watchOS 26 preview: a subtler tackle AI

Apple simply launched the watchOS 26 public beta, which implies everybody can now strive the newest software program heading to the Apple Watch this fall. That contains new Apple Intelligence options, comparable to Workout Buddy, new messaging options, the Wrist Flick gesture, and extra.

I’ve been utilizing the developer beta and have some ideas to share. Apple Intelligence doesn’t arrive on watchOS 26 with a bang. So, why carry it to the watch now, and why this specific set of options?

David Clark, Apple’s senior director of software program engineering for watchOS, informed me it was a matter of highlighting the Apple Watch’s “core competencies”: health and staying linked.

AI health options are all the craze. Fitness monitoring generates a mountain of knowledge, and contextualizing it into digestible insights is a Herculean process — a process AI is supposedly good at. Even so, whereas watching the Workout Buddy sizzle reel throughout the WWDC keynote, I morphed into Tina from Bob’s Burgers. In it, you see a girl run by way of a neighborhood as an AI-generated voice reads out her tempo and different stats. Minutes after the keynote ended, my telephone buzzed with texts. They all requested the identical query: how a lot am I going to hate this Workout Buddy?

After utilizing it, I’d enterprise: not that a lot, really. Workout Buddy is extra delicate than the sizzle reel implied.

“An important challenge to be considered when applying any technology, AI or otherwise, is how can real value be added to an experience?” explains Clark. He notes Apple Watch is already adept at monitoring actions, however with Workout Buddy, the aim was to “bring something that was less technical data” and extra motivational.

Workout Buddy begins each session with a pep speak and ends with a abstract of what you simply did. The center of your exercise is the place the AI magic is meant to occur.

On a run, Clark says, Workout Buddy will observe your tempo everytime you hit a mile. You may also get a celebratory message if you happen to hit your a hundredth mile of the yr, and so forth. Running lends itself to a chattier Workout Buddy. In a stroll or a high-intensity interval coaching session, Clark says, you may not hear from Workout Buddy in any respect.

In my walks, I solely heard from Workout Buddy at the start and finish of my exercises. The “contextual bit” was that the AI informed me of my progress towards closing my rings for the day, and whether or not I used to be making good progress in comparison with my common. It was a lot chattier throughout my runs, studying out my phase occasions, what music I listened to, or if I’d closed a hoop.

Workout Buddy doesn’t really feel like AI. (Though you want your watch to be paired to an Apple Intelligence-capable telephone to make use of the function.) It’s not a chatbot. You can’t ask questions on your information — or the rest for that matter — throughout a exercise. Audio cues for stats aren’t new, both. Plenty of health apps have been doing that for years. Technically, the AI-powered bits are twofold. Workout Buddy voices have been educated on Apple Fitness Plus trainers. (You can select from three in the meanwhile.) And it’s pulling historic tidbits out of your information and notifying you in actual time.

Most health apps are inclined to encourage you with historic information as badges throughout the app. It’s not one thing that’s sometimes delivered in actual time as an audio cue. Because I haven’t hit too many operating milestones this yr — my PRs are sadly nonexistent to this point — I can’t adequately say Workout Buddy helped me really feel extra motivated. Was it good to listen to I used to be on observe to shut my rings on the finish of a exercise? Sure. If you’re a longtime runner like me, milestones aren’t an on a regular basis factor. But from previous expertise, I’d admire a Workout Buddy giving me an encouraging stat at mile 10 of a half-marathon.

I want you can customise Workout Buddy. It’d be cool to tweak the settings so I’d get 30 p.c extra motivation throughout a race or acquire insights to take it sluggish throughout scorching climate. Perhaps that is the place Workout Buddy is headed. But for now, this seems like a extra cautious implementation.

It’s all within the subtleties

It’s a bit of clearer as to why Workout Buddy will get the marquee billing if you see the opposite methods Apple Intelligence reveals up on the wrist. While it’s on guardrails, it’s extra overtly AI than the remainder of watchOS 26’s Apple Intelligence options.

A number of the Apple Intelligence options you’ll see on the Watch this yr might be an extension of what’s accessible on the telephone. That contains Live Translations and Smart Actions (i.e., if you happen to get texted your share of a invoice, you may faucet to ship it by way of Apple Cash) in Messages. But there are different options which can be extra broadly AI-powered exterior the Apple Intelligence nomenclature. One such function is the improved Smart Stack.

The Smart Stack was first introduced in watchOS 10, and is meant to surface the widgets you need at the right time. This year, you also get a small icon on your watchface prompting you toward a widget when you might need it. It sounds silly, but it’s a clever tweak.

According to Clark, the improved Smart Stack algorithm now incorporates multiple signals from apps. That includes Live Activity data, environmental cues (e.g., if you’re in a remote location without LTE or Wi-Fi), or recently used apps.

Smart Stack has always been hard to notice. The Uber widget popping up has generally been the Smart Stack use case I’m most aware of. But the other day, I was making dinner, and while setting a timer, I saw a prompt for the weather widget. Apparently, a giant flood warning was issued because of an impending torrential downpour. That led my spouse and me to swap our cars so their fancy sports car could sit in the garage. It’s a small thing, but useful nonetheless.

Double tap, or the pinchy pinch, is handy. But it might be dethroned by Wrist Flick, or the flippy flip. When you get a notification you don’t want, you can just twist your wrist to dismiss it. It is hands-down my favorite addition to watchOS 26.

“The thing we wanted to accomplish with this was rounding out the story of ‘I’m either going to take action or I’m going to decide that’s not for me now,’” says Clark. “There’s a really nice symmetry to motioning away from what you’re viewing to acknowledge ‘I’m kind of done with that, I’m dismissing that.’”

Wrist Flick has been tremendous helpful for me, a receiver of Too Many Notifications. It takes a second to recollect to make use of it. But the mix of Double Tap and Wrist Flick has made me right into a notification triage machine. I ponder why we haven’t at all times had this as a default.

I’ve been testing the developer betas, and so much might change earlier than the ultimate model of watchOS 26 arrives this fall. But based mostly on what I’ve seen in watchOS 26? It’s the options that fade into the background that left the strongest impression.

Photography by Victoria Song / The Verge