Apple Watch is now more important than ever, whether it is staying connected with friends, tracking workouts, or living a healthy lifestyle. watchOS 26 also features a redesigned Liquid Glass design that makes the UI more expressive and visible in the Photos face, Smart Stack, Control Center, and navigation across apps. Smart Stack now understands a user’s location and daily routine to show the most important information first.
The need for Apple Watch and the introduction of watchOS 26
Apple Watch has become an essential part of our lives. Whether it is staying connected with friends, tracking workouts, or living a healthier lifestyle. It is all made easy with Apple Watch.
What watchOS 26 brings
- New design with Liquid Glass
- Smarter workouts with Apple Intelligence
- Personal motivation, like Workout Buddy
- New workout app layout and music integration
- Smart notifications, Wrist Flick, and Live Translation
- Notes app features and new developer APIs
- watchOS 26 makes Apple Watch even more personal, smart, and practical.
With watchOS 26, Apple is making many of the features Apple uses every day even better.
New design: The magic of Liquid Glass
watchOS 26 now features a new and beautiful design called Liquid Glass. This new look brings a fresh experience to you, but still feels familiar like the old watchOS.
Smart Stack, the number of photos of faces, Control Center, and in-app navigation will now have a more expressive experience and a greater focus on content.
WatchOS has become even smarter
WatchOS is now even more intelligent. With Apple Intelligence, it understands you better and presents you with the things that matter to you on time.
New in Fitness: Workout Buddy
Now there is a new feature in watchOS – Workout Buddy. It takes into account your fitness history to give you new and personalized motivation.
It analyzes data like your speed, distance, activity rings, and training load in real-time and gives you voice motivation.
Dynamic Voice and Custom Workouts
Workout Buddy’s voice is modeled after a Fitness Plus trainer’s voice to keep you energized and toned. You can also choose your own voice.
The Workout app interface is also now improved; as you start your run, Workout Buddy will give you a pep talk and celebrate every major accomplishment.
Real-time Updates While Running
As you run, Workout Buddy gives you performance updates like “Four miles down,” “Fastest mile yet,” or “Heart rate update.”
After your workout, it recognizes your effort and commends you with analytics.
New Layout and Music Integration
Options like Custom Workout and Race Route are now just a tap away. Also, the app has music features such as Apple Music will suggest playlists based on your preferences, or you can choose your own.
More intelligence in Smart Stack
Smart Stack is now more predictive. It now shows important features first based on your location, routine, and points of interest.
For example, if you are at the gym, the Workouts widget will automatically appear.
Practical notifications and wrist-flick gesture
Silent mode has been updated more intelligently. The volume will automatically increase or decrease depending on the surrounding sounds.
Also, the wrist flick gesture is now more useful; it lets you dismiss notifications, mute calls, and close Smart Stack.
Messages, Translation, and the new Notes app
The Messages app now has the feature of Live Translation with the help of Apple Intelligence. Now you can talk in another language just by lifting your wrist.
Additionally, the Notes app is now available on Apple Watch; quickly saving a note or looking at an old note is a breeze.
New APIs for developers
Developers can better integrate their apps into Smart Stack and Control Center, such as the Slopes app, which shows a widget when you arrive at a ski resort, or Dark Noise, letting you play a Sleep Soundscape directly.
