June 9, 2025
PRESS RELEASE
watchOS 26 delivers extra personalised methods to remain lively, wholesome, and linked
A brand new software program design makes utilizing Apple Watch much more pleasant, Exercise Buddy brings a first-of-its-kind exercise expertise with Apple Intelligence, and the Sensible Stack and Messages are extra clever
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple immediately previewed watchOS 26, providing an exquisite new look and much more intelligence for a extra personalised expertise, to assist customers in staying lively, wholesome, and linked. A brand new design with Liquid Glass makes options just like the Sensible Stack, Management Middle, the Images watch face, and in-app navigation and controls extra expressive, whereas sustaining the moment familiarity of watchOS. Apple Intelligence enhances the health expertise with Exercise Buddy, which supplies personalised, spoken motivation. The Exercise app incorporates a new structure, and provides music to take heed to based mostly on a person’s tastes and the exercise kind. watchOS 26 makes on a regular basis interactions much more handy with Sensible Stack hints and updates to Messages, and introduces a brand new one-handed wrist flick gesture to simply dismiss notifications.
“Apple Watch is an indispensable companion for tens of millions of individuals all over the world, and watchOS 26 makes use of intelligence to supply an much more personalised expertise,” mentioned David Clark, Apple’s senior director of watchOS Engineering. “From a beautiful new design, to Exercise Buddy with Apple Intelligence, personalised music options within the Exercise app, and extra intelligence within the Sensible Stack and Messages, we’re excited concerning the some ways watchOS 26 will assist every person in staying lively, wholesome, linked, and secure all through their day.”
A Stunning New Design
A stunning new software program design with Liquid Glass brings a contemporary look to watchOS 26. Throughout apps, this new design allows a vibrant and expressive expertise that displays and refracts content material utilizing real-time rendering, which brings much more focus to content material and makes utilizing Apple Watch much more pleasant. Sensible Stack widgets, Sensible Stack hints, notifications, Management Middle, and in-app controls and navigation will undertake the brand new design. The favored Images watch face is enhanced with numerals fabricated from Liquid Glass, permitting customers to see much more of their photograph.
Apple Intelligence Involves Health with Exercise Buddy
Exercise Buddy is a first-of-its-kind health expertise with Apple Intelligence that includes a person’s exercise information and their health historical past to generate personalised, motivational insights throughout their session, based mostly on information like coronary heart fee, tempo, distance, Exercise rings, private health milestones, and extra.
For instance, as a person begins a run, Exercise Buddy will give a customized pep discuss that will remind them of their operating mileage for the week to date, or share how they’re doing in opposition to their Exercise ring objectives: “Approach to get out in your run this Wednesday morning. You’re 18 minutes away from closing your Train ring. To date this week, you’ve run 6 miles. You’re going so as to add to that immediately.”
Throughout the exercise, Exercise Buddy can mark key moments like their mile splits, or inform them in the event that they hit a brand new milestone based mostly on their health historical past: “Mile 4. You picked up the tempo and ran that final one in 8 minutes and 28 seconds.” “Hey, verify this out. Your whole operating distance for the yr simply crossed the 200-mile mark! That’s numerous operating!”
When a person ends a exercise, Exercise Buddy will recap their exercise stats and congratulate them on their achievements: “Approach to get your exercise in! You went 4.3 miles in simply over 38 minutes. Your common tempo was 8 minutes and 58 seconds, and your common coronary heart fee was 128. That was your longest run of the final 28 days. What’s going to you do subsequent?”
To supply significant inspiration in actual time, Exercise Buddy analyzes information privately and securely, with Apple Intelligence. A brand new text-to-speech mannequin then interprets insights right into a dynamic generative voice constructed utilizing voice information from Health+ trainers, so it has the suitable power, fashion, and tone for a exercise.
Exercise Buddy will probably be obtainable on Apple Watch with Bluetooth headphones, and requires an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone close by. It is going to be obtainable beginning in English, throughout a number of the hottest exercise varieties: Out of doors and Indoor Run, Out of doors and Indoor Stroll, Out of doors Cycle, HIIT, and Purposeful and Conventional Energy Coaching.
Further Updates to the Exercise Expertise
The Exercise app is among the hottest apps on Apple Watch, and in watchOS 26, it debuts the most important replace to its structure and navigation since its introduction. 4 new buttons within the corners of the app make it simpler for customers to entry their favourite options to customise exercises, like Exercise Views, Customized Exercise, Pacer, Race Route, and extra.
So as to add inspiration, customers can arrange music and podcasts proper within the Exercise app to routinely play after they begin a exercise. For customers’ comfort, Apple Music can now choose the most effective playlist for a person’s exercise based mostly on the exercise kind and their preferences.1 Alternatively, customers can see options for playlists or podcasts based mostly on what they’ve just lately listened to throughout that exact exercise kind.
The Sensible Stack Turns into Even Extra Proactive
The Sensible Stack is designed to assist customers shortly entry necessary data from any watch face. In watchOS 26, the Sensible Stack improves its prediction algorithms by incorporating extra contextual information, sensor information, and information from a person’s routine to offer Sensible Stack hints, a proactive immediate for actionable options which might be instantly helpful. Product of Liquid Glass, Sensible Stack hints will seem on the show as a delicate visible immediate. For instance, a touch for Backtrack could seem when a person is in a distant location with no connectivity, or a touch for a Pilates exercise could present up when a person arrives at a studio location at their standard time.
Added Comfort in Messages
Apple Watch now helps Stay Translation in Messages with Apple Intelligence, permitting incoming texts to be routinely translated right into a person’s most popular language, proper on their wrist.2 And when the person responds, their texts will be immediately translated for the individual they’re having a dialog with. Stay Translation will probably be obtainable on Apple Watch Sequence 9, Apple Watch Sequence 10, and Apple Watch Extremely 2, with an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone.
Moreover, for customers whose gadget language is ready to English, Apple Watch will intelligently counsel related actions in Messages utilizing the context of a dialog, like beginning a Examine In when a good friend asks a person to share after they arrive residence, or utilizing Apple Money when a person is requested to contribute to a gaggle present. Customizable Backgrounds set on iPhone may even seem on Apple Watch to make conversations really feel extra private and distinct, and customers can reply to polls proper on their wrist. Sensible Replies get much more exact for customers whose gadget language is ready to English, with an improved on-device language mannequin that may generate related responses based mostly on the content material of a dialog.3
Notifications Are Simpler to Handle
Notifications are even simpler to handle with a easy wrist flick gesture on Apple Watch Sequence 9, Apple Watch Sequence 10, and Apple Watch Extremely 2. When a person raises their wrist to verify a notification however isn’t prepared to reply, they will shortly flip their wrist over and again to dismiss the notification. The wrist flick gesture can be utilized to dismiss notifications and incoming calls, silence timers and alarms, and return to the watch face. It makes use of the accelerometer and the gyroscope — together with a machine studying mannequin — to research a person’s wrist motion. Wrist flick joins the double faucet gesture to permit customers to do much more on Apple Watch with just one hand, for occasions when the person’s different hand is occupied, resembling when strolling the canine, cooking, or holding a cup of espresso.
Apple Watch can even now routinely modify the speaker quantity based mostly on the ambient noise in a person’s environment for notifications, timers, alarms, incoming calls, and Siri, permitting them to remain linked with out worrying about disturbing these round them.4
Further updates in watchOS 26:
- The Notes app involves Apple Watch, permitting customers to entry their notes proper on their wrist. Customers can even pin and unlock notes, full guidelines objects, and create new notes with Siri, dictation, and the keyboard.
- Maintain Help and Name Screening come to the Telephone app, when an iPhone is close by. When a person is ready for a dwell agent, Maintain Help acknowledges as soon as a dwell agent is out there and notifies the person to return to the decision.5 Name Screening helps customers handle incoming telephone calls from unknown numbers extra effectively by gathering a reputation and cause for the decision earlier than their telephone rings, to allow them to make an knowledgeable resolution on whether or not to choose up, decline the decision, or ask for extra data.6
- For customers who’re deaf or arduous of listening to, Stay Pay attention controls come to Apple Watch with a brand new set of options, together with real-time Stay Captions of what their iPhone hears on a paired Apple Watch whereas listening to the audio.7 Apple Watch serves as a distant management to start out or cease Stay Pay attention classes on a paired iPhone, or leap again right into a session to seize one thing that will have been missed.
- The Images face will now shuffle photographs based mostly on Featured content material from Images, so customers can see photographs of their most significant moments each time they increase their wrist or faucet the show.
- Customers can now discover and uncover watch faces extra simply with the redesigned watch face gallery on Apple Watch and within the Watch app on iPhone, with faces grouped into collections.
New Instruments for Builders
Builders are capable of reap the benefits of new APIs in watchOS 26 throughout design, the Sensible Stack, and extra. Builders can use new SwiftUI APIs to undertake the attractive new design supplies of watchOS 26. With the Management Widget API, builders can create customized controls to be added to the Management Middle, Motion Button, or Sensible Stack widget, and the Sensible Stack Relevance API permits third-party widgets to be added to the Sensible Stack with new indicators like Factors of Curiosity, with person permission to include location information. For instance, the Sensible Stack can intelligently present a widget for Slopes when customers arrive at a ski resort with improved location APIs, and now Darkish Noise can add a customized management to Management Middle so customers can simply activate a sleep soundscape with out selecting up their iPhone.
Availability
All of those options can be found for testing beginning immediately via the Apple Developer Program at developer.apple.com, and a public beta will probably be obtainable via the Apple Beta Software program Program subsequent month at beta.apple.com. watchOS 26 will probably be obtainable this fall as a free software program replace for Apple Watch Sequence 6 or later, Apple Watch SE (2nd technology), and all Apple Watch Extremely fashions, paired with iPhone 11 or later, operating iOS 26. The Apple Intelligence options detailed require supported gadgets, which embrace all iPhone 16 fashions, iPhone 15 Professional, and iPhone 15 Professional Max which have Apple Intelligence enabled and Siri and gadget language set to the identical supported language. Options are topic to alter. Some options might not be obtainable in all languages or areas, and availability could fluctuate on account of native legal guidelines and laws. For extra details about availability, go to apple.com.
About Apple
Apple revolutionized private know-how with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. As we speak, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. Apple’s six software program platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — present seamless experiences throughout all Apple gadgets and empower folks with breakthrough providers together with the App Retailer, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple TV+. Apple’s greater than 150,000 workers are devoted to creating the most effective merchandise on earth and to leaving the world higher than we discovered it.
- Apple Music subscription is required for computerized music choice.
- Stay Translation in Messages will probably be obtainable on Apple Watch Sequence 9, Apple Watch Sequence 10, and Apple Watch Extremely 2 when paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone. Stay Translation in Messages helps English (U.S., UK), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain), and Chinese language (simplified).
- Updates to Sensible Replies will probably be obtainable on Apple Watch Sequence 9, Apple Watch Sequence 10, and Apple Watch Extremely 2.
- Automated quantity adjustment will probably be obtainable on Apple Watch Sequence 9, Apple Watch Sequence 10, and Apple Watch Extremely 2.
- Maintain Help requires iPhone close by, and helps English (U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, UK), French (France), German (Germany), Japanese, Mandarin Chinese language (China mainland), Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (U.S., Mexico, Spain).
- Name Screening requires iPhone close by, and helps Cantonese (China mainland, Hong Kong, Macao), English (U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Eire, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, UK), French (Canada, France), German (Germany), Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese language (China mainland, Macao, Taiwan), Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain).
- Stay Captions assist English (U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, UK), German (Germany), French (Canada, France), Spanish (U.S., Mexico, Spain), Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese language (China mainland), and Cantonese (China mainland, Hong Kong).
Press Contacts
Nikki Rothberg
Apple
Clare Varellas
Apple
Apple Media Helpline
