The Apple Watch will soon track fitness for wheelchair users

Apple breezed through a number of other features coming to watchOS 3, including the ability to run workout apps in the background, give real-time heart rate stats, inline video, and more. A new way to respond is Scribble, which converts your on-screen finger swipes into text. The watch apps load just as quickly as they do on your iPhone. If the user is in to sports or is very active in their lifestyle, they may choose to go with the Apple Watch Sport.

Apple has also enabled some third party modules including Apple Pay, background processing for fitness apps, APIs for controlling video, audio and interestingly, native control for the crown.

According to sources from Apple’s Asian supply chain, orders for the upcoming Apple Watch model have been higher-than-expected. People involved in a critical or life-threatening situations can use the watch to start a call with emergency services, either through Wi-Fi or their iPhone, by pressing and holding the side button. This function is not new, but to Apple Watch, it is.

Additionally, the side button of the Apple Watch now opens the dock instead of the communications screen. While a hardware revision isn’t yet on the horizon, the existence of watchOS 3, releasing this fall, is going a long way to improving the Apple Watch experience. Apple Watch users will gain access to new watch faces including Minnie Mouse and simple and elegant Numerals, while also getting easier customization of watch faces. Activity also supports wheelchair mode to allow for more widespread usability, and has a whole host of new algorithms created to properly track activity for those that are wheelchair-bound.

Health has been one of the main focus points of watchOS3, enabling activity sharing with friends, family or a personal trainer through the Activity app. Users can be notified about their friends’ progress, which Apple thinks will be great for motivation.

Since the beginning, my biggest complaint with the Apple Watch was that it does too much and takes a good day or so for a new user to master. WatchKit® for watchOS 3 is available immediately for iOS Developer Program members at developer.apple.com.

WatchOS 3 introduces Scribble, a better way to reply to messages. Activity tracking for wheelchair users has also been improved, with specific wheelchair motion control movements having been carefully studied to bring accurate readings to the new features. You’ll still have the current options for voice or pre-configured replies like “yes” and “no”.

While the Apple Watch has been by far the most commercially successful smartwatch (and second to Fitbit as the most successful wearable) it hasn’t yet had the culture-shifting impact of the iPhone (or maybe even the iPad).