What you need to know
- A new Kids mode is coming to Apple Watch in watchOS 7.
- Activity rings are being updated to track active minutes instead of active calories.
- The new feature is expected to be announced at WWDC in June.
The Activity rings on Apple Watch have always been a way to stay motivated every day. In Apple's upcoming watchOS 7 update, it sounds like they are about to get even better for kids.
Reported by 9to5Mac, code found within iOS 14 points to a new Kids mode on Apple Watch that will change how kids close their rings.
The Activity rings currently track your Move, Exercise, and Stand goals to help you live a more active day.
"Three rings: Move, Exercise, Stand. One goal: Close them every day. It's such a simple and fun way to live a healthier day that you'll want to do it all the time. That's the idea behind the Activity app on Apple Watch."
The red Activity ring currently tracks your active calories burned for the day, but this method has proven to be problematic for appropriately tracking the activity level of children. Therefore, Apple is reportedly changing the Red ring to track active time instead.
Instead of setting a Move goal of 500 active calories burned, a kid (or parent) could set a Move goal of 60 minutes of active time. This will help kids hit their Move goal for a variety of activities like playing outside of playing sports with their friends.
The change to Activity rings for kids will most likely be announced when Apple takes the virtual stage for WWDC 2020 and talks about watchOS 7, and be released alongside iOS 14 in the fall.
