Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025 has kicked off, and with it has come a wave of software updates. For Apple Watch users, watchOS 26 represents a significant overhaul poised to make the wearable companion more intuitive, personalized, and delightful to use. Let’s dive into what watchOS 26 has in store.
A Stunning New Look: Introducing “Liquid Glass”
The most immediately noticeable change in watchOS 26 is the new “Liquid Glass” software design. Apple will be rolling out this new design language across each of its devices and operations systems. But Liquid Glass isn’t just a minor visual tweak; it’s a fresh aesthetic that permeates the entirety of these new operating systems. To read more about Liquid Glass, check out our dedicated blog post covering the new design language.
Users will see Liquid Glass applied to Smart Stack widgets and the new Smart Stack hints, notifications, the Control Center, and in-app controls and navigation. The popular Photos watch face also receives an elegant update, with numerals now crafted from Liquid Glass, allowing more of the underlying photograph to shine through. This design language appears to be more than just eye candy; by enhancing content visibility and interaction, it aims to make every glance at the Apple Watch more engaging and informative, a crucial aspect for a device built around quick interactions.
Meet Your “Workout Buddy”: Fitness Gets Personal with Apple Intelligence
One of the headline features of watchOS 26 is the introduction of “Workout Buddy,” a “first-of-its-kind fitness experience with Apple Intelligence”. This moves the Apple Watch beyond simple fitness tracking and into the realm of what other devices such as Garmin and Whoop offer with intelligent, personalized coaching. According to Apple, Workout Buddy provides “personalized, spoken motivation” and insights during exercise sessions, drawing on a rich set of data including current workout metrics, historical fitness data, heart rate, pace, distance, Activity ring progress, and personal fitness milestones.
The interactions are designed to be dynamic and encouraging. For instance, at the start of a run, Workout Buddy might offer a personalized pep talk: “Way to get out for your run this Wednesday morning. You’re 18 minutes away from closing your Exercise ring. So far this week, you’ve run 6 miles. You’re going to add to that today”.
During the workout, you’ll continue to receive coaching. It can highlight key moments like mile splits (“Mile four. You picked up the pace and ran that last one in 8 minutes and 28 seconds.”) or celebrate new achievements (“Hey, check this out. Your total running distance for the year just crossed the 200-mile mark! That’s a lot of running!”). Post-workout, it provides a recap and congratulations: “Way to get your workout in! You went 4.3 miles in just over 38 minutes… That was your longest run of the last 28 days. What will you do next?”
To deliver these timely insights, Apple emphasizes that Workout Buddy “analyzes data privately and securely, with Apple Intelligence.” Spoken motivation is delivered via a new text-to-speech model that uses a “dynamic generative voice built using voice data from Fitness+ trainers,” ensuring an energetic and appropriate tone for workouts.
Workout Buddy will be available on Apple Watch when used with Bluetooth headphones and—here’s a downside—requires an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone to be nearby. That means you won’t be able to use Workout Buddy and leave your phone at home when you go for that run or ride. It also means that your nearby iPhone will need to be able to support Apple Intelligence.
Initially, it will support popular workout types like Outdoor and Indoor Run, Outdoor and Indoor Walk, Outdoor Cycle, HIIT, and Functional and Traditional Strength Training, starting in English.
Elevating Your Exercise: Workout App Enhancements
The Workout app, a cornerstone of the Apple Watch experience, receives its “biggest update to its layout and navigation since its introduction” in watchOS 26. Four new buttons positioned in the corners of the app will provide easier access to frequently used features for customizing workouts, such as Workout Views, Custom Workout, Pacer, and Race Route.
Adding to the motivational aspect of Workout Buddy, users can now set up music and podcasts directly within the Workout app to begin playing automatically when a workout starts. For Apple Music subscribers, the integration goes deeper: Apple Music can now “select the best playlist for a user’s workout based on the workout type and their personal tastes”. Alternatively, users will see suggestions for playlists or podcasts based on what they’ve recently listened to during that specific type of workout.
Effortless Control: The New “Wrist Flick”
Interacting with the Apple Watch becomes even more fluid with the introduction of a “simple wrist flick gesture” on Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2. When a notification arrives and a user raises their wrist but isn’t ready to interact, they can “quickly turn their wrist over and back to dismiss the notification”.
This gesture can also be used to dismiss incoming calls, silence timers and alarms, and return to the watch face. It leverages the accelerometer, gyroscope, and a machine learning model to analyze wrist movement. This new gesture joins the existing double tap feature to enhance one-handed usability, which is particularly useful when the other hand is occupied.
Another thoughtful new convenience is the automatic adjustment of speaker volume for notifications, timers, alarms, incoming calls, and Siri based on the ambient noise in the user’s surroundings.
A much-requested addition, the Notes app, finally arrives on Apple Watch. Users can access their notes, pin and unlock important ones, complete checklist items, and create new notes using Siri, dictation, or the keyboard.
The Phone app on Apple Watch also gains Hold Assist and Call Screening features when an iPhone is nearby, helping manage calls more efficiently (language support varies). For accessibility, Live Listen controls come to Apple Watch, including real-time Live Captions of what a paired iPhone hears, offering significant benefits for users who are deaf or hard of hearing (language support varies).
The Smart Stack Just Got Smarter
The Smart Stack, designed for quick access to important information from any watch face, becomes significantly more intelligent in watchOS 26. Its prediction algorithms have been improved by “incorporating more contextual data, sensor data, and data from a user’s routine to provide Smart Stack hints”. These “Smart Stack hints” are described as “a proactive prompt for actionable suggestions that are immediately useful” and will appear on the display as a “gentle visual prompt” rendered in the new Liquid Glass design.
Examples provided by Apple include a hint for Backtrack appearing when a user is in a remote location without connectivity, or a hint for a Pilates workout showing up when a user arrives at their studio at their usual time.
Messages on Your Wrist: Seamless and Intelligent Communication
Communication on the Apple Watch also gets a significant boost with Apple Intelligence. watchOS 26 introduces “Live Translation in Messages,” allowing incoming texts to be automatically translated into the user’s preferred language directly on their wrist. When the user replies, their texts can also be instantly translated for the recipient. This powerful feature will be available on Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 when paired with an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone, with initial support for several languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese.
Additionally, for users with their device language set to English, Apple Watch will intelligently suggest relevant actions within Messages based on conversation context. For example, it might suggest starting a Check In if a friend asks when the user will arrive home, or using Apple Cash if asked to contribute to a group gift.
Customizable backgrounds set on the iPhone will now also appear in Messages on Apple Watch, and users can respond to polls directly from their wrist. Smart Replies are also getting more precise for English language users, thanks to an “improved on-device language model” that generates relevant responses based on conversation content, available on Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
What Else is New in watchOS 26?
Beyond the major headlines, watchOS 26 includes several other refinements:
- The Photos face will now shuffle images based on “Featured content from Photos,” ensuring a fresh look with meaningful moments each time the user raises their wrist.
- Discovering and selecting watch faces will be easier thanks to a redesigned watch face gallery on both the Apple Watch and the Watch app on iPhone, with faces now “grouped into collections”.
- Developers gain new tools, including SwiftUI APIs to adopt the Liquid Glass design, a Control Widget API for creating custom controls in Control Center or the Smart Stack, and the Smart Stack Relevance API. These will allow third-party apps to integrate more deeply, such as a Slopes widget appearing at a ski resort or a Dark Noise control for sleep soundscapes in Control Center. These tools are vital for fostering a vibrant app ecosystem, enabling developers to create more intelligent and integrated experiences.
Availability & Compatibility: When Can You Get watchOS 26?
The developer beta of watchOS 26 is available now, with a public beta slated for release next month. The full public release is scheduled for “this fall.”
Generally, watchOS 26 will be compatible with Apple Watch Series 6 or later, Apple Watch SE (2nd generation), and all Apple Watch Ultra models, provided they are paired with an iPhone 11 or later running iOS 26.
However, it’s important to note the specific requirements for the new Apple Intelligence features. These features, including Workout Buddy and Live Translation in Messages, necessitate “supported devices, which include all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max that have Apple Intelligence enabled and Siri and device language set to the same supported language”. This distinction is important, as it means some of the most advanced capabilities of watchOS 26 are tied to newer iPhone hardware.
