Apple Reportedly Preparing ‘Readiness’ App for watchOS 27
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We’re less than twenty-four hours away from Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event, and there’s always room for a few last-minute rumors and leaks. While the marquee announcement tomorrow is expected to be Apple’s long-awaited foldable iPhone — and the oddsmakers are still taking bets on what it will actually be called — we’re also expected to see some nice but modest improvements in the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, plus the usual duo of Apple Watch models.
The Apple Watch Series 12 isn’t expected to offer anything groundbreaking, but that’s been par for the course with Apple’s wearables for years. The company recognizes that most folks aren’t rushing out and buying a new Apple Watch on an annual basis, so the refreshes are always more about bringing in new customers and encouraging upgrades from those who might have a three- or four-year old model on their wrist.
By all accounts, the only design change in this year’s Apple Watch will be the return of the ceramic finish — a material we haven’t seen Apple use since 2019 — but the overall design will otherwise remain unchanged. Further, while the jury is still out on whether Apple will resurrect the “Apple Watch Edition” brand, the ceramic model is still likely to be the “luxury” option.
The rest of the changes are all expected to be on the inside. The Apple Watch Series 12 will almost certainly move to a new chip, as the last three generations have used the same silicon — the S9 in the Series 9, followed by an S10 in both the Series 10 and Series 11. Whether this new chip will be called the “S11” or the “S12” to keep the numbers aligned remains to be seen, but the internal silicon — which has been identified in code as T8320 — should be a healthy upgrade over the T8310 that’s been used for the past three years, especially considering Apple’s desire to lean more heavily into Apple Intelligence. Recent reports also suggest this year’s models will offer 128GB of storage, doubling the 64GB found on previous models.
We’re not expecting too many other hardware changes, although it appears Apple is preparing a new app in watchOS 27 to give with the Apple Watch Series 12 (and the Ultra 4 that’s also expected to be introduced tomorrow). According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is looking to revamp its Vitals app into called something called Readiness.
Gurman has previously said that Apple executives have been exploring ways to show more wellness-related metrics similar to how apps from Whoop and Oura work. Earlier this year, Gurman reported that Apple was rethinking its “Health+” service, concerned the “AI Doctor” it was working on wouldn’t be nimble enough to keep up with those rival offerings.
Cue has told colleagues that Apple needs to move faster and be more competitive in health, the people said. He added that newer rivals — including Oura Health Oy and Whoop Inc. — offer more compelling and useful features, particularly through their iPhone apps.
Mark Gurman
It’s not clear if the Readiness app will be limited to the Apple Watch Series 12 or if Apple simply plans to use the new hardware platform to introduce the app. Over the past few years, Apple has frequently held back watchOS features until September, while still making them backward-compatible with earlier models. We saw that with sleep apnea detection in watchOS 11 and hypertension notifications in watchOS 26, both of which were announced with the 2024 and 2025 Apple Watch models, respectively, but remain fully supported on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 and newer models.
It’s worth noting that those features also required FDA clearance, which wasn’t granted until just before the new Apple Watch models launched. A Readiness app is unlikely to fall into the same category, but it may still simply be a matter of Apple wanting to have something to show off alongside the new Apple Watch models.
However, the Apple Watch Series 12 is expected to offer one feature that could tie more closely into the new app: continuous heart rate tracking. Current Apple Watch models only take spot checks of your heart rate throughout the day, kicking into continuous mode only during workouts (and a few minutes afterward for tracking recovery). If recent rumors are accurate, the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 will allow users to leave the heart rate sensor on all the time, which could provide much more useful data for a Readiness app.
It remains to be seen whether Readiness will fully replace Vitals or simply act as a companion app. While Gurman simply mentioned it as a “variant,” code found by MacRumors forum member “pdfu” suggests it’s “distinct” from the Vitals app, but doesn’t provide much more insight into what it may entail.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
