watchOS 26

watchOS 26 is the newest version of watchOS, the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. It introduces an updated design that uses Apple's Liquid Glass material, similar to iOS 26 and macOS 26. You'll find the Liquid Glass design throughout watchOS 26.

Apple named this version of the Apple Watch software watchOS 26 instead of watchOS 12 in order to streamline naming across its product lineup.

Liquid Glass reflects and refracts its surroundings, just like glass in the real world. The more translucent design elements put focus on content rather than navigation, and controls are designed to fade into the background. Liquid Glass transforms depending on context and content, and it uses real-time rendering to dynamically react to movement to change the way that light reflects off of interface elements.

There is a new look for the Smart Stack widgets and the Control Center, plus the Photos watch face now has a Liquid Glass-style time option. Navigation buttons and controls in apps all have the Liquid Glass design, as do incoming notifications.

Apple redesigned the Face Gallery to make it easier to find and customize watch face options. Faces are organized into categories, like Health and Fitness, Photos, Colorful, Clean, Data Rich, Nike, Pride, Tool, Bold, and more. The newest watch face options that Apple has added are in a New section at the top of the interface.

The main new feature in watchOS 26 is the Workout Buddy, an on-wrist assistant that uses Apple Intelligence to motivate you during your workouts. Workout Buddy analyzes and compares fitness history to current workouts to offer up personalized insights.

You'll get pep talks when starting a workout, encouragement when it's getting tough, and a summary when the workout has ended. Workout Buddy uses generative audio built with voice data from Fitness+ trainers. Workout Buddy can be customized for each workout type, depending on your needs.

To highlight Workout Buddy, Apple redesigned the Workout app. Each workout type gets its own page in the Workout app, and you can swipe or turn the Digital Crown to get to the one you're looking for. Tapping on the buttons in the corners of the display launches different features, so you can tap to start a workout, customize Workout Views and metrics, set goals for specific workouts, and enable or disable alerts.

Every workout now includes an option to Autoplay Media, which automatically starts music, podcasts, audiobooks, or other things that you like to listen to while exercising. Apple Music can intelligently suggest the best playlist for workouts based on workout type and your preferred music, or you can choose your own options. Your watch will remember what you like to listen to during each workout type.

Apple updated the Smart Stack with improved prediction algorithms that take into account more contextual data, sensor data, and data from your personal routine to provide useful Smart Stack hints. Smart Stack hints are actionable suggestions that are meant to be useful to you based on what you're doing. You're able to customize widgets in the Smart Stack to ensure it's showing what's most useful to you, with the option to add third-party apps.

In the Messages app, Apple overhauled Smart Replies to make them more tailored to you and who you're speaking to. There are new actions suggested based on the context of the message, to make it easier to send quick and useful replies to incoming texts. The Messages app supports Live Translation, so if you're texting with someone who speaks another language, you can get quick automatic translations.

Custom backgrounds that you set for Messages conversations using iOS 26 show up on the Apple Watch, and the app supports responding to polls from your wrist.

The Phone app on Apple Watch has new features that match what's new in iOS 26. Call Screening asks an unknown caller for more information like name and reason for calling so you can decide whether or not to answer. Hold Assist allows you to do other things while your device waits on hold for you.

Apple brought the Notes app to the Apple Watch this year, so you can create new notes, view existing notes, and pin notes from your wrist. Notes are designed to show up in the Smart Stack on Apple Watch when you've edited a note on iPhone or Mac.

When you're in a particularly loud or quiet place, the Apple Watch is now able to automatically adjust volume to match the sound in the ambient environment. If you're in a library, for example, the volume will drop, so you don't get loud alerts. Automatic volume adjustments work for calls, timers, alarms, and Siri.

Apple also added Live Listen to Apple Watch, so you can read real-time Live Captions of what your iPhone hears while listening to audio. The Apple Watch can be used to start or stop Live Listen sessions on a paired iPhone.

There is a new one-handed flick gesture that's designed to dismiss notifications, silence calls, and return to the watch face, and more. To use it, just flick your wrist over and back.

watchOS 26 is set to launch to the public this fall alongside new Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 models.

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If you're wondering why Apple went from watchOS 11 to watchOS 26, it was to streamline operating system naming. Apple is numbering all of its operating systems with the year going forward, so the "26" in watchOS 26 represents the release season between September 2025 and September 2026.

Everything released this year uses the same number, so iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and so on. It will help keep numbering more straightforward in the future, even if it seems strange to skip from watchOS 11 to watchOS 26.

Like iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26, watchOS 26 has been updated with Apple's new Liquid Glass material, transforming the look of some interface elements. Liquid Glass is translucent, letting light and color shine through.

It is designed to behave like real glass, so it can subtly reflect light, and it uses real-time rendering to change the highlights that you see on buttons, controls, and menus when you move.

App icons on the Apple Watch have been redesigned to look like multiple layers of glass stacked on one another, with a slight depth that almost makes them look 3D. Icons and other Liquid Glass elements stand out from the background and look like they're floating cover the content behind them.

On the Apple Watch, Liquid Glass is most noticeable with notifications, the Smart Stack, and the Control Center, all of which use the new aesthetic. Controls and buttons in apps like Apple Music feature Liquid Glass, allowing you to see the color and content that's behind them.

Watch Faces

Apple didn't transform most of its watch faces with the Liquid Glass look yet, but one exception is the Photos watch face. When you create a Photos watch face in the Apple Watch app on iPhone, there is an option to use Liquid Glass for the time.

As with iOS 26, the time on the watch face can expand automatically to fill in the space around the image that you're using. It can expand and move to the side, plus it has the floating look, so the focus is always on your photo.

If you use the Shuffle feature for the Photos watch face, the time will change shape and size with each image. It's a unique effect that works even better on the watch than it does on the iPhone, and it even includes complications if you have them set. There are multiple "Glass" colors to choose from on the Apple Watch, but the clear one looks most like the Liquid Glass design.

The Workout app is one of the key parts of the Apple Watch, and Apple added several new features in watchOS 26.

Workout Buddy

watchOS 26 uses Apple Intelligence on a paired iPhone to add a Workout Buddy feature to the Apple Watch that can motivate you during workouts. Workout Buddy uses a text-to-speech generative AI model that was created with voice data from real Apple Fitness+ trainers. Workout Buddy is available for higher impact workouts like running, cycling, HIIT training, walking, and strength training.

Workout Buddy does not work with yoga, dance, hiking, fitness gaming, core training, swimming, kickboxing, and other similar specialized workout activities.

By using fitness trainers, Workout Buddy is able to sound like a personal trainer who might motivate you to get through a workout in the gym. Apple says that it is designed to provide the right energy, style, and tone for each workout type that you're doing. There are multiple voices that you can choose from for Workout Buddy.

Workout Buddy uses your historical personal fitness data like ring streaks, pace, and training load. The information is analyzed and then compared to your current workout in real time to encourage you to meet or beat your prior targets.

Each workout session begins with a short pep talk that recaps what you've already done and congratulates you for getting up and moving. The motivational talks include information like how long you need to move to close your Exercise ring, or how much activity you've done earlier in the week.

During important parts of your workout, such as splits on a run, Workout Buddy provides encouragement. It's also able to call out milestones like an all-time calorie burning record, a landmark number of miles cycling, or a new best time on a run. At the end of a workout, Workout Buddy congratulates you on your effort and recaps what you've done.

- "Way to get out for your run this Wednesday morning. You're 18 minutes away from closing your Exercise ring. So far this week, you've run 6 miles. You're going to add to that today."

- "Mile four. You picked up the pace and ran that last one in 8 minutes and 28 seconds."

- "Hey, check this out. Your total running distance for the year just crossed the 200-mile mark! That's a lot of running!"

- "Way to get your workout in! You went 4.3 miles in just over 38 minutes. Your average pace was 8 minutes and 58 seconds, and your average heart rate was 128. That was your longest run of the last 28 days. What will you do next?"

Using Workout Buddy requires Bluetooth headphones paired with an Apple Watch, and also a nearby iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence.

Updated Design

Apple changed the layout of the Workout app, so you're no longer just scrolling through a list of types. There are four buttons in the corners of the app for getting to different actions, and you can scroll or use the Digital Crown to move through workout types.

The four buttons let you get to Workout View customizations, audio controls, alert options, and options for setting goals, pace, and route. It's also where Workout Buddy can be enabled for a supported workout.

Apple added a Workout Media option to make it easier to start up music, podcasts, audiobooks, or whatever you prefer to listen to when you begin a workout. You can select your favorites, or if you have Apple Music, your watch can automatically choose playlists based on workout type and the music you like.

Once you've set up Workout Media for a workout type, your chosen audio will automatically play when you start your workout.

Apple made major updates to the Smart Stack, which is the widget interface that you can get to by swiping up on your watch face. Smart Stack is more intelligent, and can incorporate info from location, built-in sensors, and routines to make suggestions.

There is a Smart Stack hints feature that shows you relevant suggestions that you might want to take advantage of. If you're in a remote area, it might suggest Backtrack, for example. Or if you have a meeting coming up, you'll see a suggested widget to activate Do Not Disturb. When you're traveling, you might see the weather for the location you're heading to.

Smart Stack hints appear on the Apple Watch display as a small, Liquid Glass icon without a notification or a haptic tap.

Widgets in the Smart Stack are now customizable, so you can choose the content that's most important to you. You can select widgets from Apple apps, or third-party apps.

In watchOS 26, the Control Center is customizable. If there are controls that you don't use often, you can remove them, and you can reorder the placement of each option so that what you use most often is front and center. All of the controls that are in the Control Center gallery in the iPhone can be added on the Apple Watch, including third-party Control Center options.

Third-party controls can be added to Apple Watch even if the iOS app they're from does not have an Apple Watch equivalent. Third-party apps can have specific controls created just for the Apple Watch.

On the Apple Watch Ultra, Control Center controls can be assigned to the Action button.

To go along with the Double Tap gesture that Apple added in previous versions of watchOS, there's a new wrist flick gesture that you can use for managing notifications.

Wrist flick is a one-handed way to dismiss incoming notifications and mute calls, alarms, and alerts when you don't have a free hand for swiping. To use wrist flick, turn your wrist over and back, and the accelerometer and gyroscope detect the action to dismiss what's on the screen, returning you to your watch face.

For those who turn on sound on their watches, there is a new automatic volume adjustment feature that changes the sound level of alerts and calls based on your ambient surroundings. The Apple Watch uses the built-in microphone to listen to what's around you, but Apple says that no audio is reviewed or saved.

Notifications, calls, timers, alarms, and Siri responses will be quieter or louder based on where you are. If you're in a library, for example, the Apple Watch can tell that it's quiet and will provide much quieter alerts that won't disturb others. Automatically Adjust Volume can be turned on in the Sounds and Haptics section of the Settings app.

Messages

Apple overhauled Smart Replies on the Apple Watch, and there is a new on-device model that's smarter than before. Smart actions will show up based on the context of the message, so you can get more done with a tap.

If someone asks where you are, for example, you can tap to send them your Find My location. Or if someone messages you about paying them back for dinner, your watch can pop up the Apple Cash interface.

The Messages app also adopts several features from the iPhone.

• Customizable backgrounds - When you set a background for a text conversation in the Messages app on iPhone, it also shows up on the Apple Watch.
• Polls - You can't create polls on Apple Watch, but you can vote on them.
• Live Translation - Messages that aren't in your language can be automatically translated as you receive them. This feature requires Apple Intelligence on a nearby iPhone.

Phone

The Phone app supports Call Screening and Hold Assist, two new features in iOS 26.

• Call Screening - Call Screening asks callers with unknown numbers for their name and reason for calling, and sends you a transcript of the response so you can decide whether to take the call or decline.
• Hold Assist - When you're on hold waiting for a person, the Phone app can wait for you. There's a Live Activity that lets you know you're connected to a call, and the watch sends you an alert to return to the call when a live agent is on the line.

Notes

The Notes app is now available on the Apple Watch, so you can create and view notes right on your wrist.

• Viewing notes - Anything you've saved to iCloud notes can be viewed in the Apple Watch Notes app. You can preview images and handwritten notes, and complete checklists.
• Creating notes - Siri, dictation, or the keyboard can be used for quick note taking.
• Pinned notes - Important notes like a grocery list can be pinned to the top of the app.
• Locked notes - Locked notes are viewable with wrist authentication.
• Smart Stack - Notes that you've recently edited on iPhone, iPad, or Mac, show up as suggestions in the Smart Stack so you can quickly access them on your watch.

Apple added Live Listen to the Apple Watch in watchOS 26. Users who are deaf or hard of hearing can get real-time Live Captions of what the iPhone hears on a paired Apple Watch while listening to the audio.

The Apple Watch also serves as a remote control for starting or stopping Live Listen conversations.

watchOS 26 is compatible with the 2nd-generation Apple Watch SE and the Apple Watch Series 6 and later. It also requires an iPhone 11 or later with iOS 26.

• Apple Watch SE (2nd generation)
• Apple Watch Series 6
• Apple Watch Series 7
• Apple Watch Series 8
• Apple Watch Series 9
• Apple Watch Series 10
• Apple Watch Ultra
• Apple Watch Ultra 2

watchOS 26 is available to developers for beta testing right now, and Apple plans to release a public beta in July. After the testing period, the software will launch alongside new Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 models in September.