A Little More Freedom From Smart Watches

One of the major features of having an Apple Watch I’ve always enjoyed was being able to track workouts. I like the challenge of attempting to close my rings every day. Getting up and going for a long, hard walk has had some benefits in both physical and mental health for me. I’ve often said walks are my zen time.

More and more, however, I’ve pondered the idea of not wearing a smart watch and leaning more into traditional watches. Is this a situation where I only wear the Apple Watch when I’m working out? Well, now, apparently I don’t have to.

One of the sleeper features of Apple’s iOS 26 update is the ability to track workouts in the Fitness app on the iPhone. All you need is something that tracks your heart rate, whether that’s a smart watch, fitness watch (like a Garmin), or a chest-worn heart rate monitor. Apple even states anything that tracks heart rate will work, so I wonder if Oura or Ultrahuman rings would even work for this. But, this does include the new AirPods Pro 3 and newer Beats headphones, which have heart rate sensors in them.

I love there are more options for this now. I’ve often felt held captive to my Apple Watch, to the point I feel a peace when I don’t have it on. Now, I can leave it at home when I want to go for a walk, and that’s kind of nice.