Photo by: StockSnap via Pixabay

In a bid to broaden the capabilities of the Apple Watch from just being a fitness tracker, Apple has given third-party app developers access to winter sports tracking, according to Monica Chin reporting for Mashable.

Several apps such as snoww, Slopes, Squaw Alpine, Snocru and Ski Tracks are developing updates that will allow Apple Watch to record metrics associated with skiing and snowboarding performance.These metrics include total vertical descent and distance, number of runs, average and maximum speeds, total time spent and calories burned.

Apple’s latest move was lauded by the heads of several app development companies.Among them is Eddie Healey, founder of snoww, who said he risked getting cold hands, dropping a glove or a cellphone when he wanted to check his stats on a chairlift.On the other hand, Slopes founder Curtis Herbert said his users found it wonderful that they do not have to take off their gloves and take out their cellphones to check on stats and notifications.

Previously, an iPhone was used to monitor the performance of skiers and snowboarders who found it cumbersome carrying and operating a cell phone together with the ski poles.  

Credit towards activity rings is now given to skiing and skateboarding enthusiasts, whose workout information are recorded on Apple’s Health app.Siri integration is offered by several apps, enabling users to use their voices to start and stop tracking.Several also have interesting features, such as tracking friends or their children in the same ski area or listing the chairlifts and trails that skiers have already used.

Apple had rolled out the application programming interface for such tracking with the watchOS 4.2 in December 2017.But the catch is that tracking can only be done with the Apple Watch Series 3, which features a barometric altimeter.