Apple released watchOS 9.0 a month ago, and it’s now making available watchOS 9.1 to all users. Although this update isn’t as exciting as iOS 16.1 or iPadOS 16.1, there are a ton of improvements for new and current Apple Watch owners.
For Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE 2, and Apple Watch Ultra users, watchOS 9.1 includes an important improvement:
- Battery life has now been extended during Outdoor Walking, Running, and Hiking Workouts with the ability to reduce the frequency of heart rate and GPS readings.
For Apple Watch users in general, watchOS 9.1 now gives two interesting upgrades:
- Music can download while Apple Watch is off charger using Wi-FI or cellular;
- Smart home Matter standard is now supported enabling a wide variety of smart home accessories to work together across ecosystems.
Last but not least, there are several bug fixes for Apple Watch users with watchOS 9.1. For example:
- Voice feedback of average pace during Outdoor Run may be incorrect;
- Chance of rain estimates shown in the Weather app may not match estimates on iPhone in the current location;
- Hourly weather complications may label times as AM during PM hours;
- Time duration displayed during Strenght Training Workouts may not advance for some users;
- VoiceOver may not announce the app name prior to reading the notification when receiving multiple notifications.
From the features announced during the WWDC 2022 keynote in June, there’s still a function that will arrive later this year, most likely with watchOS 9.2.
When starting an Outdoor Run or Cycle workout you do often, the Race Route feature will let you choose to race against your last or best result and receive in-the-moment updates to help you get there.
For now, this is what’s coming with watchOS 9.1 update. Apple Watch Series 4 or later users can update now. Just make sure to update your iPhone to iOS 16.1 as well.
