Apple Releases watchOS 27 With Siri AI, New Watch Face, Smart Stack Improvements and More

Monday September 14, 2026 10:03 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today released watchOS 27, the newest version of the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. ‌watchOS 27‌ is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 9 and later, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later, and the Apple Watch SE 3.

‌watchOS 27‌ can be downloaded for free on a compatible device through the Settings app on the watch.

The update introduces support for Siri AI, a more capable version of ‌Siri‌ that uses personal context and onscreen awareness to help you get things done. There's a new ‌Siri‌ Modular watch face, updates to Smart Stack, improvements to Liquid Glass, and a consolidated Find My app. Apple's release notes for the update are below.

Siri AI
- A more capable and conversational version of Siri is rolling out to users. It helps you find what you need and get more done, drawing on capabilities like personal context understanding, app actions, onscreen awareness, and access to broad world knowledge
- New voice experience offers more expressive and natural-sounding voices, and lets you customize expressivity and pace to make Siri more personal to you using powerful on-device models on paired iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro models and later
- Dedicated Siri app provides an easy way to revisit an existing conversation or kick off a new one, and privately syncs conversations across your Apple products with iCloud

Apple Intelligence across apps
- Workout Buddy delivers motivation with new insights and is now available without your iPhone nearby when you have a Wi-Fi or cellular connection
- Call Context in the Phone app understands when you're speaking to certain businesses and proactively surfaces relevant information from across your apps, like a confirmation code or a reservation number

Cycle Tracking
- Cycle deviation notifications that are suggestive of perimenopause can be received by those age 40 and over

Watch Faces
- Siri Modular face features a rectangular complication that mirrors the top widget of the Smart Stack, which dynamically updates to show the most relevant widget, as well as a Siri complication to quickly invoke Siri

Smart Stack
- Single-handed tap gesture enables you to tap your index finger and thumb together once to select a widget in the Smart Stack, even if your other hand is occupied
- New suggestion widgets will be surfaced when most relevant to you, including a Parked Car location, birthday reminders for a close contact, balance changes on a transit card, Noise app after a loud noise notification, and more

System Improvements
- Dynamic app grid highlights your most popular and recently used apps
- Find My app is now consolidated into one app to show People, Devices, and Items with a map-centric interface
- Media playback now starts faster
- Workout app makes distance calculations during treadmill workouts even more accurate from the first step of every walk or run
- Fitness app features more accurate route maps after workouts
- Battery extension notifications may be proactively offered to disable certain features to increase battery life, including gestures, Start Workout reminders, and Raise to Speak method of invoking Siri
- Shazam in the Smart Stack and Music Recognition app identifies songs offline without an internet connection and delivers results automatically when you're back online
- Liquid Glass refinements improve readability with more uniform refraction and improved contrast

‌Siri‌ AI in ‌watchOS 27‌ requires an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone, which includes the iPhone 15 Pro models, the iPhone Air, and all iPhone 16, iPhone 17, and iPhone 18 models.

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