Apple appears to be preparing a sleep score feature for the Apple Watch, aiming to provide users with a clearer, single-number metric to assess overall sleep quality. This development was uncovered in the iOS 26 beta code by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser, who discovered an illustration named “Watch Focus Score” inside the Health app. The graphic shows an Apple Watch displaying a score of “84” surrounded by colored bars matching sleep stages (such as awake, REM, and deep sleep), along with familiar sleep-related icons like a moon, stars, and an alarm clock.
Currently, the Apple Watch tracks sleep by breaking it down into REM, Core, and Deep sleep stages, along with basic time-in-bed and awake time metrics. However, unlike many competing wearables—such as Fitbit, Oura Ring, and Garmin—it does not yet provide a composite sleep score that offers an at-a-glance evaluation of sleep quality based on multiple factors. The proposed “Watch Focus Score” might fulfill this gap, possibly integrating additional data like body temperature and heart rate variability to produce a comprehensive assessment of sleep and its impact on daytime focus and readiness.
This feature aligns with Apple’s health ecosystem evolution, which includes the introduction of broader index-based metrics, such as the Vitals app that consolidates various physiological signals. If launched, the sleep score could simplify how Apple Watch users interpret their nightly rest, moving beyond detailed sleep stage graphs to an easy-to-understand number that encourages better sleep habits.
The inclusion of this score in iOS 26, expected to pair with watchOS 26, remains unconfirmed and subject to change, as beta features sometimes fail to reach public release. Nonetheless, it represents a significant potential upgrade to the Apple Watch’s sleep tracking capabilities, bringing it closer in functionality to rival devices that have long offered this critical health insight.
Additional watchOS 26 features reportedly include speaker volume auto-adjustment, wrist flick navigation back to the watch face, message translation, smart workout music selection, and a refreshed Liquid Glass UI design that enhances the interface’s glossy aesthetics.