Apple is now offering the first public beta of watchOS 26, the next major update for Apple Watch, ahead of its official fall release. While the biggest visual update may appear to be the limited Liquid Glass elements, the substance of watchOS 26 exists in how it integrates with Apple Intelligence for smarter workouts and more context-aware communication. After some hands-on time with the update, here’s what stands out so far.
watchOS 26? Where’d the time go?
watchOS 26 is the 12th version of the Apple Watch operating system. At a high level, the new version builds on work that started in watchOS 10 in 2023 and continued with watchOS 11 in 2024. The naming convention has changed, replacing what would be watchOS 12 with watchOS 26, but the timeline for progress is consistent with recent releases. (Apple made each device operating system unify behind a single version number, 26, this year to signal the year ahead, 2026, when each release will be used the most.)
Liquid Glass design elements
Apple is deploying a visionOS-inspired redesign to each operating system this year, bringing some of the visual flare of Apple Vision Pro to the rest of the product portfolio.
In watchOS 26, the use of the Liquid Glass design element is present in a few places: Smart Stack widgets, Control Center tiles, and system elements like passcode entry, navigation controls, and notification platters. Like the Lock Screen on iPhone, Apple has also included a Liquid Glass digital clock option for the popular Photos watch face.
Structurally, watchOS 10 delivered the biggest redesign to Apple Watch two years ago. The use of Liquid Glass in watchOS 26 is a bit sparse if you spend most of your time looking at other watch faces. A future version could benefit from having Liquid Glass numerals around analog clock faces or larger Liquid Glass digits on more digital watch faces.
For now, the places where Liquid Glass makes an appearance adds charm, like color from Control Center tiles spilling over into nearby tiles that are otherwise inactive and transparent. Passcode entry is also delightful now, returning to a rounded button design, now with Liquid Glass effects, instead of the squared off version that resembled the dial buttons in Phone.
Unlike the iPhone and iPad, Apple Watch never existed during the photorealistic era that ended with iOS 7. The limited places where Liquid Glass appears in watchOS 26 gives us a bit of that feeling without the absolute absurdity of rich skeuomorphism.
Apple Intelligence adds charm and personality to the workout experience
Apple is putting its generative AI system to work with a new feature called Workout Buddy. The voice-driven coaching assistant analyzes your personal workout history in real time and delivers contextual motivation. This includes everything from a personalized pep talk to pacing alerts during a run. You can choose from three synthesized voices trained on Apple Fitness+ trainers.
Combined with the redesigned Workout app layout (four-corner navigation for quick access to metrics, media, Pacer, and alerts), the fitness experience feels like a big focal point in watchOS 26.
The catch, however, is that Workout Buddy requires having your Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone nearby to actually work. That’s understandable given the limited processing power and unpredictable network conditions on the watch. Still, it’s an obvious goal for future hardware and software to make Workout Buddy a standalone feature.
Personally, bringing my phone along for some outdoor and most indoor workouts is no big deal. However, I prefer to run without my iPhone, and I’m not sure I want to change that for Workout Buddy after almost a decade of going phone-free with cellular.
The best part of Workout Buddy is when it provides milestone updates like hitting 500 miles walked this year or hitting a new personal record on a cycling ride. I also like the punch of personalization and motivation that comes when Workout Buddy says you’re working out with whatever band or artist you’re playing. Workout Buddy is less impressive when it redundantly reports your pace and mile duration, such as “your pace for the last 12 minutes and 32 seconds was 12 minutes and 32 seconds.”
Smarter Smart Stack and volume-appropriate alerts
Smart Stack has evolved into a more context-aware feature, thanks to Smart Stack hints. When your watch recognizes that you’re in a specific scenario like near your iPhone’s camera or in a dark environment, it can surface relevant widgets like launching the camera remote or opening flashlight with a tap.
watchOS 11 already did a good job of surfacing relevant widgets to the Smart Stack, but you only saw them if you swiped up to view the vertical widget carousel. watchOS 26 effectively pushes those suggestions through to the watch face. Like a lot of intelligent features, it’s nice when the system gets the suggestion right, but it’s more of a subtle touch to appreciate when it gets it right. Smart Stack hints are fleeting, so it’s possible to miss them as they appear, but Apple has to strike a balance with momentarily obscuring content on the watch face.
watchOS 26 also introduces automatic volume adjustment. The Apple Watch can now assess ambient noise and adjust notification volume accordingly. I know a lot of readers have had their iPhone muted since the Apple Watch came out, and their Apple Watch muted in favor of haptic feedback for silent alerts.
While I run this configuration often, I do enjoy and benefit from a lot of tones related to Workout and Fitness. Apple Watch has also improved in recent years with more tone configuration options. You still can’t assign a tone to a specific contact like on iPhone, but you can at least set a different tone for Messages and Mail.
Apple Watch speakers have gotten quite loud in recent hardware versions too. This alone makes the smart volume adjustment feature come in handy if you use your watch unmuted.
Messages and Notes make for meaningful upgrades
Live Translation in Messages, powered by Apple Intelligence, can now automatically translate texts and responses in real time. Smart Replies also get a boost with better context-awareness and on-device processing.
Apple Watch already benefited from notification summaries if your iPhone used the Apple Intelligence feature. Bringing more of those AI benefits to the Messages app on the watch is a nice touch.
And for the first time, the Notes app comes to Apple Watch, with full access to existing notes, Siri dictation, pinned notes, and Smart Stack integration.
I’ve wanted Notes on the Apple Watch for as long as I can remember. Reminders could already display a checklist, and some notes use that same format. Apple Watch displays have also continued to increase in size over the years, adding a full software keyboard and drawing text entry.
In use, the Notes app is great for both referencing existing entries and creating quick entries. One thing you can’t do is make edits to existing notes (aside from checking off items on a checklist). This is probably by design to avoid accidentally erasing something important. If so, Notes should include version history (something that’s long been missing) as a solution.
A future version could even do these like geotag location and include watch-specific data like heart rate and steps data for health-related notes.
Otherwise, the Notes app is pretty well featured. It displays pinned notes, proper formatting, collapsible sections, and even tiny handwritten notes that I create with Apple Pencil on iPad. I’d like to be able to tap to open and zoom into these handwritten notes, but I’m just impressed that they display at all in the first version of Notes on Apple Watch.
Gesture control expands with the subtle wrist flick
watchOS 26 builds on the double tap gesture with a new one-handed interaction: wrist flick. A quick flip of the wrist away from you can now dismiss notifications, silence a call, or close the Smart Stack.
Double tap could already dismiss some things if that was the prominent button like on basic notification. The new gesture, however, is great for alerts that have other prominent actions like answering a call or replying to a message. I could see wrist flick to dismiss alerts be more popular than double tap, although the latter feature I think is more impressive.
What I still want to see from a hands-free gesture is opening Notification Center. That’s still an action that I take regularly that requires a free hand. Double tap opens the Smart Stack from the watch face. I’d like to see one gesture used for Smart Stack and another for Notification Center. Wrist flick is generally meant to signal dismissing or closing something, but I could make an exception for opening Notification Center.
Watch face wins and fails
Three things on Apple Watch faces. First and perhaps my favorite watchOS 26 change: more analog watch faces show a sweeping seconds hand in always-on mode, including Utility. This feature being limited to one existing face and two new faces when Apple Watch Series 10 debuted was a bit perplexing. Apple included support on the latest Pride and Unity faces, bringing the total with support to five. watchOS 26 doesn’t make it universally available, but it’s at least in many of the analog faces that present a standard clock.
Second, watchOS 26 continues a trend that started with watchOS 11. Last year, Apple removed four watch faces and added two new ones. New versions of Pride and Unity were later added, bringing us to net zero.
watchOS 26 goes further by removing five faces for no obvious reason. I’m still not over the great Explorer watch face being cut last year. Apple Watches have far more local storage than I can ever fill. Watch faces are also added by choice, not pre-assigned by default. It’s very strange to me, especially because of the next thing.
That’s the redesigned Face Gallery. What was previously a list of watch faces with a few collections for newly added, Pride, and Unity, for example, now includes lots of collections like clean faces, analog faces, data rich faces, and more. This improves discovery with a growing number of watch faces. However, the watch face list is instead shrinking (or at least staying the same if Apple Watch Series 11 adds three new options).
Apple has a solution for its color picker, presenting main colors and current seasonal colors while past color options are off by default and added back by the user. The face picker effectively worked this way already.
9to5Mac’s Take
Additional features include letting the Workout app select your Apple Music playlists or podcasts automatically based on workout type, Call Screening and Hold Assist in the Phone app, and more. Speaking of Phone, you still can’t use other apps during a call from the Apple Watch, but that just leaves something to look forward to in watchOS 27 or beyond.
Overall, the Liquid Glass elements add character in ways that enhance the user experience, Workout Buddy brings personalized feedback to a core Apple Watch experience, and the Notes app is a welcome addition after 26 12 versions.
We can probably expect a new watch face or two (or three) to come to watchOS 26 when the final version is released. I’m hoping these are digital and analog faces that show off Liquid Glass on the watch face in a nice way.
The Apple Intelligence features like Workout Buddy and Live Translation requiring an iPhone or now is reasonable, but achieving on-device or server-based support in the future should be a clear objective. Apple Watch probably doesn’t need to run the full large language model to power these features, and light weight models are getting more efficient and capable all the time.
Ultimately, Apple Watch should become a primary interface for interacting with AI, whether that’s Siri powered by a server-powered model or another tool like ChatGPT or Claude. Notably, these work on all iPhones thanks to servers, regardless of Apple Intelligence support, which is how AI features on Apple Watch could work if network connectivity was reliable enough. I’d certainly be willing to try with existing cellular models (or on wifi/with my iPhone’s network connection).
Other changes include Live Listen controls with Live Captions for accessibility, configurable Control Center tiles that will really shine with new watchOS 26 apps, background image support and Smart Actions in Messages like sharing location with Find My and using Check In, configurable widgets for customizing what apps like Weather show in the Smart Stack.
watchOS 26 for Apple Watch supports Series 6 and up, SE 2, and Ultra models. It requires a paired iPhone with iOS 26. The public beta is out now, and the final release is expected in September. Sign up to start testing here.
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