The Fashionably Late watchOS 27 Beta 2 Has Arrived (But Where’s Siri AI?)
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Yesterday, Apple released its second developer betas of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and even tvOS 27 and visionOS 27 right on schedule. However, in an unusual twist, a new Apple Watch beta was conspicuously absent from that list.
The good news is that it seems the second watchOS 27 developer beta may have just needed a little extra time in the oven. Apple quietly seeded its straggler, watchOS 27 developer beta 2, earlier today, and the delay may not be too surprising considering Apple is still working to add one of this year’s biggest new features to the Apple Watch.
While Apple’s first developer betas of iOS 27 and the rest of the gang delivered the new Siri AI to the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even the Vision Pro, the Apple Watch was seemingly left out of the party. A footnote in Apple’s press release noted only that “Siri AI will be available for developer testing in a future watchOS 27 beta.”
The Apple Watch is the one device that’s been left out of Apple Intelligence, so it seems reasonable that Apple needs some more time to get Siri AI ready for watchOS 27. So far, the best it’s been able to do is let the old Siri process some requests on-device. That’s limited to the Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2, and newer models, since it requires the Neural Engine, and it’s telling that those are now the minimum standard for watchOS 27, meaning even the 2022 models will be left stuck in the past, including the Apple Watch Series 8 and original Apple Watch Ultra.
Unfortunately, there’s no indication that the second developer beta of watchOS 27 unlocks Siri AI. Having just finished installing it on my Apple Watch Series 10, it looks remarkably similar to beta 1, and while the iOS 27 Watch app stamps the new icon on the “Siri” Settings, those are still for “Siri Classic,” and the actual watchOS 27 Settings app still shows the older and more colorful icon.
While Apple has put early adopters through a waitlist to access Siri AI, that’s an Apple Account-level setting that applies to all devices; once Siri AI officially unlocked itself on an iPhone, it also showed up on the user’s Mac and iPad. There’s no indication that Apple has a new waitlist for watchOS 27, so the safe assumption is that it’s still not ready.
The delayed release offered some hope that it might show up, and perhaps Apple wanted to turn the key, but still needs to do some more work before it’s even ready for beta testers. That’s fair, as the stakes are pretty high at this point; Apple’s done a surprisingly good job with Siri AI in the betas so far, so everyone is expecting the Apple Watch version to meet the same standards.
Despite the lack of a visible waitlist, it’s still possible the new Siri AI could be dependent on Apple flipping a server-side switch. If that’s the case, we’ll just have to wait and see if it shows up for anyone before the next beta comes out.
From what Apple has shown us, the Apple Watch will gain a Siri app in watchOS 27 that will drop itself right in the middle of the new dynamic app grid. Right now, that appears to be occupied by the Workout app for me, but other reports have suggested it may simply be a user’s most frequently-used app, so it’s unclear if Siri will stay in that spot permanently.
Either way, the watchOS version of Siri promises to tie into the Siri app on other devices, so you’ll be able to browse through previous conversations on the wearable, or start a conversation on your Apple Watch and continue it on your iPhone.
Apple says this will even extend to personal context, although it’s not entirely clear how much of that will require your paired iPhone to be available or if Apple plans to somehow store a full semantic index on the wearable for offline use. App integrations will also be available to let you perform some of the usual actions like playing music and even go further to do things like setting new goals for your Activity rings or sharing flight details with your family.
