Top watchOS 27 features that will enhance your Apple Watch

While watchOS 27 didn’t get much stage time during WWDC 2026, the next Apple Watch software update still packs some great new features. Here’s everything new coming to Apple Watch this fall so far.

Siri AI on Apple Watch, including dedicated app

Perhaps the flagship watchOS 27 feature is Siri AI.

When Apple redesigned Siri and introduced Apple Intelligence two years ago, the Apple Watch wasn’t part of that story.

Now with watchOS 27, Apple Watch is gaining access to the redesigned and enhanced Siri.

This includes a dedicated Siri app on watchOS that syncs with the Siri app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro.

Apple Watch will gain the Siri chatbot app, personal context understanding, in-app action capabilities, and much broader world knowledge.

Siri AI isn’t included in watchOS 27 beta 1, but Apple says it will be available in English this year.

It’s great to see Siri on the Apple Watch become as capable as the new Siri AI system on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro.

Apple Watch was pretty left out of the original Apple Intelligence story.

Dynamic app grid from Digital Crown

Pressing the Digital Crown on Apple Watch with watchOS 27 invokes the new dynamic app grid.

This is a set of six Siri-suggested apps that appear. If Siri AI is enabled, the Siri app takes the center position. An icon for launching the full app grid or app list also appears.

The other apps chosen are based on recency and popularity, according to Apple.

Clicking the Digital Crown once will invoke the dynamic app grid. Clicking it again will return to the watch face.

You can click the Digital Crown and swipe up to go straight to the full app grid.

There doesn’t appear to be a way to revert to the previous behavior of bypassing the dynamic app grid for now.

Workout Buddy gains three enhancements in watchOS 27

watchOS 26’s Workout Buddy feature was really the first AI-focused feature that came to the Apple Watch, and it required a nearby iPhone to work.

That meant you couldn’t benefit from Workout Buddy if you left your iPhone behind while exercising.

That also changes this year as Workout Buddy now works without a nearby iPhone.

Additionally, Workout Buddy language support expands from English-only to also include Spanish.

Apple says Workout Buddy covers more insights as well including progress for pace, distance, and workout duration.

Health and Fitness tracking improves in two ways

Beyond Workout Buddy, Health and Fitness tracking in watchOS 27 includes two more improvements.

First, Cycle Tracking is now more advanced with perimenopause and menopause support.

“Cycle Tracking in the Health app can provide notifications when your logged cycle patterns are suggestive of perimenopause,” Apple says. “You can track related symptoms and find support with educational resources.”

Next, tracking indoor runs or walks with a treadmill is now more accurate as well.

“Improved motion tracking algorithms help measure the distance of your treadmill runs and walks more precisely right from your wrist,” according to Apple.

Apple also says that the step count in the Fitness app now syncs with steps counted in the Health app with watchOS 27 and iOS 27.

watchOS 27 brings a new tap gesture

Double tap on Apple Watch lets you open the Smart Stack to cycle through app widgets from your watch face.

Starting with watchOS 27, a single tap gesture will let you interact with app widgets from the Smart Stack.

This means you can tap your thumb and index twice to open the widgets view, double tap again to move to the next widget, or tap your thumb and index finger once to interact with widgets.

For example, you can open the Heart Rate app from the Heart Rate widget to take a live reading, start a workout from a workout suggestion widget, or play/pause media playback from the Now Playing widget.

It all works without tapping the watch face with your other hand.

Smart Stack adds new widget suggestions

Beyond a new gesture, watchOS 27 also greatly expands the number of widget suggestions that can automatically appear in the stack.

New options include parked car location, the Siri app, birthday messages and celebrations, pinned messages, and much more. We’ll dive into these further this summer.

Find My app unified on Apple Watch

Next up is the Find My app on Apple Watch. Starting with watchOS 27, Find My is a single, unified app, just like on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Previously, the Find My experience on Apple Watch consisted of three separate app icons on the app grid or list for people, items, and devices.

watchOS 27 also brings Precision Finding support to Apple Watch for locating a paired iPhone, AirTag 2, and AirPods Pro 3.

watchOS 27 will suggest ways to save battery life

Apple says that watchOS 27 introduces new battery optimization suggestions.

In practice, this will come in the form of notifications about unused features being disabled to save battery life.

These can include things like Start Workout reminders, gestures, and Raise to Speak for summoning Siri.

If watchOS 27 sends a notification about an unused feature being disabled to extend battery life, there will be the option to override the proactive battery extension notification and leave the feature enabled.

More app updates and changes

Additionally, Apple says that watchOS 27 offers faster music playback on Apple Watch.

Liquid Glass has been updated to focus on readability with more uniform refraction and better contrast.

Wallet app supports new custom-generated cards from iOS 27. These can be pinned in the Smart Stack for easy access.

Call Context, a new proactive feature for surfacing relevant data like flight information when on the phone with a business, also works on Apple Watch.

And Apple’s Child Safety features extend to Apple Watch and watchOS 27.

During the keynote, Apple also listed these changes relevant to watchOS 27 and Apple Watch:

• Improved Wi-Fi connectivity in watchOS
• Guest key in watchOS
• GymKit on iPhone and Apple Watch (previously Apple Watch-only)
• Faster app extension launch in watchOS
• More efficient water detection on Apple Watch
• Redesigned settings in the Apple Watch app
• View card balance in Wallet in watchOS
• Transit cards and IDs in Smart Stack in watchOS

watchOS 27 is currently available in developer beta. A public beta version will arrive in July ahead of the official launch this fall.

Apple Watch Series 11 is currently priced from $299, a 25% discount on the regular $399 price, on Amazon. watchOS 27 requires Apple Watch Series 9 and later, Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later, and Apple Watch SE 3.