watchOS 11.4 Will Make Sure You Don't Miss Alarms

With the watchOS 11.4 update that's set to be released soon, Apple is making a small but useful change to the way that alarms work on the Apple Watch.

The update includes an option to allow the Wake Up alarm you set up for Sleep mode to break through when Silent Mode is activated on your watch, which means you'll be less likely to sleep through your alarm going off.

Right now, if you have Silent Mode turned on, your Apple Watch alarm will use haptic feedback vibrations to tap you on the wrist to wake you, but it won't make noise. Some people are able to easily sleep through the gentle tapping of the alarm, but a loud noise is harder to ignore.

The Break Through Silent Mode option can be found by going to the Sleep app on Apple Watch, tapping on Sounds & Haptics, and toggling on the setting. From there, wearing the Apple Watch to bed will cause the Apple Watch alarm to use both sound and haptic feedback to wake you up.

You can also turn on the Break Through Silent Mode option by opening up the Alarm app and tapping any active alarm you have set up.

watchOS 11.4 also includes support for Matter-compatible robot vacuum cleaners, and it solves an issue where face selection could become unresponsive when switching faces.

Apple provided developers with the watchOS 11.4 release candidate version today, and that represents the final version of watchOS 11.4 that will go out to the public should no additional issues be found. We're expecting watchOS 11.4 to launch in early April, as soon as next week.