watchOS 26 preview: It’s the little things

At WWDC 2025, Apple announced it was replacing the sequential numbering for OS versions and with year numbers. So instead of watchOS 12, I’ve spent the past two weeks with the public beta of watchOS 26. The naming scheme shift is subtle, but helpful — which is how I’d describe the upgrades the new software brings to the Apple Watch. The AI-powered Workout Buddy better contextualizes your Fitness data and an added gesture gives the watch a fun trick that’s actually helpful. Other upgrades — including better smart replies and the Liquid Glass treatment — all combine to make the watch work and look a bit better than it did before. It’s not a game-changing shift, like other OS 26 releases, but it manages to make a great watch a touch better.

Luminous Liquid Glass

Every Apple operating system got the Liquid Glass treatment this year, including watchOS 26. The change is less noticeable on the Apple Watch than on the iPhone or iPad, though. You’ll notice the semi-transparent buttons and flowy movement when entering your password and opening the control center — the icons look like they’re surrounded in little drops of water, which is quite pretty. You’ll see it on the Photos watch face, too, especially if you select the “glass” color for the time readout.

The Smart Stack now has a liminal glow and the app icons are likewise a touch more luminous than before. The effect is subtle and nicely unifies the look of the watch and its companion iPhone. Like all design upgrades, Liquid Glass made me feel like I was using a new watch — though, like everything, the novelty wore off after a week or two.

Revamped Workout app combines AI stats with a DJ

In addition to the Buddy, the Workout app has a new look with icons in each of the four corners of the screen that give you easier access to adjust your data view, play music, set goals and tweak Buddy settings. My favorite new feature is in the music menu and it’s limited to Apple Music for now. If you tap the music icon, you have the option to auto-play music. From there, you can also select “Picked for you” or “Choose media.” The former will select music that matches the type of workout you’re doing and what you like to listen to. As someone who gets derailed from pretty much all my tasks when I have to interact with my phone, I appreciate anything that can make decisions for me and prevent me from reaching for it.

I was presented with peppy beats that matched the cadence of my run, from bands and artists that were familiar as well as new-to-me selections that fit my tastes. Unfortunately, it didn’t always work correctly. Sometimes I’d get no music, other times the music would play but the Workout Buddy would fall silent. I realize I’m testing a public beta of watchOS 26, so I’m holding out hope the feature will work at launch. Because when it worked, it was glorious.

The new Workout Buddy is probably the biggest AI play in watchOS 26. It uses historical and real-time data collected by your watch to give you a window into how you’re performing at the beginning, end and throughout a workout. It works for walking, running, cycling and other workouts but requires headphones and a nearby Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone. That gave me pause. I hate carrying stuff and/or sticking things in my ears when I run. But after acquiring some open earbuds and digging out my old Spibelt, I made it work.

There are three voices to choose from as of this writing, a bright feminine option, a British male-sounding one and another female-presenting version with a lower register. These were built on vocal data from Fitness+ trainers and have an authentic sound to them. At the start of a workout, you’ll get a brief pep talk along with some recent milestones. My pre-game walking and running talks included references to the day of the week, my location and accumulated fitness data. For example, “Way to get out there on a Wednesday morning walk in Albuquerque. So far this week, you’ve done three walking workouts. Let’s get in some steps!”

Depending on the type of exercise, you can set target ranges for cadence, heart rate, speed, distance, power (cycling), time and others. During a workout, the AI will let you know if you’re at, below or above those levels. The first time I tried Workout Buddy, my run was quite lonely. I didn’t realize I had to turn on the Buddy, as well as the various goal metrics within the Workout app. I did that and, on my next run, the AI delivered cadence and heart rate updates, and let me know when I hit milestones like distance and duration.

At the end of a workout, you’ll see a thinking animation as the AI assembles a summary. It’ll recap data like your pace, distance, average and peak heart rate, as well as progress on your Activity rings. It’ll also point out comparisons or cumulative milestones you may have hit. For example, after a longer walk, it told me that I’d just burned the most calories on a walk so far. Another day, it told me I’d walked ten miles so far this week. It closes the update by encouraging you to take the energy into the rest of your day or something similarly positive but measured.

That’s a big improvement over the first few times I used the feature. My first few pep talks were cloying, telling me something along the lines of “It’s not easy to get out there early in the morning!” and “Your effort is inspiring!” After I stopped a run early to fuss with settings, it told me I did a “Great job!” on a three-minute run. Thankfully, Apple appears to be tweaking the Buddy behind the scenes, calibrating the AI’s “personality.” Recent pep talks have become noticeably less sycophantic and therefore more enjoyable. I imagine the Buddy will only continue to evolve even more from here.

The Workout Buddy is not a coach

The Workout Buddy is a motivational experience that provides personalized insights you can use to gauge your performance. But I just finished trying out Samsung’s AI running coach on the Galaxy Watch and couldn’t help comparing the two. That coach pushed me to run five kilometers for the first time in my life. The Buddy made me feel like I’d accomplished something special just by taking my dog on a stroll. Both have their place, but I’d say Apple’s version is probably best for those who already know what their goals are and what they need to do to hit them. Samsung’s version may be better for beginners who want some help shaping their fitness journey.

In addition to the Buddy, the Workout app has a new look with icons in each of the four corners of the screen that give you easier access to adjust your data view, play music, set goals and tweak Buddy settings. My favorite new feature is in the music menu and it’s limited to Apple Music for now. If you tap the music icon, you have the option to auto-play music. From there, you can also select “Picked for you” or “Choose media.” The former will select music that matches the type of workout you’re doing and what you like to listen to. As someone who gets derailed from pretty much all my tasks when I have to interact with my phone, I appreciate anything that can make decisions for me and prevent me from reaching for it.

I was presented with peppy beats that matched the cadence of my run, from bands and artists that were familiar as well as new-to-me selections that fit my tastes. Unfortunately, it didn’t always work correctly. Sometimes I’d get no music, other times the music would play but the Workout Buddy would fall silent. I realize I’m testing a public beta of watchOS 26, so I’m holding out hope the feature will work at launch. Because when it worked, it was glorious.

More hands-free fun with wrist flick

I love the double tap gesture Apple introduced with the Apple Watch Series 9 — it’s a pleasure to stop timers, start auto-detected workouts and answer calls without getting my other hand involved. But it took some practice before I could reliably get the watch to recognize the gesture. (The trick is raising your wrist in an exaggerated checking-the-time motion then quickly, but not too quickly, tapping your thumb and finger together twice.)

Luckily, the new Wrist Flick motion introduced in watchOS 26 takes practically no effort to get right. It involves quickly turning the back of your wrist away from you and back up again. Doing that can silence a call, stop a ringing timer, dismiss notifications and return you to the watch face from any app you open. It also makes those irritating helpful “Time to stand!” reminders go away. The wrist flick doesn’t clear alerts, just dismisses them — so the red indicator dot disappears, but the notification remains and you can see it if you swipe down. Just note that it’s only available to Apple Watch Series 9, 10 and the Ultra 2.

Wrist flick is a great feature — though it’s important to note that Android wearables since WearOS 2 had a similar feature for a while now. And I’d like to see Apple adopt more hands-free interactions like this. Apple already has many gesture-based controls as part of its existing AssistiveTouch feature. Actions like fist clenches, wrist tilts and single or double taps can control most of the navigation on the watch. Unfortunately, turning on AssistiveTouch turns off the universal double tap feature. I’d be interested in seeing something that splits the difference. Perhaps four or five gestures for basic functions that can be used in conjunction with screen input.

Smarter replies could make Messages a usable watch app

The Apple Watch is great for reading texts, but replying is awkward. That tiny keyboard is an interface for ants — even talk-to-text input is inefficient as it’s tough to correct mistakes. Smart Replies are little canned responses that appear as suggestions below the reply field. Those aren’t new, but now Series 9 watches and later will use an improved on-device language model to come up with relevant bits of text you can send with a tap.

In addition to the choices that are always offered — Okay, Yes, No, Thank you and Can I call you later? — I saw things like “Ok, let me know” and “That’s so sweet!” both of which applied to their respective conversations. I wasn’t always given Smart Reply suggestions, and some of them weren’t very relevant, but again, it’s a great feature that will save time when it works.

Another Messages update is a carryover from iOS 26 (and borrowed from countless other messaging apps). You can now set custom backgrounds for each of your (Apple-only) contacts. Just note that whatever you set will be seen by all participants in the conversation, once they update to iOS 26. On your watch, the photo, gradient or pattern you pick carries over to your conversations. Not only does it look nice, I find backgrounds help me to not accidentally text my mom something I meant to send to my sister.

Notes have arrived

The Notes app is now on Apple Watch. I honestly hadn’t noticed the lack before this — I know there are plenty of Notes enthusiasts out there, but in my world, Alexa handles all reminder and shopping list duties. Still, I can see how the new integration could come in handy. After creating a simple shopping checklist in the iOS Notes app, I opened the list on my watch while I was shopping and found it far easier to check things off on my wrist than dragging out my phone every time I stuck something in my cart.

I’m curious to see whether Apple’s improved prediction algorithms for the new OS will eventually add Notes to my Smart Stack suggestions after I open the Notes app a few times at the grocery store. As it stands now, the Notes widget will pop up first in the Smart Stack if that’s the last app you used.

The rest of the new stuff

Face Gallery

The iPhone Watch app has a new look and now organizes watch faces by category instead of by name. Groupings include New, Clean, Data-rich, Photos and Health and Fitness, among others. It’s certainly an improvement, but one that makes you wonder why it wasn’t always like this.

Adaptive sound

Another nice-but-obvious update adjusts the volume of pings and beeps to fit the environment — quieter in a noiseless office and louder at a raucous BBQ. I set a timer to go off when I was quietly working at my desk and then again with loud music playing and I couldn’t really tell the difference. But that’s a hard metric for the humble human ear to judge. Again, this is a feature reserved for Series 9 models and later.

Smart Stack

The Smart Stack will now add a small prompt to your watch face when it detects certain situations. For example, if you open the camera app on your phone, a small camera icon appears at the bottom of your watch screen, as a suggestion to open the remote shutter. Apple gives other examples, such as showing the workout icon when you arrive at your usual pilates studio or the Backtrack navigation feature when you journey away from cellular connectivity.

I didn’t see the prompt very often, but I did notice that the Smart Stack rearranged itself according to my habits — such as putting the medication widget at the top of the stack right around the time it was time to take my prescription, or shuffling Shazam to the top when it hears music playing.

Siri is still Siri

Coming fresh off of reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, I can’t help but notice a stark difference between that wearable’s fully integrated, AI-powered Gemini and Apple’s same-old Siri. Gemini on the Samsung watch helped me find new stuff in my city, performed convoluted tasks and answered some pretty esoteric questions. I use Siri on my watch to reliably set timers, text people and add events to my calendar. But it’s not quite on the level of Gemini’s contextually-aware, generative capabilities that can interact with multiple apps. Asking something like “Where should I have lunch?” gave me a list of businesses with lunch in the name followed by Siri asking me: “Which one?” Not sure what that meant. Gemini, on the other hand, gave me local and relevant ideas for places I’d actually want to eat.

Even before AI swallowed everyone’s mind, I had a soft spot for digital assistants. When Alexa sings the “You’re very, very, oh so very welcome” song, I get a dopey smile on my face. I’ve tried to love Siri, but I get frustrated by being misunderstood, misdirected, misheard and flat-out ignored. I know Apple doesn’t like to release new tech until it’s fully up to snuff, and I’m looking forward to seeing what finally happens with new Siri. But for now, the disparity shows.

Wrap-up

The changes watchOS 26 brings to the Apple Watch are perhaps not as grand as those for other Apple devices. Liquid Glass here isn’t as all-encompassing as it is on the iPhone. The new watch features don’t make the wearable finally realize its full potential like iPad OS 26 does for the tablet. And there isn’t one major feature upgrade that transforms the watch experience, like macOS 26 does with Spotlight on Macs.

But the updates do push the experience of using the watch forward. Liquid Glass is pretty and nicely ties the wearable with its companion devices. The Workout app, which was already good at tracking fitness metrics, is even better with the Workout Buddy, providing stat summaries and automated playlists. Improved smart replies for Messages and the addition of the Notes app fix two of the watch’s previous shortcomings. And the wrist flick adds another option for hands-free interaction and — I hope — is a precursor to more such utility. I’m still holding out hope for an improved, personable and helpful Siri once Apple is ready, but for now, these are all welcome upgrades for what’s already the industry’s best overall smartwatch.