watchOS 26 Lands with Smarter Sleep and Friendlier Workouts
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Although Apple’s new iOS 26 release is in the spotlight today, it’s just one of several significant new software releases that cover the company’s entire product lineup, from the HomePod to the Mac.
Health and fitness enthusiasts with an Apple Watch could find watchOS 26 far more interesting. In addition to the new Liquid Glass aesthetic throughout the entire system, the Workouts app receives a redesign and a new AI voice coach, while the health features expand to allow you to track your sleep score and blood pressure.
Workout Buddy
Apple showed off its new Workout Buddy during its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, providing an AI-based cheerleader to help motivate your fitness experience by providing a bit of a pep talk.
More than simply a recorded voice, Workout Buddy analyzes your previous workouts and fitness history using Apple Intelligence so it can provide some personalized coaching and inspiration. Essentially, everything you see in your Health app is taken into account, including VO2 max, the number of times you’ve closed your rings, heart rate, pace, miles logged, and previous workouts. That’s all put together to create text-to-speech prompts that offer encouragement using contextually relevant information.
For example, you’ll hear a friendly recap at the start of a workout session that’s personalized to say something like, “This is your third run this week. You killed it on your last one, and you can do it again!” As you hit new goals or other milestones during your workout, it will pop in to provide friendlier status updates combined with a note of encouragement. At the end, you’ll get a summary with some helpful suggestions for what you can do next time.
The good news is that while Workout Buddy may seem a bit annoying or creepy, it’s not nearly as invasive as Apple’s presentation might lead you to believe. I’ve been using it since the first developer betas rolled out in June, and it’s not especially chatty. During a 45-minute walk, I might hear it break into my music three or four times, including the kickoff at the beginning of the workout.
It’s also entirely optional, so you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. It also requires that you be wearing AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones connected to your Apple Watch, not your iPhone, and it’s possible to temporarily mute it during an individual workout session without shutting it off entirely.
While it’s an Apple Intelligence feature, it’s compatible with all Apple Watch models capable of running watchOS 26 — the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer. The heavy lifting is done by your paired iPhone, so you will need at least an iPhone 15 Pro to use it.
In addition to Workout Buddy, watchOS 26 also offers a mode that automatically selects the perfect beats for your workout, providing recommended playlists or even surprising you with its own tailored workout mix.
Hypertension Notifications
Last week, Apple unveiled a trio of new Apple Watch models at its “Awe Dropping” event. The biggest news during the event was that Apple would be bringing simplified blood pressure monitoring to the Apple Watch in the form of hypertension notifications. As long predicted, the new feature won’t give you a specific blood pressure reading, but merely notify you when your blood pressure seems abnormally high so you can go and measure it yourself using a proper cuff.
The best news about the new hypertension notifications is that even though Apple showed them as part of its Apple Watch Series 11 presentation, they’re not exclusive to the latest models. With watchOS 26, you’ll also be able to get hypertension notifications on an Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, or Ultra 2, since they have essentially the same silicon and heart-rate sensors inside. Only the new Apple Watch SE 3 is left out, as it uses an older second-generation optical heart sensor.
The only catch? Like many Apple Watch health features, this one requires regulatory approval. This means you’ll need to live in a country where that’s happened. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) greenlit the feature last week, just in time for today’s watchOS 26 release, and Apple’s feature availability page lists quite a few others, but there are still some notable exceptions where it has yet to roll out, including Canada and Australia.
Sleep Score
Another new feature that Apple showed off last week for the Apple Watch Series 11 was the addition of a long-rumored Sleep Score. However, owners of older Apple Watch models will appreciate that this isn’t even close to being exclusive to the latest models.
As the name suggests, the Sleep Score gives you a number from 0-100 to provide a quick glance at how well you slept during a given night. The number is calculated by adding up individual scores in three categories: Duration of sleep (out of 50 points), bedtime (out of 30 points), and interruptions (out of 20 points).
While hypertension notifications require special hardware, the Sleep Score is ultimately just a mathematical analysis of the sleep tracking data that’s already been available since watchOS 7. This means that Sleep Score is available on any Apple Watch model that can run watchOS 26, all the way back to the Apple Watch Series 6.
In fact, since it’s really just a calculation, you don’t even need an Apple Watch to get a sleep score. The iOS 26 Health app will analyze any sleep data that’s stored there and turn it into a sleep score. It also does this retroactively, so you can scroll back through your sleep history and see scores from years gone by.
New Watch Faces
Apple has added four new watch faces in this year’s release, although only a maximum of three are available, as two are specific to the Apple Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Hermès, respectively.
Here’s how Apple describes them in its release notes:
- Exactograph is a modern re-imagination of a traditional regulator watch, which separates out hours, minutes, and seconds for more precise time keeping
- Flow uses Liquid Glass numerals that refract a fluid orb of color that responds to your wrist movements
- Waypoint acts as a live compass that will show where you are in relation to places you’ve saved in Maps or points of interest (Available on Apple Watch Ultra)
- Hermès Faubourg Party features animated shorts that appear based on the time of day or movements with a series of characters (Available on Apple Watch Hermès)
Sadly, what Apple gives with one hand, it also takes away with the other. This year, Apple removed more watch faces than it added. These include Gradient, which arrived in watchOS 6, Liquid Metal, Vapor, and Fire-Water from watchOS 5, and the fun and playful Toy Story, which came to Apple’s wearable in watchOS 4 in 2017.
Other Features in watchOS 26
While the health and fitness features are the significant changes in watchOS 26, there are several other handy quality-of-life improvements here, some of which we’ve been awaiting for a long time.
- A Notes app: It only took a decade, but the Apple Watch finally has its own version of the iPhone Notes app. This lets you create new notes, check off items in a checklist, and browse your pinned notes from your wrist.
- Live Translation: The new Live Translation features in iOS 26 are also available in your Apple Watch Messages app, providing it’s paired with a nearby iPhone 15 Pro or later. You’ll also get smart replies in the Messages and Mail apps that are relevant to your conversation.
- Wrist-Flick Gesture: As a companion to the Double Tap gesture that Apple brought to the Apple Watch Series 9 two years ago, you can now flick your wrist to do things like mute incoming calls, silence timers, and dismiss notifications. This is a Double-Tap as an “OK” or “Enter” button and a wrist-flick as ”Cancel” or “Escape.” Like Double Tap, this one requires an Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2, SE 3, or a newer model.
- A Smarter Smart Stack: Apple is taking the Smart Stack to a new level by making it more predictive. It will not pull in more information, such as your location and your daily routine, to offer contextually relevant prompts, such as a workout widget when you’re at the gym.
Will My Watch Run watchOS 26?
If you’re already running watchOS 11 on your Apple Watch, then it can be updated to watchOS 26. No model is being left behind this year, and watchOS 26 can be installed on an Apple Watch Series 6 or newer, Apple Watch SE 2 or newer, or any Apple Watch Ultra
There is one caveat, though: You’ll need to be paired with an iPhone that can run iOS 26. That’s a relatively low bar, since the iPhone 11 and later are supported, but if you’re still using an iPhone XS with an Apple Watch Series 6 (or even the newest Series 11), you’ll need to upgrade your iPhone before you can upgrade your Apple Watch.
