Your Apple Watch will soon get a new award to keep you active through the holidays alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake) | usagoldmines.com

• Apple will soon introduce a new award for Apple Watch users in iOS 18.2
• This recognizes people who consistently close their activity rings
• There are awards for 100, 365, 500, and 1,000 days and higher

The holiday period is traditionally a time for rest and relaxation at the end of a long year, but if you’ve got one of the best Apple Watches and love to hit your activity goals every day, that’s not always the case. Now, Apple is set to reward your dedication to health with a new set of rewards that recognize long-term achievements.

As spotted by Mohammad Aldarawish on X (via MacRumors), in the forthcoming iOS 18.2 update, Apple is adding a new series of Apple Watch awards titled “All Rings Closed”. These are dished out when you close all three rings on your Apple Watch (those for movement, exercise and standing) on consecutive days, motivating you to keep pushing and maintain your streak.

The All Rings Closed awards mark 100, 365, 500, and 1,000 days. After 1,000 days, you’ll receive an All Rings Closed accolade for every subsequent 250 days that you close your rings, starting at 1,250 days.

You can earn these awards retroactively, so if you’ve been closing your rings every day for the 3,500 or so days it’s been since the first Apple Watch launched, your effort will be duly recognized. iOS 18.2 is expected to land in mid-December, potentially on December 9, so the feature could land just in time for you to create a streak through the holidays.

Maintaining your streak

Apple frequently adds new awards to the Apple Watch to mark certain events, holidays and activities. You could earn a special badge for working out on August 25 to commemorate America’s National Parks, for example, while a mindfulness practice on October 10 would score you a Mental Health Awareness Day award.

At the same time, Apple has adjusted its approach in watchOS 11 by enabling you to take a day off and still maintain your streak, which is ideal if you are injured, tired, on vacation, or otherwise unable to be active.

The company also introduced a new feature that lets you set different activity goals on different days of the week, giving you more flexibility and ensuring the Apple Watch adapts to your life, not the other way around.

Put together, that all means there’s plenty of motivation to continue your streak thanks to the new awards, while you also get the freedom to tweak your goals as required. That should bode well going into the holiday period.

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