- Tips - No more dinging while you charge! 🤫
- Trivia - Test your Apple Watch knowledge 🧠
- Deep Dive - Discover AI-powered features on your wrist. ⌚
- Health Challenge Update - Join our February 2026 Challenge! 🏆
- 🤫Keep your watch quiet while charging.
- 📸Turn the shared photos off on your watch.
- 👋Quickly mute your watch without tapping.
The watchOS 26 update added an Apple app to the Watch that was previously only available on other devices. What is it?
📱 Mail
📱📱 Notes
📱📱📱Phone
📱📱📱📱Vitals
Did you get it right? Scroll down to find out!
Apple’s latest software update was heavy on AI features, and your Apple Watch got several smart upgrades. To avoid confusion, I want to point out that while AI is short for Artificial Intelligence, Apple has its own AI system called Apple Intelligence. Everything I’ll be writing about in this newsletter is specific to Apple Intelligence, but since it is a type of Artificial Intelligence, I’ll be using the terms interchangeably.
Smart Activity Coaching via Workout Buddy
Workout Buddy was one of the most talked about watchOS 26 features. It uses AI to offer encouragement and share stats for certain workouts. I originally expected it to be a little more coach-like, but, for what I assume are legal reasons, Workout Buddy won’t actually push you to exercise more/faster, or give detailed information about your heart rate or fat-burning zone that could actually be valuable. It does make sense that it’s not safe for AI to make such workout suggestions without having a full picture of the user’s medical history. But I do wish it could do more, and I don’t find the current features helpful at all. In fact, many people find them distracting and have chosen to turn Workout Buddy off for good.
Live Translate in Messages
Live Translate is another new feature that uses AI to let you seamlessly communicate with someone who speaks a different language by having your watch (and phone) automatically translate the conversation. I would have loved this feature when I lived in China! Before you get too excited, keep in mind that it is only available for certain languages, but Apple will hopefully keep releasing more. Live Translate has even more uses on an iPhone, but I love that it works in the Messages app on the Watch too.
More AI Messages Updates
Outside of Live Translate, the Messages app is, in general, smarter and actually offers valuable contextual reply suggestions. This can save a lot of time when you’re trying to type on your watch’s tiny display. My favorite suggestion happened when someone asked me where I was, and my watch offered up the Share Location button so I didn’t have to go looking for it!
Smarter Smart Stacks
Smart Stacks are the widgets that appear over the watch face with AI-powered suggestions. It takes a while for this feature to actually get smart, but it has lately given me great suggestions based on what it knows about my schedule and routines. For example, I would regularly add to a specific note around 8:00 a.m., and after doing this for three consecutive days, I glance at my watch to see it suggesting I add something to that particular note! It has also suggested I start a workout and a timer based on my habits. It’s a little creepy that it knows me so well, but overall it’s valuable and does save me time while helping me maintain the routines I’ve built.
The Wrist Flick Gesture
While it doesn’t seem like an AI feature, Wrist Flick does, in fact, use AI to function. Wrist Flick lets you silence incoming notifications, stop alarms, and end calls by flicking your wrist. It uses machine learning to analyze the data from your watch’s accelerometer and gyroscope to accurately recognize your wrist movements. From my experience with hands-free gestures, it can take some time to get the hang of them. Yes, it can be frustrating when you’re waving your wrist around and the alarm won’t go off… but once you and the AI in your watch figure out Wrist Flick, it truly is a life-changing Apple Watch feature.
Did I miss your favorite Apple Watch AI feature? Email OntheWatch@iphonelife.com and let me know!
📱📱 Notes
While typing a note on your tiny watch screen might not be ideal, using Siri to dictate notes can make this quite a handy (pun intended) new trick.
The February Challenge is still going on and if you join in the next few days, it will use all the data from your watch to give you credit for all the activity you’ve done this month!
The monthly iPhone Life Challenge is a great way to come together as a community and motivate each other to reach our health goals by staying active. We’ll be doing a weekly accountability post for subscribers in our Insider Facebook group. Join to share struggles, trade tips, and support one another on our journeys.
To join the challenge, download the free Challenges app on your iPhone and enter the code MC4Y when prompted. Need help? This article explains the steps and tells you more about the app.
Are you enjoying the challenge? Do you have any suggestions for how we can make it even better? Email OnTheWatch@iPhoneLife.com and let me know.
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