watchOS 26 preview: It is the little issues

At WWDC 2025, Apple introduced it was changing the sequential numbering for OS variations and with 12 months numbers. So as an alternative of watchOS 12, I’ve spent the previous two weeks with the general public beta of watchOS 26. The naming scheme shift is delicate, however useful — which is how I’d describe the upgrades the brand new software program brings to the Apple Watch. The AI-powered Exercise Buddy higher contextualizes your Health knowledge and an added gesture offers the watch a enjoyable trick that’s really useful. Different upgrades — together with higher sensible replies and the Liquid Glass remedy — all mix to make the watch work and look a bit higher than it did earlier than. It’s not a game-changing shift, like other OS 26 releases, but it surely manages to make an excellent watch a contact higher.

Luminous Liquid Glass

Each Apple working system acquired the Liquid Glass treatment this 12 months, together with watchOS 26. The change is much less noticeable on the Apple Watch than on the iPhone or iPad, although. You’ll discover the semi-transparent buttons and flowy motion when coming into your password and opening the management middle — the icons appear to be they’re surrounded in little drops of water, which is sort of fairly. You’ll see it on the Pictures watch face, too, particularly if you choose the “glass” colour for the time readout.

The Good Stack now has a liminal glow and the app icons are likewise a contact extra luminous than earlier than. The impact is delicate and properly unifies the look of the watch and its companion iPhone. Like all design upgrades, Liquid Glass made me really feel like I used to be utilizing a brand new watch — although, like all the pieces, the novelty wore off after per week or two.

Revamped Exercise app combines AI stats with a DJ

Along with the Buddy, the Exercise app has a brand new look with icons in every of the 4 corners of the display that offer you simpler entry to regulate your knowledge view, play music, set targets and tweak Buddy settings. My favourite new characteristic is within the music menu and it’s restricted to Apple Music for now. When you faucet the music icon, you’ve gotten the choice to auto-play music. From there, you can too choose “Picked for you” or “Select media.” The previous will choose music that matches the kind of exercise you’re doing and what you prefer to take heed to. As somebody who will get derailed from just about all my duties when I’ve to work together with my telephone, I respect something that may make selections for me and stop me from reaching for it.

I used to be offered with peppy beats that matched the cadence of my run, from bands and artists that had been acquainted in addition to new-to-me picks that match my tastes. Sadly, it didn’t all the time work accurately. Typically I’d get no music, different occasions the music would play however the Exercise Buddy would fall silent. I understand I’m testing a public beta of watchOS 26, so I’m holding out hope the characteristic will work at launch. As a result of when it labored, it was wonderful.

The brand new Exercise Buddy might be the most important AI play in watchOS 26. It makes use of historic and real-time knowledge collected by your watch to present you a window into the way you’re performing at the start, finish and all through a exercise. It really works for strolling, operating, biking and different exercises however requires headphones and a close-by Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone. That gave me pause. I hate carrying stuff and/or sticking issues in my ears after I run. However after buying some open earbuds and digging out my outdated Spibelt, I made it work.

There are three voices to select from as of this writing, a shiny female choice, a British male-sounding one and one other female-presenting model with a decrease register. These had been constructed on vocal knowledge from Health+ trainers and have an genuine sound to them. At first of a exercise, you’ll get a short pep speak together with some latest milestones. My pre-game strolling and operating talks included references to the day of the week, my location and accrued health knowledge. For instance, “Method to get on the market on a Wednesday morning stroll in Albuquerque. Up to now this week, you’ve executed three strolling exercises. Let’s get in some steps!”

Relying on the kind of train, you may set goal ranges for cadence, coronary heart fee, velocity, distance, energy (biking), time and others. Throughout a exercise, the AI will let you realize in case you’re at, under or above these ranges. The primary time I attempted Exercise Buddy, my run was fairly lonely. I didn’t understand I needed to activate the Buddy, in addition to the assorted objective metrics inside the Exercise app. I did that and, on my subsequent run, the AI delivered cadence and coronary heart fee updates, and let me know after I hit milestones like distance and length.

On the finish of a exercise, you’ll see a pondering animation because the AI assembles a abstract. It’ll recap knowledge like your tempo, distance, common and peak coronary heart fee, in addition to progress in your Exercise rings. It’ll additionally level out comparisons or cumulative milestones you’ll have hit. For instance, after an extended stroll, it advised me that I’d simply burned probably the most energy on a stroll to date. One other day, it advised me I’d walked ten miles to date this week. It closes the replace by encouraging you to take the vitality into the remainder of your day or one thing equally constructive however measured.

That’s a giant enchancment over the primary few occasions I used the characteristic. My first few pep talks had been cloying, telling me one thing alongside the traces of “It’s not simple to get on the market early within the morning!” and “Your effort is inspiring!” After I ended a run early to fuss with settings, it advised me I did a “Nice job!” on a three-minute run. Fortunately, Apple seems to be tweaking the Buddy behind the scenes, calibrating the AI’s “persona.” Current pep talks have change into noticeably much less sycophantic and due to this fact extra fulfilling. I think about the Buddy will solely proceed to evolve much more from right here.

The Exercise Buddy is just not a coach

The Exercise Buddy is a motivational expertise that gives customized insights you need to use to gauge your efficiency. However I simply completed attempting out Samsung’s AI running coach on the Galaxy Watch and couldn’t assist evaluating the 2. That coach pushed me to run 5 kilometers for the primary time in my life. The Buddy made me really feel like I’d achieved one thing particular simply by taking my canine on a stroll. Each have their place, however I’d say Apple’s model might be greatest for individuals who already know what their targets are and what they should do to hit them. Samsung’s model could also be higher for newcomers who need some assist shaping their health journey.

Along with the Buddy, the Exercise app has a brand new look with icons in every of the 4 corners of the display that offer you simpler entry to regulate your knowledge view, play music, set targets and tweak Buddy settings. My favourite new characteristic is within the music menu and it’s restricted to Apple Music for now. When you faucet the music icon, you’ve gotten the choice to auto-play music. From there, you can too choose “Picked for you” or “Select media.” The previous will choose music that matches the kind of exercise you’re doing and what you prefer to take heed to. As somebody who will get derailed from just about all my duties when I’ve to work together with my telephone, I respect something that may make selections for me and stop me from reaching for it.

I used to be offered with peppy beats that matched the cadence of my run, from bands and artists that had been acquainted in addition to new-to-me picks that match my tastes. Sadly, it didn’t all the time work accurately. Typically I’d get no music, different occasions the music would play however the Exercise Buddy would fall silent. I understand I’m testing a public beta of watchOS 26, so I’m holding out hope the characteristic will work at launch. As a result of when it labored, it was wonderful.

Extra hands-free enjoyable with wrist flick

I like the double faucet gesture Apple introduced with the Apple Watch Sequence 9 — it’s a pleasure to cease timers, begin auto-detected exercises and reply calls with out getting my different hand concerned. However it took some observe earlier than I may reliably get the watch to acknowledge the gesture. (The trick is elevating your wrist in an exaggerated checking-the-time movement then rapidly, however not too rapidly, tapping your thumb and finger collectively twice.)

Fortunately, the brand new Wrist Flick movement launched in watchOS 26 takes virtually no effort to get proper. It includes rapidly turning the again of your wrist away from you and again up once more. Doing that may silence a name, cease a ringing timer, dismiss notifications and return you to the watch face from any app you open. It additionally makes these irritating useful “Time to face!” reminders go away. The wrist flick doesn’t clear alerts, simply dismisses them — so the crimson indicator dot disappears, however the notification stays and you’ll see it in case you swipe down. Simply observe that it’s solely obtainable to Apple Watch Sequence 9, 10 and the Extremely 2.

Wrist flick is a superb characteristic — although it is necessary to notice that Android wearables since WearOS 2 had an identical characteristic for some time now. And I’d prefer to see Apple undertake extra hands-free interactions like this. Apple already has many gesture-based controls as a part of its current AssistiveTouch characteristic. Actions like fist clenches, wrist tilts and single or double faucets can management a lot of the navigation on the watch. Sadly, turning on AssistiveTouch turns off the common double faucet characteristic. I’d be eager about seeing one thing that splits the distinction. Maybe 4 or 5 gestures for primary features that can be utilized at the side of display enter.

Smarter replies may make Messages a usable watch app

The Apple Watch is nice for studying texts, however replying is awkward. That tiny keyboard is an interface for ants — even talk-to-text enter is inefficient because it’s powerful to right errors. Good Replies are little canned responses that seem as ideas under the reply subject. These aren’t new, however now Sequence 9 watches and later will use an improved on-device language mannequin to provide you with related bits of textual content you may ship with a faucet.

Along with the alternatives which might be all the time provided — Okay, Sure, No, Thanks and Can I name you later? — I noticed issues like “Okay, let me know” and “That’s so candy!” each of which utilized to their respective conversations. I wasn’t all the time given Good Reply ideas, and a few of them weren’t very related, however once more, it’s an excellent characteristic that may save time when it really works.

One other Messages replace is a carryover from iOS 26 (and borrowed from numerous different messaging apps). Now you can set customized backgrounds for every of your (Apple-only) contacts. Simply observe that no matter you set might be seen by all members within the dialog, as soon as they replace to iOS 26. In your watch, the photograph, gradient or sample you choose carries over to your conversations. Not solely does it look good, I discover backgrounds assist me to not by accident textual content my mother one thing I meant to ship to my sister.

Notes have arrived

The Notes app is now on Apple Watch. I actually hadn’t observed the shortage earlier than this — I do know there are many Notes enthusiasts on the market, however in my world, Alexa handles all reminder and buying listing duties. Nonetheless, I can see how the brand new integration may come in useful. After making a easy buying guidelines within the iOS Notes app, I opened the listing on my watch whereas I used to be buying and located it far simpler to verify issues off on my wrist than dragging out my telephone each time I caught one thing in my cart.

I’m curious to see whether or not Apple’s improved prediction algorithms for the brand new OS will finally add Notes to my Good Stack ideas after I open the Notes app just a few occasions on the grocery retailer. Because it stands now, the Notes widget will pop up first within the Good Stack if that’s the final app you used.

The remainder of the brand new stuff

Face Gallery

The iPhone Watch app has a brand new look and now organizes watch faces by class as an alternative of by title. Groupings embrace New, Clear, Information-rich, Pictures and Well being and Health, amongst others. It’s definitely an enchancment, however one which makes you surprise why it wasn’t all the time like this.

Adaptive sound

One other nice-but-obvious replace adjusts the amount of pings and beeps to suit the setting — quieter in a noiseless workplace and louder at a raucous BBQ. I set a timer to go off after I was quietly working at my desk after which once more with loud music taking part in and I couldn’t actually inform the distinction. However that’s a tough metric for the common-or-garden human ear to evaluate. Once more, it is a characteristic reserved for Sequence 9 fashions and later.

Good Stack

The Good Stack will now add a small immediate to your watch face when it detects sure conditions. For instance, in case you open the digicam app in your telephone, a small digicam icon seems on the backside of your watch display, as a suggestion to open the distant shutter. Apple offers different examples, akin to exhibiting the exercise icon whenever you arrive at your typical pilates studio or the Backtrack navigation characteristic whenever you journey away from mobile connectivity.

I didn’t see the immediate fairly often, however I did discover that the Good Stack rearranged itself in accordance with my habits — akin to placing the remedy widget on the high of the stack proper across the time it was time to take my prescription, or shuffling Shazam to the highest when it hears music taking part in.

Siri remains to be Siri

Coming recent off of reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, I can’t assist however discover a stark distinction between that wearable’s totally built-in, AI-powered Gemini and Apple’s same-old Siri. Gemini on the Samsung watch helped me discover new stuff in my metropolis, carried out convoluted duties and answered some fairly esoteric questions. I exploit Siri on my watch to reliably set timers, textual content individuals and add occasions to my calendar. However it’s not fairly on the extent of Gemini’s contextually-aware, generative capabilities that may work together with a number of apps. Asking one thing like “The place ought to I’ve lunch?” gave me an inventory of companies with lunch within the title adopted by Siri asking me: “Which one?” Undecided what that meant. Gemini, alternatively, gave me native and related concepts for locations I’d really wish to eat.

Even earlier than AI swallowed everybody’s thoughts, I had a tender spot for digital assistants. When Alexa sings the “You’re very, very, oh so very welcome” tune, I get a dopey smile on my face. I’ve tried to like Siri, however I get pissed off by being misunderstood, misdirected, misheard and flat-out ignored. I do know Apple doesn’t prefer to launch new tech till it’s totally as much as snuff, and I’m wanting ahead to seeing what lastly occurs with new Siri. However for now, the disparity reveals.

Wrap-up

The adjustments watchOS 26 brings to the Apple Watch are maybe not as grand as these for different Apple units. Liquid Glass right here isn’t as all-encompassing as it is on the iPhone. The brand new watch options don’t make the wearable lastly understand its full potential like iPad OS 26 does for the pill. And there isn’t one main characteristic improve that transforms the watch expertise, like macOS 26 does with Spotlight on Macs.

However the updates do push the expertise of utilizing the watch ahead. Liquid Glass is fairly and properly ties the wearable with its companion units. The Exercise app, which was already good at monitoring health metrics, is even higher with the Exercise Buddy, offering stat summaries and automatic playlists. Improved sensible replies for Messages and the addition of the Notes app repair two of the watch’s earlier shortcomings. And the wrist flick provides an alternative choice for hands-free interplay and — I hope — is a precursor to extra such utility. I’m nonetheless holding out hope for an improved, personable and useful Siri as soon as Apple is prepared, however for now, these are all welcome upgrades for what’s already the business’s greatest general smartwatch.