Apple's latest version of watchOS is here, and watchOS 11 brings a few long-awaited fitness and health features to the best Apple Watch models. Training Load will finally consider stress and exertion, giving you insights on when to take a rest day. On top of that, there's the new Vitals app. It examines key health metrics that the watch already tracks, to deliver them in a way that offers more context.

By seeing them grouped in a specific manner, intelligently analyzed to determine when they fall outside your typical ranges, you may notice more important trends that can help you make informed decisions about your habits each day. Or, know when to seek further medical guidance if there's a particular vital statistic that may be worrying. The Vitals app is completely new to watchOS 11, and this guide will help you master it.

What is the Vitals app?

The Vitals app for Apple Watch analyzes heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, sleep duration, and blood oxygen data each night while you sleep, and provides a quick overview of them all in one, logical spot, plotting the data on a graph. For each metric, it eventually calculates a typical range so that you can see when one (or more) falls out of this baseline.

For the Vitals app to work, you need to have a set Sleep Schedule in the Apple Health app (this is required for sleep tracking in general too). It takes a week of sleep data measurements to gather enough information to determine what your typical ranges are for each metric, but you’ll start seeing data appear shortly after.

After your baseline is established, if the watch detects that two or more metrics fall out of your typical range, it will send you a notification. You’ll also receive a message indicating how these changes might be linked to changes in your habits. Were you more stressed the night before? Did you drink alcohol or coffee or perhaps enjoy too much screen time right before bed? Did you experience a change in elevation? Or maybe you’re battling a cold, which is impacting your respiratory rate and wrist temperature.

The idea is to provide actionable insights, so you can determine a potential cause and effect when there are outlier vitals.

How does it work?

Apple says that for the Vitals app to determine out-of-range classifications, it uses an algorithm developed from real-world data provided by the Apple Heart and Movement Study. The features are also “grounded in science and developed with input from clinical experts.”

It gets baseline data by measuring your usual vitals, so it’s important to start tracking when you’re feeling your best versus when you have a cold, if you’re traveling, or when there are other extenuating circumstances that could result in the watch determining incorrect 'typical range' information for you.

Apple also notes that the Vitals app is not designed to detect illness or medical conditions. If any changes in your health cause concern, it’s important to speak with a doctor.

How does the Vitals app look?

The Vitals app can be accessed both from the Watch itself and also from within the Health app. Additionally, you can see a basic daily summary in the Fitness app.

How to access the Vitals app in the Health app

From your iPhone, the Vitals app data will appear as a tab in the Health app alongside all your other pertinent data.

1. Open the Health app.
2. Go to Show All Health Data.
3. Scroll down to the Vitals app information (it appears just above blood oxygen level) and select.
4. Here, you’ll see your Typical Range plotted on a graph. You can search by Day, Week, Month, or 6 Months once you have accrued enough data.
5. Select Show More Vitals Data.
6. Below the graph, you’ll see each Metric (Heart Rate, Respiratory Rate, Wrist Temperature, Blood Oxygen, and Sleep Duration) along with any measurements that have been captured as outliers.
7. Select States and you can also see High, Typical, and Low, plus statistics about how many measurements fall into each classification.

How to access your Vitals in the Fitness app

You can get an at-a-glance look at the Vitals app information from the Fitness app as well.

1. Open the Fitness app and select Summary.
2. Scroll down to Training Load (another new feature in watchOS 11). This feature requires 28 days of data to fully populate, but you’ll see Overnight Vitals as part of it. Once you select it, you'll see the information along with a note about whether the numbers were Typical, High, or Low.
3. Under the Training Load graph, you’ll see the vitals from the previous night.

How to access the Vitals app from the Apple Watch

For instant access, check out the Vitals app right from the Apple Watch face.

1. Scroll through the app icons on your Apple Watch and select the new Vitals app icon (three blue rings and one pink ring in a diamond formation).
2. See your latest Overnight Vitals along with the time you feel asleep and woke up.
3. Scroll up to flip through the various statistics, including Heart Rate, Respiratory Rate, Wrist Temperature, and Blood Oxygen.
4. Keep scrolling, and you will also see Sleep Duration and Training Load (after the 28-day period has elapsed and data is ready). This will also show if any of these figures have fallen out of typical range.
5. Tap the folder icon at the top left to switch from the Today view to Past 7 Days.
6. Tap the “i” beside any item to learn more about what it measures.

Why the Vitals app is important

The Vitals app doesn’t measure anything new that the Apple Watch didn’t already measure, but it's one of a few game-changing features for Apple Watch. It intelligently groups key metrics together in a single view and analyzes the data for you. This might not sound like a lot, but the intention is to help you better understand your overall health and how specific habits impact you. From here, you can make actionable changes to improve, because you have a better view of the whole picture.

How? You might notice that the nights you stay up late watching TV impact your sleep duration and respiratory rate, or perhaps your heart rate beats out of the norm. If you ever wondered if that glass of wine with dinner or cappuccino with dessert has a negative effect on your vitals, you can put two-and-two together with this app. If it consistently sends a message about baseline variations the mornings after the nights when you indulge, you can infer a cause-and-effect relationship and make a change to see if that's the culprit.

Of course, you could technically already do this by examining each of the figures individually in the Health or Fitness app, or on the Watch itself, tracking the data back to your prior night's habits. But the measurement of typical ranges will give you a better idea of where your usual baseline is, plus some automatic analysis and highlights, versus you trying hard to make sense of it all.

Can’t wait for the Vitals app? You can try it out now, ahead of the official launch, by installing the watchOS 11 beta on your Apple Watch.