{"id":621114,"date":"2026-10-05T09:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621114\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:18:13","slug":"my-apple-watch-spotted-i-was-getting-sick-before-i-did-this-week-heres-how-to-make-the-vitals-app-more-accurate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621114\/","title":{"rendered":"My Apple Watch spotted I was getting sick before I did this week \u2014 here’s how to make the Vitals app more accurate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite writing about fitness tech for a living, I\u2019m always surprised when devices strapped to my pulse points spot things before I do. A few years ago, I wrote how my Oura Ring spotted I was pregnant<\/a> weeks before I did a test; this week, the Apple Watch<\/a> Vitals app knew my toddler had passed on his germs before I felt the rumblings of a cold.<\/p>\n

Impressive, I know, but if you\u2019re new to Apple Watch, you might not know a few tweaks can help you get the most out of the Vitals app. This applies to all Apple Watches, not just the Apple Watch Series 12 <\/a>and Apple Watch Ultra 4<\/a>, which have the new Readiness and Daytime Vitals functionalities.<\/p>\n

How to make your Vitals app more accurate <\/p>\n

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\"Apple<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start by taking a look at what you\u2019ll see when you open the Vitals app. When you open the Vitals app on your Apple Watch, you\u2019ll be able to use your digital crown to scroll through the metrics: heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, and blood oxygen. If you\u2019re wearing an Apple Watch 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4, you can also see recovery HRV. <\/p>\n

You can tap into each metric to learn more, but if there are any outliers, they\u2019ll immediately be in purple, and your watch will give you a breakdown of what might be causing the change. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This week, my overnight vitals told me my resting heart rate and respiratory rate were slightly off \u2014 signs that my body was under increased strain. A few days later, I developed a head cold.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromTom’s Guide<\/p>\n

Knowing you\u2019re getting sick before you actually get any symptoms not only allows you to prevent spreading germs, but also to get ahead of your recovery, allowing your immune system to fight the virus before it takes hold.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a few weeks out from my seventh marathon, so I’ve spent this week dialing my mileage back and focusing on rest and hydration to give my body the best chance to shake the illness before race day.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

But how can you be sure your watch is tracking your health correctly? Here are some little tweaks to improve the accuracy of the Vitals app on your watch.<\/p>\n

1. Ensure your watch fits correctly <\/p>\n

This is probably more of an issue if you have wrists as scrawny as mine and you\u2019re wearing an Apple Watch Ultra, but to track correctly, the watch needs to be sitting close to your skin.<\/p>\n

Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.<\/p>\n

Make sure your watch is tight enough to ensure it\u2019s not moving around your wrist when you sleep, but not so tight that it\u2019s cutting off circulation. It should also be sitting above your wrist bone, toward your elbow, not on your wrist bone or leaning toward your hand.<\/p>\n

2. Wear your watch continuously overnight <\/p>\n

The best way for the Vitals app to spot an outlier is to have enough data to establish your baseline. Make sure you wear your Apple Watch to bed every night so it can collect this data.<\/p>\n

If you have a new Apple Watch, the Vitals app will need seven nights of data to establish typical ranges for things like respiratory rate and heart rate.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

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\"Apple\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)3. Make sure you turn sleep tracking on <\/p>\n

You\u2019ll probably already be doing this if you want a sleep score when you wake up, but to see your overnight vitals, make sure your watch is in Sleep Focus. If, like me, you forget to do this, you can set up an automatic Sleep Focus window.<\/p>\n

4. Make sure the required settings are enabled <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not seeing anything in your Vitals app, chances are you need to check that you\u2019ve enabled everything correctly. To do this, head to the Watch app on your iPhone, click on Passcode, and make sure you\u2019ve turned Wrist Detection on. Go to your iPhone and Watch privacy settings and make sure that Heart Rate and fitness tracking are enabled. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth keeping your iPhone and Apple Watch updated with the latest software to ensure you\u2019re getting the most accurate health algorithm.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\"Google\n<\/p>\n

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More from Tom’s Guide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite writing about fitness tech for a living, I\u2019m always surprised when devices strapped to my pulse points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[356,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-621114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-gadgets","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}