, waterproof AirPods 3, and a smaller HomePod smart speaker.
Branded "Time In Bed Tracking", technology blog 9ToMac claims the system is codenamed Burrito inside the US company. Apple aims to track quality of sleep, movements throughout the night, heart rate, and noise. Like existing Apple Watch health data, sleep tracking will be found inside the Health app on iOS. It will not appear in the Activity app like workouts.
There will be a dedicated Sleep app in watchOS to kickstart the ability to track a good nights rest, sources claim. This means triggering the sleep tracking functionality will be different from some rivals, like Fitbit, which automatically detect the moment the wearer has fallen asleep and then starts the tracking feature.
Since wearing the Apple Watch all day to track steps and activity and all-night to track sleep will require a hefty battery life increase, Apple Watch Series 5 is expected to ship with a much more efficient system-on-a-chip as well as a bigger battery cell.
9To5Mac also reports that Apple Watch will send a notification to owners to charge their smartwatch for a little while before their scheduled bedtime, so that it doesn't konk-out halfway through the night.
Apple is also believed to tweaking how alarms work with the Apple Watch, so that your regular daily alarm clock on your iOS device will be silenced if you wake-up earlier than the alarm and start interacting with your Apple Watch.
It's unclear whether Apple will be able to bring some version of its sleep tracking to older Watch hardware, or whether battery limitations will mean the functionality is exclusive to the latest smartwatch.
As well as sleep tracking, the new Watch Series 5 is tipped to ship in two new finishes.
