WWDC25: All the major updates coming to watchOS 26
watchOS 26 builds on what the Apple Watch already does well. But makes it feel more fluid, more thoughtful, and more in sync with real life.
The Apple Watch has always been about convenience, glanceable info, quick replies, and health tracking without the bulk. But with watchOS 26, announced at WWDC 2025, Apple is quietly rebranding the Watch into something more adaptive and intelligent.
The version jump from watchOS 10 to 26 reflects the platform-wide rebrand, but under the surface, this update is less about catching up to a number and more about catching up to intelligent real-life use.
And, compared to previous years, watchOS 26 stands out for its more intelligent updates, particularly with the integration of Apple Intelligence and the new design language. While previous years focused on incremental improvements and feature enhancements, watchOS 26 introduces more fundamental changes that focus on enhancing the user experience, especially for fitness, communication, and everyday interactions.
Here are some of the major updates coming to watchOS 26.
| 1 | New design with Liquid Glass
watchOS also adopts the Liquid Glass design—a subtle but noticeable UI shift across all Apple products, bringing real-time reflections and translucency into Smart Stack, Control Centre, notifications, in-app controls, and navigations.
It gives the system a more responsive, modern feel that feels more alive, without feeling cluttered or distracting.
| 2 | Workout Buddy and smarter coaching
Apple Intelligence shows up in the form of a new Workout Buddy feature, which introduces a more intelligent layer for fitness. It pulls from your past workout data—pace, heart rate, distance, milestones—and offers contextual feedback that adjusts to your goals in real-time.
This includes a personalised pep talk at the beginning of your workout and a recap of your workout stats, and a congratulation at the end of your workout.
| 3 | Redesigned Workout app
The Workout app itself sees its biggest redesign yet. Four new corner buttons offer quick access to Custom Workouts, Workout Views, Pacer, and Race Route.
This makes navigation on the watch face faster, especially mid-workout when fumbling around is not an option.
Video Credit: Apple
| 4 | Music and podcast automation
Music and podcast setup is now built into workouts, with automatic playback and intelligent suggestions based on what you typically listen to during that activity.
| 4 | Smarter interactions
Video Credit: Apple
The Smart Stack, designed to help you quickly access important information from your watch face, is now more context-aware, pulling from your habits, routines, and sensor data to show message suggestions when they’re most relevant.
Contextual Actions in Messages will use the context of a conversation to suggest a reply or action. For example. If someone texts “Did you get home safe?”, your Watch can prompt you to check in. It can also suggest using Apple Cash when a user is asked to contribute to a group gift.
Live Translation in the Messages app lets you read incoming texts in your preferred language, and your replies are translated back on the fly. It works directly from the wrist on supported models when paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone.
The wrist flick gesture can be used to dismiss notifications and incoming calls, silence timers and alarms, and return to the watch face for times when the user’s other hand is occupied. Apple Watch also adjusts speaker volume based on ambient noise, so alerts and calls remain audible without being disruptive.
Video Credit: Apple
Other feature updates:
- The Notes app comes to Apple Watch, letting users quickly view or dictate notes without needing to reach for their phone.
- Photos face will now shuffle images based on Featured content from Photos, showing more meaningful images every time you raise your wrist or tap the display.
- Users can now explore and discover watch faces more easily with the redesigned watch face gallery on Apple Watch and in the Watch app on iPhone, with faces grouped into collections
- Live Listen tools for the deaf and hard of hearing now include real-time captions of iPhone audio on your Watch.
- Other Accessibility features continue to improve, with refined tools for better navigation and input for users who rely on assistive features.
- Custom chat backgrounds set on your iPhone now appear in Messages on Apple Watch, too.
Conclusion
From a new design language to context-aware interactions and workout tools that respond to you in real time, watchOS 26 shows Apple rethinking how the Watch fits into the rhythms of daily life.
Whether it’s the Watch offering a smarter workout companion, handling language translation on the fly, or simply responding faster to your gestures, the changes feel aimed at cutting friction.
So while the updates aren’t radical, we see Apple making an effort to make the watch work more intuitively and adapt to your routine, doing more of what it’s already good at, without needing to be told.
These updates are currently available through the Apple Developer Program. Meanwhile, the public beta is expected to roll out next month.
