If you wear your Apple Watch to bed and have Silent Mode activated, your morning alarm will be silent too, attempting to wake you with soft haptic taps rather than any noise. Many users find this sufficient, but others sleep through the alarm with potentially dire consequences. Apple has unveiled a new feature that should solve this problem.
The upcoming watchOS 11.4 software update, as spotted by MacRumors, includes a new feature called Break Through Silent Mode. When this option is turned on, the watch will attempt to wake the user with both haptics and sound.
The new option toggle is accessible in two different ways. You can use the settings for the Sleep app and tap on Sounds & Haptics, or you can open the Alarm app and tap one of your alarms. If you don’t see the features, that’s because your watch is still running 11.3. watchOS 11.4 isn’t yet available to the general public though it it shouldn’t be long. The final version of 11.4 has been released to developers and it should be rolled out to the public next week.
To update watchOS on your Apple Watch, open the Settings app, go to General > Software Update, and tap Download and Install. Alternatively, you can install the update by opening the Watch app on the paired iPhone, then go to General > Software Update, and follow the instructions.
Author: David Price, Editor, Macworld
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.