June 9, 2025
PRESS RELEASE
watchOS 26 delivers extra personalised methods to remain energetic, wholesome, and related
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 Good Stack and Messages are extra clever
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple immediately previewed watchOS 26, providing a ravishing new look and much more intelligence for a extra personalised expertise, to help customers in staying energetic, wholesome, and related. A brand new design with Liquid Glass makes options just like the Good Stack, Management Middle, the Photographs 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 includes a new format, and gives music to hearken to primarily based on a person’s tastes and the exercise sort. watchOS 26 makes on a regular basis interactions much more handy with Good 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 strategies within the Exercise app, and extra intelligence within the Good Stack and Messages, we’re excited in regards to the some ways watchOS 26 will help every person in staying energetic, wholesome, related, and secure all through their day.”
A Lovely New Design
A stunning new software program design with Liquid Glass brings a recent look to watchOS 26. Throughout apps, this new design permits 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. Good Stack widgets, Good Stack hints, notifications, Management Middle, and in-app controls and navigation will undertake the brand new design. The favored Photographs watch face is enhanced with numerals manufactured from Liquid Glass, permitting customers to see much more of their picture.
Apple Intelligence Involves Health with Exercise Buddy
Exercise Buddy is a first-of-its-kind health expertise with Apple Intelligence that comes with a person’s exercise information and their health historical past to generate personalised, motivational insights throughout their session, primarily based on information like coronary heart charge, tempo, distance, Exercise rings, private health milestones, and extra.
For instance, as a person begins a run, Exercise Buddy will give a personalised pep discuss which will remind them of their working mileage for the week to this point, or share how they’re doing in opposition to their Exercise ring targets: “Technique to get out in your run this Wednesday morning. You’re 18 minutes away from closing your Train ring. To this point this week, you’ve run 6 miles. You’re going so as to add to that immediately.”
In the course of 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 primarily based on their health historical past: “Mile 4. You picked up the tempo and ran that final one in 8 minutes and 28 seconds.” “Hey, test this out. Your complete working distance for the yr simply crossed the 200-mile mark! That’s a whole lot of working!”
When a person ends a exercise, Exercise Buddy will recap their exercise stats and congratulate them on their achievements: “Technique 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 charge was 128. That was your longest run of the final 28 days. What is 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 precise power, model, and tone for a exercise.
Exercise Buddy shall be accessible on Apple Watch with Bluetooth headphones, and requires an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone close by. It will likely be accessible beginning in English, throughout a number of the hottest exercise sorts: Out of doors and Indoor Run, Out of doors and Indoor Stroll, Out of doors Cycle, HIIT, and Practical and Conventional Energy Coaching.
Further Updates to the Exercise Expertise
The Exercise app is likely one of the hottest apps on Apple Watch, and in watchOS 26, it debuts the most important replace to its format 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 primarily based on the exercise sort and their preferences.1 Alternatively, customers can see strategies for playlists or podcasts primarily based on what they’ve just lately listened to throughout that exact exercise sort.
The Good Stack Turns into Even Extra Proactive
The Good Stack is designed to assist customers shortly entry essential data from any watch face. In watchOS 26, the Good Stack improves its prediction algorithms by incorporating extra contextual information, sensor information, and information from a person’s routine to supply Good Stack hints, a proactive immediate for actionable strategies which can be instantly helpful. Manufactured from Liquid Glass, Good Stack hints will seem on the show as a mild 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 typical time.
Added Comfort in Messages
Apple Watch now helps Dwell 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 might be immediately translated for the individual they’re having a dialog with. Dwell Translation shall be accessible 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 recommend related actions in Messages utilizing the context of a dialog, like beginning a Verify 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 bunch reward. Customizable Backgrounds set on iPhone may also seem on Apple Watch to make conversations really feel extra private and distinct, and customers can reply to polls proper on their wrist. Good 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 primarily based 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 test 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 investigate 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 instances when the person’s different hand is occupied, akin to when strolling the canine, cooking, or holding a cup of espresso.
Apple Watch may now routinely regulate the speaker quantity primarily based on the ambient noise in a person’s environment for notifications, timers, alarms, incoming calls, and Siri, permitting them to remain related 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 may 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 Cellphone app, when an iPhone is close by. When a person is ready for a reside agent, Maintain Help acknowledges as soon as a reside agent is offered and notifies the person to return to the decision.5 Name Screening helps customers handle incoming cellphone calls from unknown numbers extra effectively by accumulating a reputation and purpose for the decision earlier than their cellphone rings, to allow them to make an knowledgeable determination on whether or not to choose up, decline the decision, or ask for extra data.6
- For customers who’re deaf or laborious of listening to, Dwell Hear controls come to Apple Watch with a brand new set of options, together with real-time Dwell 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 Dwell Hear periods on a paired iPhone, or bounce again right into a session to seize one thing which will have been missed.
- The Photographs face will now shuffle pictures primarily based on Featured content material from Photographs, so customers can see pictures of their most significant moments each time they elevate 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 in a position to reap the benefits of new APIs in watchOS 26 throughout design, the Good Stack, and extra. Builders can use new SwiftUI APIs to undertake the gorgeous 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 Good Stack widget, and the Good Stack Relevance API permits third-party widgets to be added to the Good Stack with new indicators like Factors of Curiosity, with person permission to include location information. For instance, the Good 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 choosing up their iPhone.
Availability
All of those options can be found for testing beginning immediately by way of the Apple Developer Program at developer.apple.com, and a public beta shall be accessible by way of the Apple Beta Software program Program subsequent month at beta.apple.com. watchOS 26 shall be accessible this fall as a free software program replace for Apple Watch Sequence 6 or later, Apple Watch SE (2nd era), and all Apple Watch Extremely fashions, paired with iPhone 11 or later, working iOS 26. The Apple Intelligence options detailed require supported units, which embody 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 vary. Some options is probably not accessible in all languages or areas, and availability could range because of native legal guidelines and laws. For extra details about availability, go to apple.com.
About Apple
Apple revolutionized private expertise with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. At the moment, 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 units and empower folks with breakthrough companies 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 automated music choice.
- Dwell Translation in Messages shall be accessible on Apple Watch Sequence 9, Apple Watch Sequence 10, and Apple Watch Extremely 2 when paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone. Dwell Translation in Messages helps English (U.S., UK), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain), and Chinese language (simplified).
- Updates to Good Replies shall be accessible on Apple Watch Sequence 9, Apple Watch Sequence 10, and Apple Watch Extremely 2.
- Computerized quantity adjustment shall be accessible 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).
- Dwell Captions help 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