Apple announces watchOS 26
At Apple’s developer conference, the company launched a new look and feel for its operating systems, starting with the name – watchOS 26 – to reflect the year, rather than the linear iteration of the OS. The biggest update to the new OS is the “liquid glass” look – first used in VisionOS – that uses translucent backgrounds to give the interface a more glass-like appearance. Beyond the look, probably the biggest enhancement was Workout Buddy, an AI-infused solution that will talk you through your next workout to give continual encouragement and advice. Of course, the trick here is that most of the smarts come from your iPhone, rather than the actual watch, so you need an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone to work.
A more subtle – but also more useful – enhancement leverages a predictive algorithm (using data such as your location, the time of day and more) to pop up the most likely smart stack apps. The example given during the demonstration was the watch showing you a workout card when you arrive at the gym in the morning.
The Circana Take:
- Small iterations that further enhance the Apple Watch – and also hopefully drive you to buy a newer smartphone in order to make use of the Apple Intelligence. But in all reality, there is nothing in this new upgrade that will convince people to buy their first smartwatch.
- We’ve said it before, but in order to broaden the smartwatch market further there needs to be more focus on apps. Teams and WhatsApp are both missing from Apple Watch, which limits the appeal to a broader segment of the market that is less interested in exercise.