Apple Watch Series 12 has been a marvel of an upgrade, at least for me. I’ve written about it many times, and personally – I have found that the Apple Watch Series 12 is a competent replacement for the WHOOP. That said, in my past month testing it, there’s one WHOOP feature I’ve found myself missing.
Yes, I know – the Series 12 is old news, and there are much cooler things to think about, like iPhone Duo and HomeView. That said, the Apple Watch Series 12 was quite charming to me, primarily because it felt like a little bit of a surprise.
We knew we’d be 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 ship. Seeing the two together actually felt like quite a novel launch. That’s besides the point, though. Let’s talk about the redesigned Health app and what I feel it’s missing.
Frankly, Apple did a lot really well here. For one, there’s the fact that the interface actually feels easy to read and navigate. On top of that, the new features like Readiness and Health Age make it feel like a much more meaningful app. Plus, existing features like Vitals and Sleep being integrated means I’ll actually go look at it daily.
This Health app isn’t shipping yet. It was available in iOS 27.2 for a little while, but has since been removed. Apple says it’ll come back in a later iOS beta prior to releasing it later this year. In all likelihood, this means iOS 27.3, which should enter beta before the end of the month and ship before the end of December.
For me, and this is more of a small personal preference than a true flaw with the app or how 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, they’re based on when you go to sleep. That means if you do a workout past midnight, it still counts for the existing day. Or, if you were out late at night, your walk home counts towards the day that you started on, rather than counting towards the next day. I personally prefer this concept of tracking fitness goals.
Of course, it could be an option, though I do think fixing peoples “days” to their sleep is a little more sensible than basing it on a normal clock, especially when it comes to tracking exercise.
What do you think of this concept? How do you feel about the new Apple Health app? Let us know in the comments.
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Michael is a 9to5Mac Reporter, leading all of our Apple news coverage on weekends and reviewing the newest Apple products and accessories. He got started in the world of Apple news during the pandemic, and it became a growing hobby. He’s also an indie iOS developer, and started the weekly Indie App Spotlight series, which has covered hundreds of blooming new apps since it launched. In his free time, he enjoys shooting street photography around New York City on his Sony A7RV.
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