Apple Watch 6 could be made for you if you love yoga

Apple Watch 5 review
The Apple Watch 6 might track yoga better than the Apple Watch 5 (above) (Image credit: TechRadar)

The Apple Watch 5 is already a great health and fitness device, but it’s likely that the upcoming Apple Watch 6 will be even better, and one aspect that might be improved is yoga tracking.

That’s based on a patent that Apple was recently granted, and which was spotted by Patently Apple. Titled ‘Pose and heart rate energy expenditure for yoga’, the patent details methods of more accurately tracking a user’s energy expenditure during yoga.

It would do this in a number of ways, using heart rate and motion data to help work out the type of pose you’re doing and therefore the likely energy you’re expending. Intriguingly, the patent also mentions taking a skin temperature reading to work out if you’re doing hot yoga, and then adjusting the measurements accordingly.

Apple Watch yoga patent

(Image credit: Apple / Patently Apple)

The Apple Watch can already track yoga, but it sounds like the systems outlined in this patent would allow for more detailed and accurate tracking. Given that much of the tracking functionality depends on just motion and heart rate data, this could well land as a software update to existing Apple Watch models, perhaps as part of watchOS 7.

However, current models can’t read your skin temperature, so that aspect of the feature would likely be reserved for a future Apple Watch such as the Apple Watch 6 – and if Apple does add some form of thermometer to the Apple Watch 6 then it’s likely to be used beyond just yoga tracking.

That said, a patent being granted doesn’t guarantee that a feature will ever see the light of day, and with this patent being granted this close to the likely September launch of the Apple Watch 6 and watchOS 7, we might not actually see these features until the Apple Watch 7, if we see them all.

Still, it’s entirely possible that yoga tracking will get an upgrade on the Apple Watch sooner rather than later, so watch this space.

TOPICS

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

Latest in Smartwatches
Garmin Instinct 3 in Neotropic Green
"I'm an idiot": Garmin user reveals how fixing one setting completely changed their training after months of making no progress
A garmin forerrunner 55 on an orange background with the phrase lowest price
Sprint! The best cheap Garmin for runners is back down to its lowest-ever price
Half-Life running on a smartwatch
This Redditor installed a game engine on their smartwatch, and now it runs Doom, Quake, and Half-Life
Apple Watch Series 10 experience
How can we make wearables more sustainable, and is it even possible?
Apple watch pair with iphone
I've been wearing an Apple Watch for 10 years – these are the 5 settings I change right out of the box
Garmin Instinct 3 next to the Apple Watch Ultra 2
New figures claim the smartwatch market just shrunk for the first time ever, and the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is to blame
Latest in News
Google Pixel 8a in aloe green showing
Google Pixel 9a benchmark link teases the performance of the upcoming mid-ranger
Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand
Quordle hints and answers for Monday, March 17 (game #1148)
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, March 17 (game #379)
NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, March 17 (game #645)
Apple iPhone 16 Pro HANDS ON
Leaked iPhone 17 dummy units may have given us our best look yet at all four models
A super close up image of the Google Gemini app in the Play Store
It's official: Google Assistant will be retired for phones this year, with Gemini taking over