Apple today seeded the fifth beta of watchOS 27 to developers, with the update coming two weeks after the launch of the fourth beta.
The beta can be downloaded through the Watch app on the iPhone with a free developer account. The Apple Watch will need to be on the charger, connected to Wi-Fi, and have a battery level of 50 percent or above for new software to be installed. The beta is available for all Apple Watch models compatible with watchOS 27 except for the Apple Watch Ultra 3.
watchOS 27 gains Siri AI, the smarter, more capable version of Siri. Siri can hold back-and-forth conversations, plus it has access to general world knowledge and your personal data to answer questions and find information. Siri AI on Apple Watch requires an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, including the iPhone 15 Pro and later.
There's a new Dynamic app grid that highlights Siri suggested apps, and more intuitive Smart Stack Suggestions. You can find your parked car, see pinned messages, get noise alerts, and view identity and transit cards.
Liquid Glass has been updated to improve legibility, and Workout Buddy works on the Apple Watch even when an iPhone isn't nearby. Workout Buddy also gains new metrics like progressive increases to distance, pace, or duration. Apple added a new all-in-one Find My app with support for Precision Finding, and there are performance optimizations that improve battery life.
Como ocorre com os outros sistemas operacionais da Apple, o watchOS é frequentemente atualizado. Com isso, o seu Apple Watch recebe não só novos recursos, como também correções de segurança importantes.
Neste artigo, mostraremos como é possível conferir qual versão do sistema o seu smartwatch está rodando no momento, veja só! ⌚️
Material: alumínio ou titânio Cores: cinza-espacial, prateado, ouro rosa, preto brilhante, natural, dourado ou ardósia Tamanho: 42mm ou 46mm Conectividade: GPS ou GPS + Cellular Pulseiras: esportiva ou estilo milanês
NOTA DE TRANSPARÊNCIA: O MacMagazine recebe uma pequena comissão sobre vendas concluídas por meio de links deste post, mas você, como consumidor, não paga nada mais pelos produtos/serviços usando os nossos links de afiliado.
Se você costuma usar o aplicativo Relógio (Clock) em iPhones, iPads e Macs ou o Timers do Apple Watch para ativar alarmes ou timers, saiba que é possível identificá-los adicionando um nome (ou etiqueta, como a Apple chama).
Isso é muito útil para quem possui múltiplos alarmes/timers em ação e quer ter um controle sobre eles.
Neste artigo, ensinaremos como é simples adicionar uma etiqueta em cada um, veja só.
A Apple anunciou o watchOS 27 com uma quantidade razoável de novidades, e neste vídeo lhes trago um resumo das principais mudanças que chegarão ao Apple Watch nesta atualização.
Entre os destaques, está a Siri AI (que requer um iPhone compatível), com um novo app dedicado a conversas mais naturais e contextuais. A interface também recebeu refinamentos visuais com o Liquid Glass, incluindo ícones redesenhados como o do Maps, além de um novo grid dinâmico de sugestões de apps ao pressionar a Digital Crown.
Outras novidades incluem novos botões para fechar ou silenciar notificações, um gesto de tocar e segurar para abrir itens do Conjunto Inteligente, e a chegada de um novo app Buscar (Find My), unificando a localização de pessoas, dispositivos e itens. Há ainda o recurso Call Context, que exibe informações relevantes durante chamadas.
No quesito desempenho, a reprodução de música ficou mais rápida, e a Apple promete melhor eficiência de bateria e conectividade Wi-Fi aprimorada. Para quem treina, o watchOS 27 traz maior precisão de distância em corridas e caminhadas na esteira, contagem de passos mais precisa e um Workout Buddy menos intrusivo, mais independente e agora com suporte a espanhol. O Acompanhamento de Ciclo (Cycle Tracking) também passa a contar com alertas de perimenopausa e menopausa.
Uma ausência notável é a do app Walkie-Talkie, que curiosamente não está presente nesta versão.
Este vídeo contou com o apoio do IvyCraft, um workspace de criação com IA que transforma documentos, vídeos e páginas da web em conteúdo pronto — slides, infográficos, vídeos explicativos, podcasts e muito mais, tudo direto do navegador, sem precisar instalar nada. Experimente gratuitamente!
AI note-taking startup Granola has expanded its popular meeting notepad to the Apple Watch, letting users capture and transcribe conversations with a single tap—no phone or laptop required.
The new watchOS app, which launched on July 28, 2026, targets in-person and on-the-go discussions such as walking one-on-ones, whiteboard brainstorms, and casual coffee chats. Users can start recording via a dedicated app or a watch face complication. The screen turns bright Granola green and plays a sound to confirm it’s listening. When the conversation ends, a second tap stops the recording; the audio syncs to the paired iPhone, where Granola’s AI processes it into structured notes complete with highlights, decisions, and action items. Those notes then appear across the user’s iPhone, Mac, or Windows devices.
The company designed the experience around the idea that “the best wearable is the one you’re already wearing.” Co-founder Chris Pedregal noted that the goal is to let people stay present in face-to-face meetings without pulling a phone from their pocket. Internal testing showed that once employees had access to the Watch app, a substantial portion of their mobile Granola usage shifted from iPhone to wrist.
Granola can record offline on the Watch; a connection is needed only when the audio syncs and notes are generated. The app also surfaces subtle haptic reminders for upcoming calendar meetings and works seamlessly with the existing iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Windows versions of Granola. It requires watchOS 11 or later and the latest Granola iPhone app. Installation is straightforward through the Watch app on iPhone if it doesn’t appear automatically.
The launch arrives as dedicated AI note-taking hardware (pins, pendants, and similar devices) has proliferated. Granola deliberately chose to build for an existing wearable rather than create new hardware. It also follows the company’s earlier unicorn milestone after a $125 million Series C led by Index Ventures.
To mark the release, Granola collaborated with London-based weaver Nowshin Prenon on a limited run of handwoven Apple Watch straps. The Watch app itself is free to download and use via the Granola iOS app.
With the Apple Watch increasingly positioned as an AI-friendly device, Granola’s arrival underscores growing interest in discreet, always-available capture tools that keep the focus on conversation rather than technology. Users can try it on their next in-person meeting simply by updating the iPhone app and installing the Watch companion.
MacDailyNews Take: More info about Granola for Apple Watch via Apple’s App Store here.
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This fall, with watchOS 27, Apple Watch will finally get access to Siri AI with a software update that turns your wrist into the most widely-used wearable AI platform on Earth.
One important caveat is to observe that Siri AI on Apple Watch still requires your Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone to do the heavy lifting. The interaction is easy: tap the Digital Crown and Apple’s new glowing icon appears on screen (you’ll also find this in the App viewer). The experience looks identical across every Apple device — iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro — making the assistant feel like one consistent product rather than a different experience per device.
The Siri app lets you access all your past Siri conversations (unless you turn that feature off) and pick up an old conversation right where you left off. Conversation history syncs privately through iCloud, so you can start an exchange on your iPhone and continue it later from your wrist. You can also pin a conversation you expect to revisit.
You can also use Siri on the Apple Watch to ask questions, launch apps, or even get more complex responses, such as step counts on a specific day. It can also answer difficult and specific queries with detailed answers and can summon real-time information from the web.
Personal context is the real story
That’s key, of course, as it means the smartwatch on your wrist can help you access specific details from all your contextual information; it can get details from messages, emails, and notes, for instance. Or you might use it to find a number and call it, access your door code, or look up customer information for business — all without touching your phone.
One of Apple’s own examples demonstrates this well: Saying, “Show me photos from when I went to Spain,” results in precisely that. You can also ask follow-up questions and keep the conversational going naturally, rather than being confined to single, isolated commands.
Beyond personal data, the watch can also act in apps — get directions home, send an email, play a playlist, or even more specifically, “Play the song that Brandon sent me.”
Context runs deep. A new Call Context tool can proactively surface relevant information from across your apps when phoning a business or help locate a confirmation code from Mail while calling an airline. This arguably challenges a real pain point when speaking with providers and is a good illustration of Apple’s broader AI strategy: to use on-device intelligence to remove everyday friction without asking you to track down the information yourself.
Where we are, where it’s going
It’s frustrating that you still can’t use the Watch to remotely run applications on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. What you can do is trigger Shortcuts that run on your iPhone: enable this first on your phone by selecting the Shortcut you want and switching on “Show on Apple Watch.” Once that’s done, you can run the Shortcut from your wrist, even by voice.
That’s useful now, but as more complex apps add Shortcuts support and App Intents become more widely adopted by developers, it should be easy to trigger genuinely complex, multi-stage tasks on your iPhone from your wrist.
It’s worth noting: early hands-on testing of the watchOS 27 beta has found Siri AI genuinely impressive on personal-context queries, but still buggy in places. This is very much a first-generation feature — promising, but not yet fully reliable.
Watch the developers
Developers are already beginning to experiment with the potential for wearable AI. One of the best current examples is Granola, which just launched a Watch app built specifically to take notes during in-person meetings away from a laptop. The idea is that you tap your wrist, the screen turns green and makes a sound to alert your companion(s) that it is recording and then you carry on as normal. Once the meeting stops, switch the app off and you’ll get polished notes with meeting summaries and action items provided to you.
The only reservation I have with Granola is the lack of documentation on privacy and data retention on the developer site. Tools like these will almost certainly become more private, more secure, and more prevalent once Apple’s on-device dictation APIs extend fully to watchOS.
That last thing is perhaps the most important as wearable AI emerges: the decisions Apple makes around watchOS and SiriAI will be foundational to its future wearable AI glasses products.
Apple today announced Apple Upgrade, a new product leasing program provided by Klarna for iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac, and iPad available on the Apple Store online, in the Apple Store app, and at Apple Store locations in the United States.
[…]
Apple Upgrade offers 12- and 24-month leasing options for iPhone and Apple Watch, and 24- and 36-month leasing options for Mac and iPad. Leasing prices start as low as $17.99 per month for iPhone, $11.99 for Apple Watch, $24.99 for Mac, and $11.99 for iPad.
The $17.99/month gets you a base model iPhone 17e for 24 months. This is a total of $431.76 vs. $599 for buying a new one today, but then you have to make a decision:
At the end of the lease term, customers can upgrade their device to the latest generation, purchase it with a one-time payment, or simply return it and exit the program.
I used to get a new phone every other year, but I kept my iPhone 12 mini for three years and will likely keep my 15 Pro for four years. In addition to making it easier to buy phones without the up-front payment, Apple is probably hoping this will encourage more customers to get back on the two-year cycle. Given the choice between continuing a small monthly payment and getting a new phone or making a larger payment to keep their old phone, many may opt to upgrade.
The payoff amount is the difference between what was paid during the leasing period and the retail price of the device, minus any remaining trade-in credits. Klarna is not charging a fee for the leasing program, so an iPhone that’s $1,099 can be leased and then purchased for $1,099 with no extra cost beyond taxes.
I guess this means that, for a bit of hassle, you can essentially buy the device for the list price at 0% interest.
Lease participants can opt to end a lease early and return a device, but Apple says there may be “substantial fees” for terminating a lease before the end of the term.
[…]
Customers must upgrade, end the lease, or purchase the device at the end of the lease term. If that doesn’t happen, the lease converts to a month-to-month lease for up to six months.
[…]
Damage to an iPhone, losing an iPhone, or having an iPhone stolen could incur fees.
The rollout of the program comes as Apple has been struggling with supply chain issues related to “RAMageddon,” which refers to the industry-wide shortage of memory chips that is driving up the price of hardware. As a result, Apple recently announced price hikes for its Mac and iPad lineups, sparing the iPhone for now. The new Upgrade program seems to be Apple’s answer to making those higher prices more manageable for consumers.
Customers can manage their lease directly in the Klarna app, where they can view their billing schedule and track remaining payments.
With the launch of the new Upgrade program, Apple is discontinuing its existing in-house financing and installment programs in the U.S., which include the iPhone Upgrade Program and iPhone Payments.
For iPhones, you have to have a carrier and can’t use a prepaid plan.
[…]
For iPads, the starting prices range from $12.99/month to $24.99/month, Macs range from starting prices of $24.99/month to $48.99/month, and the Apple Watch ranges from starting prices of $11.99/month to $47.03/month. But again, these are just starting prices. You can configure a fully loaded 16-inch MacBook Pro that is just under $230/month, and it won’t include AppleCare.
As a point of comparison, under the current program that is being discontinued, I pay $69.50/month for an iPhone 17 Pro Max, but I have a 512GB model, so my lease price for the same phone would be $40.83/month, significantly lower, but keep in mind that doesn’t include AppleCare+, which would add $13.99/month or $139/year for that iPhone. On a monthly basis, that puts a new iPhone 17 Pro Max with 512GB of storage and AppleCare+ at just under $55/month. Still a superior deal, but not nearly as good as the landing page might initially lead you to believe.
[…]
If you lease accessories for your device, those don’t have to be returned. Why? Presumably because they have no value to Apple or Klarna.
9to5Mac can now confirm that code found in the iOS 27 beta appears to reveal a broader system for managing a financed iPhone, including the ability to restrict apps and services when payments are missed.
The code describes a system called App Managed Features, which allows an authorized financing or provider app to enroll an iPhone and perform ongoing status checks.
If the contract is no longer in good standing, Apple’s system services can place the iPhone in “Restricted Mode,” which blocks access to most apps until the payment or contract issue is resolved, while keeping a small set of apps available.
I bet there are some governments that would love to commandeer that for their own purposes.
Finally, the new framework also introduces a new type of activation lock called “Partner Finance Lock,” which is meant to prevent users from erasing, reselling, or stripping a restricted device for parts.
Apple says it won’t limit the capabilities of devices leased through its new Upgrade program if you miss a payment. In an emailed statement to The Verge, Apple spokesperson Brian Bumbery says, “There will be no restricted mode and/or there will be no limitations put on device functionality due to missed payments or default with the Apple Upgrade program.”
One possibility is that it was developed for financing programs offered by carriers, retailers, or other partners outside Apple Upgrade, potentially including markets where device restrictions are already used to enforce installment agreements.
Here’s a breakdown of how much you’d pay for the devices included in the Apple Upgrade program, as well as how much more you’d pay to purchase the devices outright at the end of your lease[…]
[…]
Klarna doesn’t say what will happen if you don’t pay the outstanding balance.
[…]
During the lease, Klarna owns your device. You’re responsible for any damage, and will get charged a fee if you don’t return the device in “good condition.” That’s why Apple is encouraging customers to sign up for an AppleCare subscription that could drive up the cost of your lease even more.
[…]
Apple also notes that you’ll have to pay an early termination fee if you want to return the device before your lease ends or if you want to upgrade early.
The Apple Card Monthly Installments aren’t going away, so I’ll keep using that.
[…]
When you finance using the Apple Card Monthly Installments, you pay a fixed amount to own your device. There are no savings here — aside from the 3% cashback — the monthly payment is the purchase price divided by either 12 or 24 months.
When you lease an iPhone through Apple Upgrade, you need a cellular account on one of the big three U.S. carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon. That kind of stinks, and I’m not quite sure I understand why.
The iPhone upgrade program always required it. For a time you could do Apple Card installments without a carrier if you bought it online but never in store. I assume there is carrier pressure to tie the phones to the carriers. Activating iPhones on carriers was a key metric at the Apple Store.
Credit-risk assessment is seemingly part of it. There’s a lot of fraud in iPhone purchases specifically and cell phone service generally. The big three carriers do a significant amount of risk assessment before letting you open a new postpaid account; that you have an active account with one of them is a signal that you’re not trying to lease an iPhone using phony credentials in order to sell it.
But the bigger reason is the complex nature of the contracts between Apple and each of the big three carriers.
Citando pessoas familiarizadas com o cronograma de lançamentos da Maçã, ele explicou que a set-top box e o alto-falante inteligente deverão ser lançados durante o outono do hemisfério norte (nossa primavera, entre setembro e dezembro), enquanto o smart hub é previsto atualmente para algum momento entre outubro próximo e o início do ano que vem.
Rumorado há algum tempo, o smart hub deverá contar com uma tela de 7 polegadas e servir como peça central dessa nova investida da Apple no mercado de casa inteligente. Seu sistema operacional, por sua vez, será baseado no tvOS e apostará em uma interface que misturará elementos do iOS com características do watchOS, incluindo grades de ícones, widgets e apps.
Compatível com “chamadas de vídeo via FaceTime, monitoramento residencial e um sistema de interfone para residências que possuem vários dispositivos domésticos da Apple”, ele também será capaz de reproduzir mídia e contará com mostradores personalizáveis que lembram as watchfaces do watchOS. Além disso, é esperado que ele conte com um recurso de reconhecimento facial, permitindo-lhe distinguir os moradores de uma casa — algo que proporcionará experiências personalizadas.
Ainda segundo Gurman, há duas versões desse smart hub “no forno”. A primeira delas, de codinome J490, “posiciona a tela sobre uma base em formato de meia cúpula, semelhante a um HomePod mini cortado ao meio”; já a segunda, de codinome J491, foi projetada para ser afixada a uma parede com a ajuda de um sistema magnético. A ideia da Apple, que também está projetando uma interface “companheira” para o dispositivo no iPhone, é que o usuário tenha mais de um hub desse em sua casa.
A nova Apple TV (J265) e a próxima geração do HomePod mini (B525), por sua vez, não deverão introduzir mudanças significativas de design, mas contarão com chips mais velozes e suporte à Siri AI.
O jornalista, vale lembrar, também já apostou em uma câmera de segurança interna feita para competir com os dispositivos da linha Amazon Ring. Com o codinome J450, ela também chegou a ter seu lançamento especulado para este ano, mas não chegou a ganhar uma nova previsão nessa reportagem.
E vamos deixando o nosso aplicativo — disponível para iPhone, iPad, Mac e Apple Watch — cada vez mais nos trinques! 😉
Acaba de sair a versão 5.1 dele, e agora é possível dar um “Peek” nos artigos diretamente pela tela inicial de posts: basta tocar e segurar sobre um deles para ter uma prévia rápida do conteúdo, sem precisar abri-lo por completo.
Também chegou o suporte a deep links: a partir de agora, ao tocar em qualquer link do MacMagazine — seja recebido por mensagem, encontrado em outro app ou mesmo em uma busca —, você é automaticamente levado para o post correspondente dentro do nosso app.
A tela de posts ganhou ainda dois novos ajustes de personalização: um para sempre lembrar o filtro selecionado e outro para exibir sempre os títulos completos dos posts na lista principal, sem cortes.
Além disso, esta versão traz correções de bugs e refinamentos na interface, bem como mais aprimoramentos gerais em acessibilidade.
Agradecimentos
Fica aqui um agradecimento especial ao Cassio Rossi pelas colaborações feitas em nosso projeto no GitHub para esta versão.
A atualização já está disponível na App Store — e, como sempre, vale a pena atualizar o quanto antes para aproveitar todas as novidades. Em breve, é claro, voltamos com mais! 😉
Há alguns anos, a Apple oferece a possibilidade de criar Memojis, uma representação visual do seu rosto que pode ser enviada por mensagem, no FaceTime ou até mesmo como um mostrador do Apple Watch.
Caso você tenha criado um e queira adicionar ou remover algum item ou alguma característica facial, você pode editar os Memojis posteriormente nos seus dispositivos da Maçã. Veja como é simples! 😉
Unfortunately, due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple will not be able to ship Siri AI in the European Union with the release of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Over the past several months, EU regulators did not accept any of Apple’s proposed solutions to bring Siri AI to the EU while safely supporting other virtual assistants.
[…]
EU users will be able to access Siri AI on macOS 27 and visionOS 27. Developers located in the EU will not be able to test or use the new Siri AI features for their apps on iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and watchOS 27.
[…]
According to EU regulators, the DMA requires Apple to give any AI system nearly unlimited access to a user’s device, as well as the ability to act on that access autonomously without a user’s ongoing visibility and control.
[…]
Apple designed a solution called Trusted System Agent — an intermediary that would allow virtual assistants to safely access the same features and capabilities as Siri AI for devices in the EU. Apple also shared a plan to launch Siri AI in the EU while gradually rolling out this new solution over an 18-month period. The European Commission said no. In fact, the European Commission did not agree to any of Apple’s proposals.
This phrasing is not very clear, perhaps intentionally so. Apple is trying to give the impression that it did all this extra work to meet the DMA’s requirements, and yet the EC rejected its proposals, so it’s their fault Siri AI isn’t shipping in the EU. But it looks like the crux is that the Trusted System Agent is currently vaporware. What the EC rejected is that Apple wanted to be able to ship Siri AI now on the promise of future openness. The TSA would actually be built during this 18-month window of exclusivity. It’s not surprising that the EU would reject that proposal. The App Store doesn’t approve apps that flout the guidelines but promise to comply later. It doesn’t even entertain proposals of the form, “If I built this would it be approved?”
Apple said it detailed its plans for Siri AI to EU regulators six months ago, along with a technical proposal to allow secure third-party access to that data.
“In essence, a commission that’s asking us to conduct a very risky experiment on many, many, many tens of millions of users,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s marketing chief, told reporters, “and we only want to ship these capabilities when we can do so safely.”
The EU said not to ship it without the TSA, yet Joswiak spins this as the EU asking Apple to be reckless? And if Apple wanted to ship them safely, why did it stop working on them?
Apple spoke of having spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours on changes to comply with the EU. In the new report, though, Apple now says that it no longer knows what to work on.
So currently none of its engineers are working on adapting Siri AI to meet the EU’s demands.
It seems like Apple isn’t taking this very seriously. They’re more interested in trying to score PR points by blaming the delay on the EC rather than on building something compliant. So I guess the EC was prescient not to grant an exemption based on the promise that they’d follow through with the TSA.
However, do I think Apple should be made to open up that level of system access?
Honestly yes. They are worried about protecting my data. But it’s MINE. Me, the user.
Stick a big privacy prompt, maybe a system settings screen and reboot, but I want access to my data!
We can look to BrowserEngineKit to see how well it works out to introduce a trusted intermediate layer that Apple doesn’t itself rely on. And this seems like a much harder problem.
I keep seeing people (usually Americans) confused by where the EU is coming from with Apple and the DMA, eg “how can they care about privacy but also demand AI companies can access your data?”
My read is, the EU’s starting point is that a gatekeeper cannot treat itself as inherently more trustworthy than any other company. So if anyone’s AI can access your data, including Apple’s, it’s not up to the gatekeeper to say “we trust ourselves but don’t trust other companies” and force that on users.
The users should get to choose who they trust. And I think Apple is trying to draw a different line than it says. It worries that AI could be hijacked to steal your passwords and photos. But you can already install apps that manage and access that data. You can also install apps that access your calendar and mail data, and these apps can incorporate AI. Such apps actually get more access than what the EC wants because they must communicate with your servers directly. I would rather let an AI search my downloaded e-mails than read/write to my IMAP server, but Apple is blocking that option. The actual line it’s drawing isn’t that AI can’t access your data but that (aside from iMessage) it can only access it via additional engineering work and additional hoops for users to enter credentials. It seems like what Apple really wants is to make it hard for anyone to compete with Siri.
I’m skeptical that Siri AI is even capable of being meaningfully private or secure. As far as I know there is no mitigation for prompt injection, as Matthew Green describes here.
If it has access to private information, is exposed to external input and can access the Internet then how can they meaningfully claim it’s private or secure?
There’s a lot to unpack here, including more background information — and on-the-record statements — from a briefing Apple held Tuesday that I was invited to at Apple Park.
It’s frustrating that Apple has said so little on the record. They want to communicate that their “offers for compromise have been rejected,” but what exactly did they offer? Personally, I don’t think the TSA would be a very good solution because it would lock in both the limitations of Apple’s technology and their role as a gatekeeper. But Apple did not even say that the EC rejected the idea of the TSA, only that it rejected their proposal to violate the law for 18 months while building it.
But the bottom line is that Apple’s public statements regarding the DMA and the European Commission have never been this strident before.
[…]
Now, they’re a bit more on war footing. There’s a massive gulf between what Apple is willing to do with Siri AI in the EU and what the Commission is demanding from Apple for DMA compliance.
The European Commission isn’t demanding anything, the law is demanding it. The laws have been in place for several years now, Apple is currently in default of the law on several fronts, and is fighting its existing fines.
When the Chinese government wanted access to user data, Apple complied, but when the EU parliament voted for their citizens to be able to choose how to share their own data, that put Apple on a “war footing.”
There is some kind of irony in how Apple isn’t allowing Europe access to the new AI stuff; and meanwhile for the US, Apple is removing the setting for us to opt-out of it, effectively forcing it on us.
That’s how it is these days, huh? Either a government or a giant corporation makes our technology choices for us. We don’t get to choose for ourselves.
What exactly is the motivation for Apple and Google to engineer entirely separate systems for the EU to bring new features into compliance with the Commission’s broad interpretation of the DMA? Because if Apple doesn’t engineer a DMA-compliant version of Siri AI, iOS users in the EU will ... switch to Android, whose system-level AI was deemed noncompliant by the Commission a few months ago?
I briefly hoped that the DMA would lead to a sort of California effect for software, where products are designed for the stricter (more open, in this case) jurisdiction, and everyone else reaps the benefits, too, because that’s easier for companies than making separate versions of their products. But it turns out that Apple finds it well worth it to feature flag away the EU features it doesn’t want us to have, as well as the ones it doesn’t want to adapt for the DMA.
This doesn’t directly hurt Apple. It doesn’t force Apple to design, engineer, and ship a compliant EU-exclusive version of Siri AI that supports plug-and-play LLM back ends. It only hurts iPhone users who live in the EU, who are stuck with the old dumb version of Siri for the foreseeable future.
This demonstrates a market failure or legislative failure, depending on how you look at it. Both halves of the duopoly are in conflict with the law of the second largest economy in the word. Users will get a worse Siri, but this doesn’t bother Apple enough to do anything about it. Maybe the customers in the EU can be used as a bargaining chip. Neither Apple nor Google is worried that a competitor will come along with a compliant phone to challenge their dominance.
Gotta admit that as an EU citizen, I feel handicapped when it comes to brainstorming ideas to utilize Foundation Models.
Like, if I were to build a new app around them, it’s difficult to gauge if this is something Siri AI does out of the box when it isn’t available to me.
And unlike Apple, I intend to build software for the entire world.
Apple is acting out of greed and spite (see their hairbrained fee structures for alternative marketplaces as an example), but also yes, the DMA and enforcement thereof seems like a particularly difficult and capricious regulatory dynamic.
[…]
Those arguing that Apple is acting purely out of spite seem to suggest there is some obvious solution for iPhone Mirroring that would satisfy the interoperability mandate, but they never go into what that obvious solution is because they don’t know. They don’t know because I would guess no one does, not even Apple and certainly not the European Commission.
As far as I can tell, the European Commission doesn’t see it as their responsibility to help gatekeepers design features ahead of time in a way that should be compliant with the DMA. What they want instead is to decide whether or not a given feature runs afoul of the DMA after its released in the EU and presumably after they’ve gotten feedback from third parties.
If a developer emails Apple and asks if an app idea they have will be approved, they will get told to build it, submit it to the App Store, and see. The EU is the App Store here, and Siri AI is the app. I guess Apple don’t like their own policies.
I sympathize, even though Apple is in a better position than the developer, because it has more resources, because it would only potentially be blocked from shipping in one market, and because it can still sell its product in the EU, just with certain features disabled. Building something that might not be accepted is risky, but if you don’t submit anything that you think would be complaint with the rules, you don’t seem very serious. It’s still unclear to me exactly what Apple’s plan is. Its press release says it “will continue working” on bringing the features to the EU, but its SVP of marketing said in an interview that “none of its engineers are currently working on solutions.” Perhaps this implies that it’s banking on a legal or political solution rather than a technical one.
While the relationship between the European Commission and Google tells us nothing about playing ball, it tells us exactly how inconsequential support for alternative marketplaces is when it comes to regulatory scrutiny of integrated features. Apple hasn’t played ball with alternative marketplaces and now its new AI-based features are being withheld from the EU lest they get scrutinized for fines by the European Commission. Google hasn’t had to play ball with alternative marketplaces and now its new AI-based features are either being scrutinized for fines by the European Commission or being withheld lest they also get scrutinized. The European Commission is, rightly so in my opinion, regulating both operating systems equally and regardless of their support for alternative marketplaces.
It struck me today what a contrast this is with the rest of the AI world, increasingly connected via MCP. Imagine if Gmail was only accessible to AI on Android phones. If Teams was only accessible from a Windows Surface laptop. That is the kind of environment Apple’s policies create, with data locked into silos and monopolies free to leverage their existing strengths into dominance of new technologies too.
No thanks. Just as I should be able to sideload an app onto my own phone, I should be able to choose whether ChatGPT can access my iMessage history. The world is not going to come crashing down by giving users control of their own data.
Apple CEO Tim Cook held “constructive” talks with EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen on Tuesday about releasing Siri AI in the bloc while complying with the bloc’s digital rules, reports the Financial Times ($).
[…]
As for Apple’s proposed Trusted System Agent, a Commission official told the publication its contact with Apple on the idea was limited, and that it lacked a concrete proposal or details on how such an agent would work beyond the general concept. The official claimed Apple “focused on obtaining a green light to delay compliance.”
The DMA has been in effect for nearly four years and there is no reason why either party should be having so much difficulty with this proposal stage. Either the Commission is mischaracterizing Apple’s engagement, or Apple’s representatives need to be far better prepared.
It seems like Apple’s strategy is to encourage its customers to pressure the EU into changing the rules.
Siri AI is an entirely new version of Siri deeply integrated into iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. It can draw on personal context understanding to search across messages, emails, photos, and more, and get things done across apps with even more systemwide app actions. Additionally, Siri AI can answer questions related to the content on a user’s screen or go out to the web to get up-to-date information using broad world knowledge and generate a helpful answer. A dedicated Siri app allows users to revisit a past conversation or kick off a new one — all in one place — and uses iCloud to privately sync conversational history across a user’s products.
Powered by the next generation of Apple Intelligence, Siri AI is a completely reimagined version of Siri that is more helpful, more capable, and more intelligent. With detailed, engaging responses and natural back-and-forth conversation, Siri AI helps users get more done than ever.
[…]
Siri has been rebuilt from the ground up with powerful AI at its core. It takes full advantage of the bold new architecture for Apple Intelligence, including the next generation of Apple Foundation Models that run on device and on servers using Private Cloud Compute. When Private Cloud Compute is handling users’ requests, their personal data is not stored nor made accessible to Apple or anyone else. Outside experts can continue to verify this privacy promise at any time. Additionally, Siri AI uses the system orchestrator to tap into core capabilities like the Spotlight index and App Toolbox, which work entirely on device to keep users in control of their data.
[…]
For products that support Apple’s most advanced on-device model ever, Siri AI offers even more expressive voices, as well as a major boost in accuracy with systemwide dictation. Users have the ability to customize the expressiveness and pace of Siri’s voice so it’s just right for them. Dictation now captures what users say as polished text with greater precision, automatically handling capitalization, punctuation, and formatting as they speak. With improved speech understanding, users can speak naturally and trust that their words will appear clearly, accurately, and as intended.
I remain uninterested in these more advanced Siri features. They matter in that Apple needs to show that they’re not “behind” and that they can actually deliver on what they announce and advertise. But I don’t find the use cases compelling and wouldn’t trust the results.
If you really care about a particular concert, would you believe Siri about how the tickets work and that it will auto-create a reminder at the right time? Why should I believe that it can figure out whether a particular irregularly shaped object can fit inside an irregularly shaped container when said shapes are probably not even published on the Web? Can it really dig into my e-mail to find the right flight info? An answer without being able to see the sources is not useful. And I certainly don’t want it to pick for itself which vacation photos to send out.
I just want the basic features—from a decade or so ago, like music controls, reminders, and access to my purchases—to work quickly, reliably, and offline to the extent possible. I did not hear anything to suggest that this was a focus. Instead, everyone is celebrating how slow the demos were because that proves they weren’t fake.
The other interesting thing to note from the keynote: watching the demos, there is ZERO doubt these are real, recorded demonstrations on live devices. There will be no confusion about what is real or fake like there was at WWDC 2024 and the initial attempt at the new Siri.
And, if your standards are the state of the art in AI circa June 2024, when Apple took their first crack at answering the question, they did quite well.
[…]
What’s fascinating about this specific demo is that it also showed just how far behind Apple is.
[…]
Still, the bubble was strong enough to convince OpenAI to make the exact same mistake Dropbox did: the company somehow convinced itself that it could make enough money selling subscriptions to consumers; Anthropic, meanwhile, realized that it was enterprises who were willing to pay for AI’s massive productivity benefits, even as OpenAI failed to capitalize on their consumer market penetration by refusing to build an advertising product.
This is a long-winded way of saying that I don’t think that Apple’s agentic shortcomings are a big deal, at least for now. Agents help you do work and be more productive, and consumers don’t want to work or care about being productive. What they do want to do is watch short-form video, and an iPhone is simply much better at that than any other device ever will be; in that context, Siri being good enough is enough, and it appears that Apple crossed that bar.
They need to execute, they need to prove this can scale, and most of all, they need to get third-party apps on board with App Intents and App Schemas. But it seems like they’re doing all of that. This is not a done deal but it is very realistic.
Siri doesn’t have access to the filesystem or tool-calling, so it’s completely unable to do the kinds of tasks you might easily do with Codex or Claude. It’s a good start, but the state of the art has already dramatically shifted over the past year. The question is will Siri move in this direction, or stick to providing answers from the web?
Will Apple introduce its own distinct Codex-style agentic programming model that can do all this, and work with Xcode? You would hope so…
The revamped version of Siri that is officially named “Siri AI” will be available to test in the iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and visionOS 27 developer betas starting today, and it is coming to the Apple Watch in a future watchOS 27 beta. “Siri AI” will also be included in the public betas of each platform that are launching in July.
“Siri AI” requires a device that is compatible with Apple Intelligence.
Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi has explained why the company launched a standalone Siri app in iOS 27, after previously characterizing a dedicated chatbot as contrary to its Apple Intelligence strategy.
[…]
“We see Siri not as a separate chatbot, just an unintegrated place you go and chit-chat, but rather as an integral, conversational tool that you use in the moment, deeply integrated into your experience.”
…And playlists, contacts, settings and preferences. Peel off the agentic slop bandwagon and focus on core performance, smarter caching, and resilience under adverse network conditions.
Though this is a test conducted on the very first version of Siri A.I. from a fixed point in Calgary, it seems to work quite well. So far, it is better than any version of Siri Apple has released yet and, as you can see above, it is almost as good as the original 2010 demo, before Apple acquired the company.
On the one hand, if Siri has indeed become this reliable at understanding queries like those demoed so far, it’s indeed impressive. On the other hand, I can’t help but ask myself, once again, whether people at Apple even know how regular people actually use their phones and devices.
Apple executives downplay and obfuscate the role of Google in Siri AI. The Siri AI announcement didn’t even mention Google or Gemini once! Does anyone actually believe Apple’s BS? The argument seems to be that since Google made a bespoke implementation for Apple, Google is not really involved, and it’s all Apple. Ridiculous.
It’s really odd to me that Apple is getting so much credit for Google’s work. Siri now “works” to the extent it does because Siri is to a very large extent Gemini, and Apple has wrapped that in a bow.
Apple didn’t “nail” anything. Apple failed at its own internal efforts and was forced to outsource.
This is the advantage of being a platform: you can fail and still win.
Apple’s Siri team, led by Craig Federighi, held a post-WWDC keynote tech talk with members of the press this afternoon to talk through iOS 27 and the new Siri AI.
During the talk, Federighi shared more details about Apple’s collaboration with Google.
Apple looks like it will use some combination of Google Gemini models, combined with Google’s Confidential Inference and Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute for private hosting. These systems will process both your queries and evaluate private data from your devices.
[…]
Apple has since “expanded” PCC to encompass Google’s hardware as well. I will confess that I find the details of the new “expanded” PCC just a bit vague. It sounds a lot like Apple is primarily going to rely on Google’s existing confidential compute (running in Google datacenters) to process this data, but they’re bolting on a new layer of technical security to control which models are actually running. In any case: security experts can argue about whether this is good enough to keep Cozy Bear away from your data. What I will grant is that it’s probably good enough to keep Google and Apple from accessing your stuff, which is what most people are worried about in the first place.
So why am I so nervous?
[…]
So far we’ve discussed two adversaries: the misaligned designers of private agents (such as search operators), and the possibility of remote prompt injection attacks. But of course, in any discussion of technical privacy systems we need to talk about the last elephant in the room: your government.
Assim como os iPhones e iPads, os Apple Watches também possuem um ajuste que pode minimizar os efeitos de destaque e de luz intermitente nas interações com os elementos presentes na tela.
Batizado de Redução dos efeitos de brilho, o recurso veio para minimizar os efeitos do Liquid Glass, já que muita gente não curtiu os elementos introduzidos com as versões 26 dos sistemas operacionais da Maçã.
Material: alumínio ou titânio Cores: cinza-espacial, prateado, ouro rosa, preto brilhante, natural, dourado ou ardósia Tamanho: 42mm ou 46mm Conectividade: GPS ou GPS + Cellular Pulseiras: esportiva ou estilo milanês
NOTA DE TRANSPARÊNCIA: O MacMagazine recebe uma pequena comissão sobre vendas concluídas por meio de links deste post, mas você, como consumidor, não paga nada mais pelos produtos/serviços usando os nossos links de afiliado.
Ainda que não seja perfeita, a Siri pode ajudá-lo em diversas coisas — como ativar alarmes, conferir a previsão do tempo ou abrir um aplicativo.
Em se tratando do Apple Watch, a assistente pessoal da Apple pode ser ainda mais útil, já que está no seu pulso o dia todo.
Caso você utilize a assistente no seu smartwatch, saiba que é possível habilitar o Ajuste Automático do Volume, que regula o volume de fala da Siri com base nos ruídos de fundo do ambiente onde você estiver no momento.
Material: alumínio ou titânio Cores: cinza-espacial, prateado, ouro rosa, preto brilhante, natural, dourado ou ardósia Tamanho: 42mm ou 46mm Conectividade: GPS ou GPS + Cellular Pulseiras: esportiva ou estilo milanês
NOTA DE TRANSPARÊNCIA: O MacMagazine recebe uma pequena comissão sobre vendas concluídas por meio de links deste post, mas você, como consumidor, não paga nada mais pelos produtos/serviços usando os nossos links de afiliado.
Nosso aplicativo — disponível para iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch e Mac — acaba de receber uma atualização significativa para a versão 5.0.2, repleta de melhorias e correções pedidas por muitos de vocês. 😉
Atendendo a muitos pedidos, implementamos de volta o gesto de deslizar a partir do canto da tela para sair de um post e retornar à tela inicial do app.
Também corrigimos um comportamento que incomodava bastante: ao tocar em links externos dentro de um post e depois voltar para o app, agora você retorna exatamente para a mesma posição de leitura em que estava — sem perder o lugar.
Os favoritos também passaram por uma revisão importante e agora são devidamente sincronizados entre iPhone, iPad e Mac.
Melhorias na marcação de posts como lidos/não lidos, incluindo o retorno de uma seção “Posts” nos ajustes do app;
A possibilidade de adicionar tíquetes ao Carteira (Wallet) diretamente pelo app;
Aprimoramentos gerais em acessibilidade.
Agradecimentos
Fica aqui um agradecimento especial ao Cassio Rossi e ao Mozzer pelas colaborações feitas em nosso projeto no GitHub para esta versão.
A atualização já está disponível na App Store — e, como sempre, vale a pena atualizar o quanto antes para aproveitar todas as novidades. Em breve, é claro, voltamos com mais! 😉
Sleep tracking on Apple Watch can make an invisible part of daily health easier to understand. Each morning, the watch may show sleep duration, stages, interruptions, overnight vitals and a score intended to summarize the night.
That information can be useful. It can also create a new habit of judging the entire day before getting out of bed.
One low score may make a person feel tired before noticing how they actually feel. A few minutes less deep sleep can become a source of concern. Going to bed can even start to feel like a test that must be passed rather than a normal biological process.
Apple Watch sleep data works better as a long-term observation tool than as a nightly verdict. The goal is not to collect perfect scores. It is to notice repeatable patterns and make small changes when those patterns match real-life problems.
What Apple Watch Measures During Sleep
Apple Watch estimates sleep using movement and signals collected while it is worn overnight. Depending on the model and available features, the Health and Sleep apps can show total sleep time, awake periods and estimates for core, deep and REM sleep.
The watch may also collect sleeping heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature and other overnight metrics. The Vitals app compares several of these measurements with the user’s established typical range.
A sleep score compresses parts of the night into one number or category. Apple’s score considers factors including sleep duration, consistency and time spent awake. That makes it convenient, but convenience should not be confused with a complete medical interpretation.
The watch cannot know whether a stressful conversation kept someone awake, whether a child interrupted the night or whether the wearer woke feeling unexpectedly refreshed after fewer hours. It estimates physiological and behavioral signals. The person still supplies the context.
Sleep Tracking Apple Watch Data Works Best as a Trend
One night can be distorted by almost anything: travel, alcohol, illness, noise, a late meal, room temperature or a loose watch band. Even the position of the arm can affect sensor collection.
A weekly or monthly view is more useful because it reduces the influence of isolated nights. Patterns begin to emerge around bedtime consistency, total duration and changes in overnight vitals.
To review longer sleep trends on iPhone:
Health > Search > Sleep > select the weekly, monthly or six-month view
Look first at sleep duration and timing. These measurements are generally easier to interpret than small changes in individual sleep stages.
A person who repeatedly sleeps less on work nights may have a scheduling issue. Someone whose sleep becomes more fragmented after late caffeine may have found a useful connection. A consistently irregular bedtime may explain more than whether deep sleep moved by 12 minutes on Tuesday.
The data becomes valuable when it supports an observation that can lead to a realistic adjustment.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
Do Not Treat Sleep Stages as Exact Measurements
Core, deep and REM sleep are presented as distinct colored sections, which can make them appear more precise than they are. Apple Watch estimates these stages from signals available at the wrist. A clinical sleep study uses additional equipment and is designed for medical evaluation.
That does not make the stage information worthless. It means small nightly differences should not be overinterpreted.
A person does not need to increase deep sleep manually or achieve a perfect proportion of REM sleep. Sleep architecture changes naturally across age, stress levels, exercise, illness and different parts of the night.
Use stage data to notice substantial or persistent changes, not to compete with yesterday’s chart. Spending 15 minutes less in one estimated stage is not automatically a health problem.
Start With How You Feel
Before opening the Sleep app, notice how the morning feels.
Was waking difficult? Is concentration normal? Is there unusual daytime sleepiness? Does the body feel recovered after exercise? Was the night interrupted for an obvious reason?
This brief self-check prevents the score from defining the experience. Someone may feel fine after a lower-rated night, while another person may feel exhausted despite receiving a favorable score.
The most useful interpretation combines both sources: subjective experience and device data. When they repeatedly agree, the pattern deserves attention. When they conflict for one night, there may be no reason to react.
Use Vitals as Context, Not a Diagnosis
The Vitals app can show whether overnight measurements such as heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature and sleep duration fall within a typical range. It becomes more useful after the watch has collected enough nights to establish a personal baseline.
An outlier may reflect alcohol, medication, elevation, intense training or the beginning of an illness. It may also be an ordinary variation or imperfect reading.
Several unusual metrics appearing together may provide more context than one isolated number. Even then, Apple Watch data should not be used to diagnose a condition independently.
Persistent symptoms, breathing concerns, extreme daytime sleepiness or major changes in sleep should be discussed with a qualified healthcare professional. Bring the trend data if it helps describe what has been happening, but do not let the watch replace an evaluation.
Build a Routine Around Behavior, Not Scores
The healthiest use of sleep tracking is to connect the data with actions a person can actually control.
A consistent bedtime may improve the pattern. Charging the watch before the evening makes tracking more reliable. Reducing late caffeine, adjusting the bedroom temperature or moving an intense workout earlier may also produce noticeable changes.
To set a sleep schedule:
Health > Search > Sleep > Full Schedule & Options > Add Schedule
A schedule can provide Wind Down reminders and help keep bedtime more regular. It should remain a helpful structure rather than a rigid obligation. Life will occasionally interrupt it.
Choose one adjustment and observe it for a week or two. Changing five habits after one poor night makes it difficult to identify what helped.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
When Sleep Tracking Creates More Stress
Some people become preoccupied with improving sleep data, repeatedly checking results or worrying that a low score guarantees a bad day. The anxiety can itself make falling asleep more difficult.
That is a sign to reduce exposure to the numbers.
Sleep tracking can be turned off temporarily, or the data can be reviewed only once per week. Another option is to avoid checking the score in the morning and examine trends at a neutral time later.
To change sleep tracking settings:
Watch app on iPhone > My Watch > Sleep
A break does not erase the knowledge already gained. A person who has learned that regular timing and less late caffeine improve sleep may no longer need a daily chart to confirm it.
The device should support rest, not supervise it.
A Better Way to Read the Morning Report
A practical morning review can remain simple. Check whether the watch recorded the full night. Notice total duration. Consider whether the bedtime was typical. Look for any major change in overnight vitals, then move on.
There is rarely a need to analyze every stage, compare several apps or search for explanations after one ordinary variation.
Sleep tracking on Apple Watch is most useful when it reveals something that was difficult to see without data: a repeated shortfall in duration, an inconsistent schedule or a pattern linked to habits and recovery.
The score can summarize one night, but it cannot grade the person who slept through it. A healthier measure is whether the information helps create calmer nights, better days and fewer reasons to think about the watch after waking.
Last year was a quiet year for watchOS. While Apple took a couple of swings with Workout Buddy, Smart Stack hints, and a redesign of the Workout app, watchOS 26 was a scaled-back release compared to the big changes and upgrades in watchOS 11 the year before.
Of those swings, the excellent redesign of the Workout app felt severely hampered by bizarre scrolling behavior, Smart Stack hints didn’t appear often enough, and I found Workout Buddy to be mildly annoying and limited (though it’s true some users had the opposite view).
Let’s not forget the addition of Liquid Glass, too, a design system that was more like a coat of paint for the Apple Watch than the behavioral change seen on iOS.
Out of everything that was added, the wrist flick gesture was my favorite, and something I continue to use throughout the day. I don’t mean to sound down on last year’s release – there were genuine improvements in several areas – but it just felt more like a small evolution.
This year’s WWDC keynote didn’t feature a dedicated watchOS section (or a dedicated section for any particular OS, for that matter), but that’s not to say there’s nothing to see in watchOS 27. In fact, after several weeks of beta use, I see several intriguing things going on here.
So with that obvious tease out of the way, let’s break down what you can expect from watchOS 27.
Siri AI and Apple Intelligence
The new Siri UI over various watch faces.
The headline feature at this year’s WWDC was Siri AI, and along with every other platform (save for tvOS – yet), watchOS will be gaining access to Apple’s upgraded personal assistant.
I had worried that with the promised launch of an upgraded Siri, the Apple Watch would be forgotten in the rollout or receive a diluted version, so it’s exciting to see that not only is Siri AI included with watchOS 27, but it is almost a like-for-like copy of the iOS version. This is likely due to the way Siri AI on watchOS will essentially bounce queries off a paired iPhone.
Siri AI continues to appear as a slightly amorphous assistant that can be summoned by long-pressing the Digital Crown, uttering the wake phrase, or using Raise to Speak. But now, it is also a dedicated app that lets you continue conversations started on other devices.
The new Siri app allows you to browse and pin past conversations.
Siri AI on watchOS only debuted in the latest developer beta a week ago, so I haven’t had long to fully test it. That said, I have two strong takeaways already: Siri AI shows the potential of becoming something huge for the Apple Watch, but it is, as of now, quite buggy.
Let’s start with the positive: the potential. I’ve long said that the best place for digital personal assistants is on existing items we wear like watches, rings, and glasses. The friction is low, and you’re not adding another device to your daily carry.
Imagine, if you will, being able to raise your wrist, ask a question, and get an instant answer without having to fiddle around getting your iPhone out of your pocket or bag, unlocking it, and then holding the power button or saying Siri’s wake phrase. Who needs that faff? Certainly not me.
That’s why when Siri AI has worked well, it’s been a great experience.
Siri can surface some impressive personal context answers.
While world knowledge questions are great, it excels more with in-depth queries, like a question about an old message. One good example is a query I had (pictured above) where, while talking to someone, I needed a friend’s website URL to pass along. I knew I’d sent it to my wife, so I asked Siri AI to find it. Based on the context, it searched messages with my wife and found the website, which I read out.
I’ve had several experiences like this. I had Siri AI find what our seat numbers were to see Aziz Ansari. I asked about the weather, with follow-up questions about the UV index and wind speeds, too. Although results can be slow, getting information like this felt like a superpower. The Apple Watch is a very personal device, and these experiences were both personal and useful.
Now for the negative: bugs. Unfortunately, Siri AI in the latest developer beta (and, likely, the first public beta) has a lot of them. To be clear, this is to be expected; it’s called a beta for a reason. But it’s also worth being aware of these issues if you’re thinking of trying out the public beta and expecting a consistently amazing personal assistant.
watchOS 27 may still be in beta, but the reliability needs work.
Queries frequently fail or time out, and Siri AI can often be a little too keen to answer your query, cutting off your question before you’ve finished. These bugs have also, unfortunately, leaked into some standard Siri requests. Setting a timer on the Apple Watch has been impossible for me since the update.
While it’s strange that these bugs are popping up, given that they aren’t issues on iOS, I expect the smaller ones to be fixed by the time Siri AI is released publicly later this year. The big question is whether Apple can bring Siri AI to an adequate level of reliability on the Apple Watch and fulfill its huge potential.
Call Context when making a call.
In terms of Apple Intelligence upgrades, there’s a new feature called Call Context. This promises to surface relevant information on your Apple Watch when you are on certain phone calls. For example, if you’re calling an airline, your Apple Watch might show the flight you have booked, or if you’re calling a friend, it might show their upcoming birthday. You get the picture. I’ve yet to encounter Call Context, but it could prove to be a small yet handy feature.
App Navigation and Interface
Apple claims opening speeds for apps across all of its platforms are up to 20% faster. On watchOS specifically, the company says tapping to start a workout and media playback are quicker, too.
I’ve got to admit: whatever Apple has been refining behind the scenes has worked. From the very first beta, apps opened dramatically faster. The same goes for general interactions like screen refreshes and button taps. It’s made the Apple Watch easier and quicker to use, which in turn has made the experience more enjoyable.
The new dynamic app grid changes one slot to your most recent app while the others are out of your control.
Over on the UI side of things, Apple has introduced an extra layer of app icons on top of the classic grid/list view. The dynamic app grid displays five app icons based on context and recent usage, surrounding one fixed icon for Siri AI. You can access the traditional grid or list view by swiping up from this grid, scrolling up with the Digital Crown, or tapping the app grid icon in the bottom of the app grid.
In use, I’ve found this new view a bit frustrating. It usually displays your most recently used app, which can be a waste of an app slot if you don’t frequent it often enough. Plus, I had already deliberately organized my icon grid to make it easy to access my most frequently used apps; this extra step gets in the way of that.
This would all be well and good – as I’m sure some people will like this feature – if it were optional. Frustratingly, it’s now the default behavior, so I’m forced to tap or swipe again to access the apps I like. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s certainly an unnecessary annoyance.
Liquid Glass is more legible in watchOS 27.
Elsewhere in watchOS, the UI design has been given some nice refinements. Just like on Apple’s other OSes, app icons are sharper and more distinct, and the Liquid Glass design system is much more readable in areas like Notification Center. Unlike on other platforms, the transparency of Liquid Glass cannot be adjusted on watchOS, but the level Apple has settled on is, I think, a decent compromise.
Workouts and Health
Workout app scrolling is fixed!
The biggest news, for me at least, is that the terrible scrolling behavior in the Workout app that I mentioned at the top of this article is gone. It’s difficult to describe without seeing it for yourself, but I would say it feels more “natural”.
The number of workouts the app scrolls past nicely reflects the amount of velocity you apply to your swipe, and even a dramatic swipe will only get you past a maximum of four workouts on the list. It shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place, but it’s good to see it rectified.
Workout Buddy has received a number of refinements, which will be welcome for users who like very enthusiastic announcements during their workouts. The big news is that Workout Buddy no longer requires a nearby iPhone to work. That’s a win for those who want to go out for a workout with their AI buddy but leave their iPhone at home.
Next, Workout Buddy’s insights are reportedly improved and deliver more detailed feedback. New insights include progress for pace, distance, and workout duration. In testing, I’m not sure I’ve noticed a huge difference, but more data is always welcome when you’re working out.
Finally, Workout Buddy features improved voice delivery that is more natural and less abrupt. Its phrasing now combines multiple achievements into a single statement to provide more consolidated feedback, and it will be available in Spanish as well.
While not available to view on the Apple Watch, if you’re cycle tracking with your iPhone and Apple Watch, Apple Health will warn you if your cycle patterns are suggestive of perimenopause. As is the Apple way, the app will encourage you to track related symptoms, provide resources, and talk with your healthcare professional. It’s good to see Apple continuing to support common but often overlooked areas of health like this, especially ones specific to women.
Lastly, following the through line of performance improvements Apple is targeting across its platforms, step count accuracy and syncing between the iPhone and Apple Watch are fixed, and the accuracy of treadmill distance tracking has improved.
Find My
The new Find My app in watchOS 27 is fantastic.
The Find My app has historically – and bizarrely – been split into three separate apps on watchOS: People, Devices, and Items. I’ve never understood this logic, but watchOS 27 finally consolidates these three tracking streams into one app, just like every other platform.
What’s great to see is that, unlike last year’s Notes app, the new watchOS Find My experience is incredibly close to the one on iOS. You can switch between the three categories using a button in the top-left corner of the screen, scroll through each item or person, and perform all the usual actions you can on other platforms.
These include playing a sound, marking an item as lost, setting up location alerts, and even Precision Finding. The way the watchOS team has translated the full Find My app experience to the wrist is a real triumph of app design.
Smart Stack and Gestures
A selection of new Smart Stack widgets.
This is the third watchOS release for the Smart Stack, and it continues to gain enhancements. This year, those come in two forms. First, there is a range of new Smart Stack suggestions, including a close contact’s birthday, parked car location, and transit card balance.
An intriguing addition is a Smart Stack suggestion that will prompt you to change a recurring alarm the night before a holiday. I look forward to the day when my daughter doesn’t wake me up every morning so I can take full advantage of this.
The new single-tap gesture in action in the Smart Stack.
The second enhancement comes in the form of a new gesture. I’ve not been coy about my love of gestures on the Apple Watch, and after last year’s addition of the excellent wrist flick gesture, I was hoping for more this year.
The new single-tap gesture allows you to launch individual widgets within the Smart Stack or carry out an action like starting a workout or recognizing music. This is a nice addition, but my excitement is tempered by the fact that the gesture only works in the Smart Stack. The gesture being unavailable as an API for third-party apps is a disappointing omission by Apple, so I hope they grant developers access soon.
Tidbits
Better access to notification controls.
Notifications have been tweaked slightly to allow better access to options like muting and disabling them. Apple Pay notifications are richer, too, with clearer transaction information and a map showing the location of the purchase.
Sticking with transactions, iOS 27 is gaining the ability to create custom Wallet passes from QR codes, and watchOS will display these creations in the Wallet app as well. And in another example of increasing feature parity between watchOS and iOS, the Wallet app now shows card balances.
There are several features that users just don’t take advantage of on the Apple Watch purely because they don’t have the need or don’t particularly like them. Unfortunately, some of these features can affect battery life, so with watchOS 27, your Apple Watch will look for unused features and offer to turn them off to enhance battery life. These include things like Double Tap, Raise to Speak, and Start Workout reminders. You can always turn these features back on in Settings.
Lastly, continuing the theme of performance enhancements, Apple says watchOS 27 has improved Wi-Fi connectivity, better water detection, and more efficient GymKit integration.
Heading to the watchOS Graveyard
watchOS 27 comes with a few cuts, too. The Walkie-Talkie app is gone, as is the App Switcher. While I’m sure there are few who will miss Walkie-Talkie, the axing of the App Switcher seems a strange choice.
Previously, a double press of the Digital Crown would surface your currently open apps, allowing you to switch between them or close them. Now, a double press does the same thing as a single press: opening the new dynamic app grid. I used the App Switcher infrequently, but when I did, it was useful, so I hope Apple reverses course.
The last axe to fall in watchOS 27 is actually on several Apple Watch models. watchOS 27 will only support Apple Watch Series 9 and above, Apple Watch Ultra 2 and above, and Apple Watch SE 3. That means, of the models that could run watchOS 26, Apple is dropping support for Series 6, 7, 8, Ultra 1, and SE 2.
That’s quite a few models, and while Apple has explained the reasoning behind this decision, it will be frustrating to some users, especially those with the original Apple Watch Ultra.
Siri AI and several new Apple Intelligence features are the big carrots for installing Apple’s OS 27 releases this year. That includes watchOS, and despite its bugs, it’s been exciting to test Siri AI out. If Apple can deliver on this promise, it could be a game changer.
Yet, for most users, the performance enhancements I’ve seen will be the most immediately tangible part of the new OS (with the usual warning that running the watchOS beta means your battery will take a hit). The ability to raise my wrist, perform an action, and quickly move on without hangs or loading screens is incredibly valuable.
Apple has previously described new iOS releases as akin to “getting an entirely new phone”. That statement often referred to feature additions and design changes; however, when you get a new device, the feeling of “new” actually comes from increased speed, power, and performance. As such, watchOS 27 can often feel like using ‘an entirely new Apple Watch’.
If you want to test out these new features before they’re released this fall, you can do so now by enrolling in the watchOS 27 public beta. watchOS 27 is compatible with Apple Watch Series 9 and above, Apple Watch Ultra 2 and above, and Apple Watch SE 3.
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