{"id":3718,"date":"2026-07-14T03:01:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=3718"},"modified":"2026-07-14T03:01:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:01:47","slug":"watchos-27-preview-siri-ai-apple-watch-gestures-smartwatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=3718","title":{"rendered":"Siri AI makes the Apple Watch finally feel like a wrist computer"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Siri has been on the Apple Watch since day one, though I\u2019m usually hard-pressed to find people who actually make good use of it. It\u2019s kind of just\u2026 been there \u2014 mostly as a way to set timers when my hands are full. But after playing around with the watchOS 27 developer beta, I get the sense that\u2019ll start to change. Not for everyone, and definitely not overnight, but the upgrade from plain ol\u2019 Siri to Siri AI feels like a significant shift in how Apple \u2014 and other tech companies \u2014 think we ought to be using our smartwatches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To be clear: If all you want Siri on the wrist to do is set an alarm or get the weather forecast, by golly, it\u2019s still good at that. But whereas I previously found the Apple Watch to be useful for health and fitness tracking with a side of notification triage, Siri AI lets me do more actual<\/em> computing from the wrist. A big reason for that is it doesn\u2019t feel like there are two separate Siri experiences on your phone and watch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOur main goal with the integration with Watch is to make sure that that experience was consistent. What we don\u2019t want is the user having this experience where they ask Siri in one place, and they get a different answer if they ask [in] another,\u201d says David Clark, Apple\u2019s senior director of software engineering for watchOS. \u201cBy having the watch tightly connected with the phone, having that personal context drive the whole experience, we can start setting the expectation that it\u2019s one Siri AI.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One quirk: if you have whimsically named reminder lists, Siri AI can get tripped up in adding tasks. Unfortunately, it pays to have boring list names.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The disconnect between phone and watch was an issue I had last year while testing Gemini on the Pixel Watch 4<\/a> and Samsung Galaxy Watch 8<\/a>. I often struggled to gauge when it made sense to experiment with Gemini on the wrist versus pulling out my phone. The use cases suggested to me were either to answer random questions, which the phone was still faster at, or to complete complex queries that spanned multiple apps. Prompts like \u201cRemember to remind me to bring an umbrella when it rains\u201d or \u201cCreate a K-pop-inspired playlist in YouTube Music.\u201d Gemini on the wrist stank at the former, and while it could generate a playlist, it wasn\u2019t an organic request I\u2019d ever really make. When I asked it to recommend a local coffee shop and text the location to a coworker, I got one 40 blocks away. I got better results on my phone, even if I had to manually text the location.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I haven\u2019t really had this issue with Siri AI on watchOS 27. Partly because Siri AI is very upfront about what prompts it can\u2019t do and will suggest alternatives. For example, it can\u2019t do reminders based on weather forecasts, but it can set reminders based on when I leave a location. As for the phone versus wrist search results, I haven\u2019t noticed any wide discrepancies. In fact, the queries you make on the wrist are stored in the same app as on your phone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Thanks to often-annoying ecosystem lock-in, the Apple Watch is a nifty note-taking device on-the-go. Siri AI makes referencing notes and reminder lists on my phone or MacBook easier because I can just ask <\/em>it to bring up the contents. At Michael\u2019s buying embroidery floss I was able to ask Siri to bring up the list of thread colors I\u2019d stuck in the Reminders app, and then check them off on the wrist as I hunted through the haphazardly stocked bins. Likewise, it\u2019s easy to start looking something up while you\u2019re out and continue later on your phone or MacBook\u2019s Siri AI app.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The main drawback of Siri AI is it\u2019s a new habit you have to build. When I had to think fast, I often didn\u2019t remember my watch\u2019s upgrades. You still have to deal with latency while Siri AI thinks, and even if Big Tech says LLMs understand naturally worded prompts, it always works better the more specifically you word your requests. As an AI assistant, it\u2019s prone to goofs. If you\u2019re an impatient person, chances are Siri AI on the wrist will irk you from time to time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Workout Buddy \u2014 the AI-powered motivational fitness \u201ccoach\u201d \u2014 is getting a few upgrades. In watchOS 26, Workout Buddy mostly surfaced milestones. This year, it\u2019s expanding what insights get surfaced and now works in Spanish.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis year we\u2019ve added facts that look even deeper at your trends, not just based on today\u2019s workout versus historic [ones],\u201d says Clark. \u201cIf you\u2019ve just conquered a hill, put in a little extra sweat, we\u2019ll know that the pace you achieved was in spite of elevation, and so it\u2019ll congratulate you for hitting the top of that hill and keeping on going.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You can easily browse Siri AI conversations from the dedicated app on the wrist. Conversely, conversations started on the wrist can be viewed on the phone too.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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My workouts have been less intense as of late, so I\u2019ve yet to get any of these new insights. If you were hoping Siri AI on the wrist would offer health recs, that\u2019s not in the cards right now. I\u2019m personally relieved<\/a> that Workout Buddy or Siri AI aren\u2019t more proactive about health advice. However, Clark says that you can use Siri AI\u2019s broad world knowledge to get \u201cscience-backed answers\u201d for questions like \u201cWhat is LDL cholesterol?\u201d or recommend stretches for running recovery. In other words, it\u2019s mostly intended to be a resource to help people quickly access information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Another nifty update is the new App launcher, a kind of quick menu for the apps you use most frequently or most recently. As someone who tends to use the same six apps on the Watch, this has been incredibly convenient. You might find it less so if you use watchfaces with a lot of complications, but I\u2019ve been trying a more zen watchface featuring a photo of my derpy cat. This allows aesthetic flexibility without sacrificing functionality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But my favorite watchOS 27 feature is the new single tap gesture. Where the pinchy pinch<\/a> lets you scroll, and the wrist flick dismisses screens, the single tap lets you select. Combined with the smart stack and raise to talk gesture, it\u2019s super<\/em> easy to use the Apple Watch single-handedly. I\u2019m a gesture power-user, and this has made it easier for me to quickly check information without ever needing a second hand. If you don\u2019t<\/em> make use of these features, I highly encourage giving gestures another go<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I\u2019m still experimenting with various parts of watchOS 27, but so far, it feels like the culmination of several updates over the past three to four years. The expansion of gestures, smart stack widgets, and now Siri AI make the Apple Watch today feel like a very different device than it was in 2022. One by one, the features were neat but somewhat iterative. With the arrival of Siri AI, these disparate parts start to coalesce into a bigger picture: a watch that can finally be a useful wrist computer. It\u2019s not all the way there just yet, but even so \u2014 I\u2019m still pretty excited.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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