Apple has released the watchOS 27 Public Beta, giving Apple Watch users an early look at the next major software update before its official release this fall. While Siri AI is the headline addition, watchOS 27 also delivers meaningful upgrades to Smart Stack, Workout Buddy, health tracking, battery management, and everyday usability.
Rather than reinventing the Apple Watch, Apple has focused on making it smarter, faster, and more independent. Whether you’re using your watch to stay active, manage notifications, or leave your iPhone in your pocket, these are the best watchOS 27 Public Beta features worth trying first.
Learn how to install watchOS 27 Public Beta here.
1. Siri AI finally makes the Apple Watch feel smarter
The biggest addition in watchOS 27 is Siri AI, bringing Apple’s redesigned assistant to the Apple Watch for the first time. Instead of simply answering basic questions or setting timers, Siri AI can now hold natural conversations, understand follow-up questions, search the web, and securely access your personal information to help complete tasks.
With your permission, Siri can search through Messages, Mail, Notes, Calendar, Photos, and other Apple apps to quickly find information without forcing you to dig through multiple apps yourself.
Need the restaurant someone texted you last week? Trying to remember when a meeting was scheduled? Looking for a photo from your last vacation? Siri AI can find the information using everyday language, making it feel much more like a true digital assistant than previous versions of Siri.
Apple has also introduced a dedicated Siri app that syncs with the Siri app across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. You can start a conversation on one device and continue it on another without losing context, creating a much more seamless Apple Intelligence experience.
One of the biggest usability changes comes from the Digital Crown. Pressing it no longer opens your complete app list by default. Instead, it displays a new dynamic app grid centered around Siri AI.
The grid automatically surfaces six apps based on your recent activity and usage habits, making frequently used apps much easier to reach. If Siri AI is enabled, the Siri app sits in the middle of the grid, while a second press of the Digital Crown returns you to your watch face. Swiping upward reveals the full app list whenever you need it.
While Siri AI is still improving during the beta period, it already feels significantly more conversational than previous versions. It can maintain context between questions, making it possible to ask follow-up questions naturally instead of repeating yourself each time.
Whether you’re planning your weekend, checking information from a recent conversation, finding an old note, or simply looking something up while away from your phone, Siri AI makes the Apple Watch considerably more capable than before.
Which Apple Watch models support Siri AI?
Siri AI is one of the biggest additions in watchOS 27, but not every Apple Watch can run the new experience.
To use Siri AI, you’ll need a compatible Apple Watch running watchOS 27 paired with an iPhone that supports Siri AI in iOS 27. While the Apple Watch handles voice input and displays responses, the paired iPhone performs the AI processing behind the scenes.
Supported Apple Watch models
The following Apple Watch models support watchOS 27 and Siri AI:
- Apple Watch SE 3
- Apple Watch Series 9
- Apple Watch Series 10
- Apple Watch Series 11
- Apple Watch Ultra 2
- Apple Watch Ultra 3
Unsupported Apple Watch models
The following models cannot install watchOS 27 and therefore do not support Siri AI:
- Apple Watch SE (2nd generation)
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch Series 7
- Apple Watch Series 8
- Apple Watch Ultra (1st generation)
2. Smart Stack becomes much more useful
Smart Stack receives one of its biggest updates since it was introduced, making Apple’s widget system more proactive and easier to use.
watchOS 27 adds new gesture controls that let you navigate Smart Stack with one hand. A double tap moves between widgets, while a single tap lets you interact directly with supported widgets without touching the display.
For example, you can start a workout directly from a suggested Workout widget, open the Heart Rate app from its widget, or control music playback from the Now Playing widget using simple gestures.
Apple has also expanded the types of widgets Smart Stack can surface automatically. Depending on your location and daily routine, you may see your parked car location, transit cards, Wallet passes, birthday reminders, pinned Messages, Siri AI suggestions, or other timely information when it’s most relevant.
Combined with the new dynamic app grid, Smart Stack makes the Apple Watch feel far more intelligent by anticipating what you need instead of requiring you to search for it manually.
3. Workout Buddy and Health tracking continue to improve
Workout Buddy was one of the first Apple Intelligence features to arrive on the Apple Watch, and watchOS 27 makes it considerably more useful.
The biggest improvement is that Workout Buddy no longer requires a nearby iPhone, allowing you to receive spoken encouragement and workout insights while exercising with just your Apple Watch. Workout Buddy also supports Spanish for the first time and now provides richer updates throughout your workout, including progress based on pace, distance, duration, and your Activity rings.
Cycle Tracking now includes support for monitoring symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause, helping users better understand long-term health patterns while providing educational resources through the Health app.
Apple has also improved motion tracking during indoor treadmill workouts, resulting in more accurate distance measurements directly from your wrist. In addition, step counts are now synchronized more consistently between the Health and Fitness apps, making activity data feel more unified across Apple’s ecosystem.
4. Battery life and everyday performance quietly get better
Not every improvement in watchOS 27 revolves around Apple Intelligence. Apple has also made a number of smaller changes that help the Apple Watch feel faster and more efficient throughout the day.
One of the most useful additions is proactive battery optimization. If watchOS detects features you rarely use, such as Raise to Speak, Start Workout reminders, or certain gesture controls, it can recommend temporarily disabling them to help extend battery life. If you prefer to keep those features enabled, you can simply ignore the suggestion.
Performance has also improved across the system. Music starts playing more quickly, apps launch faster, Wi-Fi connections are more reliable, and Liquid Glass has been refined with better contrast and readability, making menus and notifications easier to read at a glance.
5. Find My is finally easier to use
The Find My experience on Apple Watch has finally caught up with Apple’s other devices. Instead of separate apps for finding people, devices, and items, watchOS 27 combines everything into a single Find My app. This makes it much easier to locate your belongings without remembering which app you need to open.
Apple has also added Precision Finding support for compatible devices, allowing you to locate your paired iPhone, AirTag 2, or AirPods Pro 3 directly from your wrist with greater accuracy.
6. More intelligent features appear throughout watchOS
Wallet now works more closely with Smart Stack, allowing transit cards, IDs, boarding passes, and custom cards created in iOS 27 to appear automatically when they’re most relevant.
Call Context is another practical addition. If you’re speaking with a business, your Apple Watch can surface useful information such as confirmation numbers, reservation details, or flight information gathered from Mail and other Apple apps, helping you avoid searching through your iPhone during the call.
Apple has also expanded Child Safety features to the Apple Watch while continuing to improve Apple Watch for Your Kids with better parental controls and Screen Time management.
These additions may not be headline features, but they help make the Apple Watch a more capable companion throughout the day.
Should you install the watchOS 27 Public Beta?
The watchOS 27 Public Beta is one of Apple’s most practical Apple Watch updates in recent years. Siri AI is finally powerful enough to be genuinely useful, Smart Stack is smarter, Workout Buddy has become more independent, and the collection of smaller quality-of-life improvements makes the Apple Watch feel noticeably more refined.
As with any beta software, bugs and app compatibility issues are still possible. If you decide to install the public beta, it’s best to do so on a secondary Apple Watch or wait for the stable release if you rely on your watch every day.
