Apple's watchOS 27, now available to download, removes four built-in apps from all supported Apple Watch models, folding three of them into a single Find My app and dropping Walkie-Talkie entirely.
The largest change affects Find My. watchOS 27 replaces the separate Find Devices, Find People, and Find Items apps with one map-centric app that handles all three functions. The main screen offers quick access to actions like getting directions and finding nearby items, and Precision Finding is available for locating a paired iPhone, AirPods Pro 3, or AirTag 2.
Apple says the redesign makes it easier to locate people, devices, and items from a single view. It also adds more flexible sharing options, with the aim of providing greater control over how you share your location and item tracking with others.
The fourth app, Walkie-Talkie, has been removed outright. The push-to-talk feature has disappeared from both the app list and Control Center in the beta, with no way to restore it. Apple has not said why it dropped the app.
Walkie-Talkie launched with watchOS 5 in 2018 and let two Apple Watch wearers exchange short voice clips over Wi-Fi or cellular using Apple's FaceTime architecture. Apple shut it down temporarily that year after a bug allowed eavesdropping, and the company has largely left the app untouched in the years since.
The fifth app to go in watchOS 27 isn't an app as such, but a related feature that made switching between open apps much easier: the App Switcher. In previous versions of watchOS, a double-press of the Digital Crown would invoke it, allowing you to quickly switch to the last-used app and any other recently used apps. You could also swipe up on an app's card to quit it. Unfortunately, the App Switcher is no longer available in watchOS 27 because the gesture has been repurposed for Apple's upcoming Live Rewind AI feature.
Apple officially released watchOS 27 alongside new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 models (the only devices that support Live Rewind) in September 2026.
