![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753472890_820_hqdefault.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Apple has released WatchOS 26 to the public beta, after roughly six weeks of developer beta access. I\u2019ve been using it since the announcement last month at WWDC, and have a pretty good feel for the new features, both minor tweaks, as well as the larger tweaks. This includes the new glass-like UI (called Liquid Glass), the ability to sync Notes, as well as fitness-focused features like Workout Buddy and the redesigned user interface.<\/p>\n
Now obviously, it\u2019s still in beta (just expanding availability from developer beta to public beta), with the ultimate release slated for this September, likely alongside new watches. As always, except that the new features introduced in the WatchOS 26 beta are only a portion of the new things that ultimately end up in WatchOS 26 when it hits both new and old watches this fall. That\u2019s because Apple always holds back certain features to announce at their September event, and many times these features are available across more than just the newly announced watches.<\/p>\n
Note that WatchOS 26 is available for Apple Watch Ultra 2, Ultra 1, Series 10, Series 8, Series 7, Series 6, and SE (2nd Gen).<\/p>\n
In any case, let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n
All the General Bits:<\/strong><\/p>\n First up, a super quick recap on what\u2019s new in this realm (for non-workout features):<\/p>\n \u2013 New Liquid Glass design style, including translucence, across the UI Many of these things are pretty minor, though ironically, probably my favorite is simply the sync of Notes from my phone to the watch. It\u2019s super handy for stuff like grocery lists or the like. I often write down a list of shots I need when out running\/riding, and having them quickly accessible is nice. Or here, where I\u2019m using the phone to take the shots, and thus, being able to glance at the watch is handy.<\/p>\n You can view existing notes, and create a new note, but there isn\u2019t any way to modify an existing note (such as crossing off the completed shots). Perhaps that\u2019ll come down the road, I don\u2019t know (or perhaps there\u2019s some non-obvious way to edit said existing note).<\/p>\n As for the Liquid Glass-like interface, it\u2019s pretty toned down compared to iOS 26 (and even that has been toned down in the most recent beta). But since the WatchOS 26\/iOS 26 announcement, the WatchOS side of things was always much more muted, likely as a result of just being a heck of a lot smaller screen, designed for quick glanceability. So, having too much transparency makes it harder to see things (and likely a reason why we saw Apple tone it down on the phone side too).<\/p>\n Anyway, overall, on the watch specifically, I don\u2019t think most people will really care one way or the other. The most visible instance of Liquid Glass is frankly the PIN code\/unlock screen.<\/p>\n Everything else is pretty muted.<\/p>\n New Workout User Interface:<\/strong><\/p>\n Ok, so let\u2019s get into some of the workout interface changes. These are arguably some of the bigger pieces, which distill down into the following:<\/p>\n \u2013 Revamped Workout UI entirely Essentially, this boils down to: \u2018rearranging a bunch of bits into more logical buckets\u2019, adding a new Apple Music feature, and adding Workout Buddy.<\/p>\n Starting off with the Workout User Interface revamp, the first thing you\u2019ll notice is that it\u2019s simply showing a single sport at a time (seen above), whereas in the past, you had 2-3 tiles worth of sports (e.g.,\u00a0 Running, Cycling, Swimming, etc\u2026). However now, when you scroll, it then uses Liquid Glass to show roughly three workout types at a time, as you go up\/down:<\/p>\n In any case, in the four corners, you\u2019ll now find the four buckets of stuff that have been logically grouped together.<\/p>\n Previously this was sorta messy, whereas now, this grouping makes sense:<\/p>\n Upper left:<\/strong> Workout Views (aka your data pages\/settings) I\u2019m good with this, and this makes a ton of sense, so kudos here.<\/p>\n In terms of features like the Workout Views, once within this, they haven\u2019t changed from the past. And the same goes for Workout Goals\/Structured Workouts. All of it is the same.<\/p>\n Whereas Music is changed, and there\u2019s now a new option \u201cPicked for You\u201d, which will automatically create a playlist on the fly for you (or you can automatically start an existing playlist). This new playlist on the fly feature is leveraging Apple Music, and aims to automatically match the type of workout \u2013 such as HIIT with a high energy, versus Yoga will be more chill. It does not use awareness of structured workouts, etc, just the overall sport type.<\/p>\n In my use of this over the last little while, mostly on runs, the playlists varied between \u201choly crap that was great\u201d to \u201ctotally missed the mood\u201d. For example, last night, on a trail run right at sunset, the songs as the sun was disappearing into the ocean were spot on. Almost ethereal, matching the beat of the running cadence. However, about 10-15 minutes later, the music took on a totally different vibe-breaking mood, going towards hardcore rap. And while music is obviously very personal, these two didn\u2019t seem to fit together on the same automatically generated playlist.<\/p>\n And while I\u2019d be happy to tell you the names of the songs, I can\u2019t do that either. It doesn\u2019t show\/record these anywhere that I can find, as they don\u2019t appear to show up either in the Apple Fitness app on your phone, or even the Apple Music app as historically played songs. Seems like an opportunity to list these within the Apple Fitness workout summary pages somewhere<\/p>\n In any case, as I said above, when the music was good, it was really good. I just wish I knew what half the songs were later on.<\/p>\n Workout Buddy:<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, we get to Workout Buddy, the headliner feature of WatchOS 26. This is designed to basically take an Apple Fitness+ trainer, and bring them along with you on a workout. The two voices are literally modeled after two Apple Fitness+ trainers today, Sam Sanchez (women\u2019s voice) and Jamie-Ray Hartshorne (male voice), and it sounds like this will probably grow in the future with more voice options.<\/p>\n In any case, to get things started, you\u2019ll need to enable it in the lower right corner, in the same place you enable other alerts:<\/p>\n You can enable Workout Buddy on a per-sport profile basis, and then choose the voice for each workout type. Workout Buddy is available on the following sport profiles:<\/p>\n \u2013 Outdoor Run This list has expanded since launch, where Indoor Ride and a few others weren\u2019t supported, but now are. Additionally, you can change the voices, which are simply listed as Voice 1 and Voice 2. Additionally, I\u2019m now getting a Voice 3 listed that\u2019s female but sounds similar, yet not quite the same as Sam Sanchez. Unclear what this is.<\/p>\n In any case, for Workout Buddy, there are four other requirements:<\/p>\n 1) You must have a compatible Apple Intelligence phone paired to it (iPhone 15 Pro\/Pro Max series, or all iPhone 16 series phones) What you quickly realize when using this is that Apple Intelligence isn\u2019t actually on the watch at all. WatchOS 26 is not actually bringing AI onto your watch. Or at least, not doing the processing on your watch. Instead, everything is done either on the phone or in the cloud. Apple is leveraging its Private Cloud Compute for Workout Buddy, in conjunction with additional information the watch supplies to the cloud, in order to create the voice tidbits we\u2019ll get into later.<\/p>\n This means that if you don\u2019t have internet access (such as during portions of my trail runs), you won\u2019t get any Workout Buddy insights, or even any splits\/lap alerts (in moments I was without coverage, they went totally unannounced). And of course, bigger than that, it means you must run with your phone. While taking your phone for rides or to the gym isn\u2019t a big deal, many people prefer not to run with their phones.<\/p>\n In any case, with all that set, let\u2019s move on to the actual workout. The moment you press start, your workout will start as normal. In my case, using the new automagic playlist feature, the music starts within about 1-2 seconds. Then, at about the 13-16 second marker, the music ducks down, and the Workout Buddy voice comes in. This piece is called the Pep Talk<\/strong>, and is designed to set the stage for the workout.<\/p>\n Last night, on my trail run, it started off saying:<\/p>\n \u201cWay to get your Sunday Evening Run going, you\u2019re on track to close your rings every day this week\u201d, and then it went on to say \u201cyou\u2019ve closed your move rings every day for the last 16 days\u201d, followed by a brief mention of the music artists name that was playing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n What was interesting here, though, was the specific mention of \u201c16 days\u201d. But that\u2019s odd, because my Move Ring streak is actually at 307 days. So why on earth would you mention 16 days? Later at the end of the workout, it would actually mention the full\/correct streak, but this seemed like the perfect\/classic example of a weird generative AI quirk.<\/p>\n Generally speaking, for the Pep Talk portion of Workout Buddy, it tends to make note of the day of the week (and notably if it\u2019s the first\/last\/x # run\/workout type of the week), followed by some status of my move rings.<\/p>\n Another example, from this morning\u2019s ride, as I got started:<\/p>\n \u201cWay to start the week with a cycling workout! Last week you punched it by reaching a total distance of 91.2KM of cycling workouts. Your 7 day training load is well above your 28 day baseline. Now hop on the saddle and enjoy [artist name].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n On another ride, it somewhat quirkily stated, \u201cYou\u2019ve cycled 24,000 minutes this year thus far\u201d. It was the usage of \u201cminutes\u201d that I found\u2026special. I\u2019ve never heard anyone give annual cycling stats in minutes before.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another, from the start of a run this afternoon:<\/p>\n \u201cWay to start your Monday run with some upbeat tunes, you\u2019ve already crushed your move and exercise rings today. You\u2019ve also set your longest move streak ever, with 307 days yesterday. Your 7-day training load is well above your 28 day baseline. Let\u2019s get moving!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In any event, as you\u2019re running along (or any sport you\u2019re doing), you\u2019ll get any alerts you\u2019ve configured in that Workout Buddy voice, as well as random Milestones. Milestones also include any closing of rings (the moment it happens).<\/p>\n The Milestones were sprinkled throughout the run. I got one that I had closed all my rings for the day (but skipped on telling me that I had thus completed another perfect week). And then another announcement at the exact moment I crossed over as the longest run for the week (it has been a much heavier ride\/swim period the last few weeks, and included one longer run the Apple Watch didn\u2019t go on).<\/p>\n Additionally, it\u2019ll tell me elevation gain on some of my splits, if it\u2019s notable. About 9 out of 10 times, the lap splits works well. For example, yesterday on my 15km run, most of the lap splits were perfect. Except, one was bizarre. At the 11km marker it said (slightly paraphrased):<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve just crossed 11 kilometers, in a time of 47 minutes\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Except here\u2019s the thing: The timer was currently at 62 minutes on this trail run. Meaning, it flat-out just made up a time, and hoped for the best. On the next split (12km), it was spot-on again. Yet, at 14.25km, when I briefly paused the timer, it gave me a short update message, but said \u201cYou\u2019ve got 13.9KM to your name\u201d. Like, where\u2019d the other 300m go?<\/p>\n Overall, during the workout, Apple is clearly aiming to sprinkle in \u2018surprise and delight\u2019 tidbits, and it does that to an extent, but much like many generative AI attempts in fitness, when push comes to shove, sometimes, these sprinkles just don\u2019t make a lot of sense. At one point, for example, during a run, it said (paraphrased) \u201cYou closed all your Activity and Stand rings last week\u201d, except I actually closed all my rings last week (including the unmentioned Move). Why wouldn\u2019t it just say that? No human would phrase it that way.<\/p>\n In any case, once your workout is done, then you\u2019ll get the \u2018Walk off\u2019, which will occur after you end the workout, and typically after you\u2019ve been on the workout summary screen for about 8-10 seconds. These will include a short overview of the workout, as well as some other context overall.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an example after dropping off the kids at summer camp this morning via bike:<\/p>\n \u201cNice job on your outdoor cycling session. You cycled 17.2 kilometers in 49 minutes and 12 seconds, with an average speed of 21KPH, and you closed both your move and exercise rings. Enjoy the rest of your Monday!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n There\u2019s a few more of these in my video above.<\/p>\n Generally speaking, my experience has been that the summary\/Walk-Off generative AI insights have actually been the best of all the insights it gives. As in, it rarely says wonky things, and typically does a good job at summarizing things. It\u2019s almost like the Workout Buddy is rushing to get the Pep Talk\/mid-workout snippets done, and makes mistakes, whereas the completion ones, it takes its time to get it right.<\/p>\n Going Forward:<\/strong><\/p>\n From here, we still have roughly two months until WatchOS 26 is released, on both new and existing watches alike. And as Apple has shown each summer, many things are likely to change by the time that happens (usually for the better, though sometimes certain things do stay as-is).<\/p>\n Overall, WatchOS 26 for sports\/fitness seems like a relatively minor update compared to the gauntlet of sports\/fitness updates we saw over the previous three to four years. Whether or not that holds true in September remains to be seen, of course.<\/p>\n Looking at the Workout Buddy in particular, it\u2019ll be interesting to see if Apple can solve some of the hallucination pieces. The state of the industry at large, both AI as well as sports tech companies leveraging AI, simply says we aren\u2019t there yet. The majority of AI insights that companies like Garmin, Strava, Whoop, Amazfit, and others have delivered have been \u2018iffy\u2019 or \u2018shrug\u2019 at best.<\/p>\n Part of the challenge these companies face, as more than one of them has noted to me, is that they\u2019re *heavily* erring on the side of caution and optimism, to the point it becomes a hindrance. One company stated that they\u2019d much rather give you bland and useless insights than tell you outright mean\/wrong\/dangerous things. Meanwhile, Apple has put in place strict guardrails for Workout Buddy, which drives it towards positivity (rather than proudly announcing \u201cThat was your slowest mile to date\u201d).<\/p>\n At the same time, where I see the most potential for Workout Buddy is actually removing some of those guardrails with certain voices (characters\/emulations). One of the core reasons that certain Peloton instructors have gathered celebrity-like status is because they are more abrasive in their coaching style, and for many athletes, having a pushier coach\/trainer can yield better results. Certainly, Apple knows this already (to an extent) with Apple Fitness+<\/a>, though I think we\u2019d all objectively agree that Apple\u2019s instructors are almost uniformly erroring on positivity, whereas Peloton has a wide range of \u2018constructive criticism\u2019 personalities.<\/p>\n Ultimately, it\u2019s a question of how far the company is willing to allow for more flexibility in those messages. It\u2019s perfectly fine to say, \u201cWhile that was your slowest mile on this run, you also gained a massive amount of elevation, so don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d And it\u2019s equally fine to say at the end, \u201cThis run was slower than your recent runs, but your training load is 128% higher than your 28-day average, perhaps some recovery is in order.\u201d<\/p>\n The whole point of AI is to help or nudge an athlete, not to simply regurgitate stats they can easily see themselves. If Apple can succeed in doing so in the future, then Workout Buddy will likely become quite popular. Overall, I really do like the direction, I just want to see some of the obvious errors removed.<\/p>\n With that \u2013 thanks for reading!<\/p>\n FOUND THIS POST USEFUL? SUPPORT THE SITE!<\/p>\n Hopefully, you found this post useful. The website is really a labor of love, so please consider becoming a DC RAINMAKER Supporter<\/a>. This gets you an ad-free experience, and access to our (mostly) bi-monthly behind-the-scenes video series of \u201cShed Talkin\u2019<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Support DCRainMaker – Shop\u00a0on\u00a0Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n Otherwise, perhaps consider using the below link if shopping on Amazon<\/a>. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn\u2019t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot. It could simply be buying toilet paper<\/a>, or this pizza oven<\/a> we use and love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple has released WatchOS 26 to the public beta, after roughly six weeks of developer beta access. I\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":92205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[705,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-92204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-gadgets","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114915607403589114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/WatchOSLiquidIsh.jpeg\" "\\"WatchOSLiquidIsh.jpeg\\"")
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\u2013 Added automatic volume adjustment, changing notification levels based on ambient noise (e.g., if in a noisy place, it\u2019ll increase notification levels)
\u2013 Added wrist flick option to mute calls and do other quick actions
\u2013 Added automatic call screening feature (seen\/announced too for iOS 26)
\u2013 Added hold assist for calls, which will keep calls on hold (detecting background music), and notify you when a human arrives
\u2013 Added live language translations in Messages app on watch
\u2013 Added configurable widgets
\u2013 Added automatic smart actions to Messages, such as sharing your location if a conversation implies it wants it
\u2013 Added Notes app to Apple Watch, letting you see your existing notes, and add to them
\u2013 Revamped Smart Stack again, to be better at predicting things. For example, if you walk into your gym as part of a routine, it learns to offer the Workout app when you do so
\u2013 Added Controls Widget API for developers<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_7234.jpg\" "\\"IMG_7234.jpg\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"WatchOS26](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/WatchOS26-PinCode.jpeg\" "\\"WatchOS26-PinCode.jpeg\\"")
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\u2013 Added Personalized Workout Media, music feature will automatically offer a playlist to \u2018fit\u2019 the workout (e.g., based on intensity)
\u2013 Added Workout Buddy for workout encouragement (English only at launch)
\u2013 As part of the Workout UI revamp, made custom workouts & racing bits more accessible<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_7273.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_7273.jpeg\\"")
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Upper right:<\/strong> Workout goals & structured workouts (aka the different ways you can have the watch tell you to suffer)
Lower left:<\/strong> Music (all things music)
Lower right:<\/strong> Workout Buddy & Voice Alerts (thus, all things voice-over related)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_7275-2.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_7275")
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\u2013 Indoor Run
\u2013 Indoor Walk
\u2013 Outdoor Walk
\u2013 Outdoor Ride
\u2013 Indoor Ride
\u2013 High Intensity Interval Training
\u2013 Traditional & Functional Strength Training
\u2013 Hiking
\u2013 Elliptical
\u2013 Stair Stepper<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_7283.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_7283.jpeg\\"")
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2) That phone *MUST BE* within range of your watch at all times during the workout
3) The phone *MUST* also be connected to the internet the entire time
4) You *MUST* have headphones on, as Apple is concerned that broadcasting your fitness\/activity stats using the watch speaker could be a privacy issue<\/p>\n![\"Vlcsnap](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/vlcsnap-2025-07-15-17h16m46s902.png\" "\\"vlcsnap-2025-07-15-17h16m46s902.png\\"")
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