Apple has beaten its upcoming Watcho’s 26 update as added to “even more intelligence” than its predecessors, and it claims you find these smarts all over the system, from small touches to full-on features driven by Apple Intelligence. But how true is it in everyday use?
To find out, I’ve been testing Watchos 26 since the first developer Beta came out in June. During that time, I have ended up focusing on four new features: Trainingmate, Smart Stack tip, Liquid Glass Redesign and the new wrist flick gesture. Unfortunately, all four have left me to feel disappointed.
Ultimately, the biggest problem with each of these features is inconsistency. Some of them work half the time, but are often defective. Others appear to be used in an uneven way that appears one place but not another.
If this is close to the finished product for each of these features – which is probably the case, given that Apple is on the seventh Watcho’s 26 beta now – it feels like they have come well under their potential.
Training mate
I train a lot, so I was instantly fascinated by the idea of ​​training mate. Having an AI-generated voice offering inspiration wasn’t exactly on my wish list, but it got my interest enough to make it one of the first features I would try.
After some fake starts (training buddy didn’t work at all for the first few Watcho’s 26 betas) I’ve been using it during my workouts for a few weeks. Even when it works, it’s still very hit and miss.
The Watchos 26 training buddy hasn’t worked for me, as Apple promised.
Apple
Typically, I train traditional strength training Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, then take a walk or hike every other day. I also play football twice a week, though I don’t trust myself so as not to smash my watch for blacksmiths during games, so I refused to test training buddy during practice.
First, I activated training buddy and turned on warnings for heartbeat and time. And with that I was greeted with … Silence. Training buddy did not give me a pep speech before training, did not mark my heartbeat or time milestone and did not bring it home when the session was over-on despite the fact that Apple says it is compatible with traditional strength training training.
On to go training, then. Here, Workout Buddy actually made its presence known, though maybe a little too much for my taste. Maybe it’s my reserved British nature, but having a hyper-enthusiastic AI coach shouting in my ear is not quite my cup of tea. Hearing an absurdly pumped voice blooms: “Your consistency is inspiring hold it up!” Feels faintly ridiculous when everything I do goes on a relaxed morning walk around the block.
Exercisemate will interact with my walks with updates about my heartbeat, pace and covered distance plus the occasional milestone. (“You’re on fire, you’ve just gone 7,000 minutes’ walk this year!”) This is fine enough, but it doesn’t feel like the heading feature Apple came out of being. All of this information is good, vaguely interesting, but it is not as if it significantly improves my technique or motivates me to push me further. It’s just a semi-rusul round-up that enjoys interrupting my morning podcast. With its deficient presence during my hiking and its overall absence during weight sessions, it does not feel exactly as an important function.
Smart Stack tip
As I mentioned in the last section, I have a rather predictable training plan where the same training happens on the same days most weeks. Given that I know what I’m doing every morning, it wouldn’t be convenient to be able to start a workout with just a few taps instead of accommodating through the watchos menus?
That’s the idea behind the new, smarter smart stacks in Watchos 26. Now raise your wrist and it will suggest apps and features you might use at the given moment, such as using Backtrack to guide you home, for example. All you have to do is press the proposal and then hit the relevant widget and it starts right away. These requests are based on more data than before, such as your location, sensor information and your daily routine.
Apple’s new Smart Stack tip is hit or Miss.
Apple
It’s the last bit that got me excited about Watchos 26: If my Apple Watch can learn my routine, it might suggest the right training every day. It would make it a lot more to an assistant than a blunt instrument.
Unfortunately, this idea fell flat as it collided with reality. I have owned the Apple Watches since the series 5 and have had the same weekly training routine for about the same time, but still Watchos 26’s Smart Stack tip is still annoying random. Some days I could see a request to start a traditional control of strength training at the right time, just as I was about to begin. On other days I once got a training prompt on a weight day or vice versa. It’s like Watchos 26 knows I want to train some kind of training, and it’s about which is about which ones, but it still doesn’t understand which one I do every day.
Because of this, I still find that I need to open the training app manually and start the right session manually about half the time. I had high hopes of smart stack tips, but they are clearly not quite there yet.
Liquid glass
The Liquid Glass was undoubtedly the headline announcement on WWDC 2025, where Apple brought the visual overhaul to almost every one of its platforms. How is it doing on the Apple Watch?
Well, for the most part, it’s a more discreet implementation than you’ll find in MacOS Tahoe and determined in iOS 26. Many elements such as the Home screen and app -switcher look exactly like in Watchos 18. Other things, including Smart Stack and Control Center, have more subtle glassy aspects, but nothing too overwhelming. If you are not using a face that includes Liquid Glass text, you may not see much difference day to day.
Liquid glass looks beautiful
It is not noticed if you do not use the right watch surface.
Apple
Some of the few times I’ve really noticed liquid glass are when messages emerge. There are alarm boxes translucent and lets light from apps and messages below them. In fact, messages seem to be one of the rare places where floating glass really gets room to shine in Watchos 26.
So why is it not more prominent in the entire operating system? Only Apple can answer it, but the result is a fairly uneven implementation of liquid glass. In many cases, you will not notice it at all. In others it is as obvious as it is on my iPhone. Why the inconsistency?
Wrist flick gesture
Any Apple Watch user will tell you it’s easy to be overwhelmed by notifications. Refusing them requires two hands, either pressing the digital crown or covering the screen with your palm, so I was very interested in trying Watchos 26’s new wrist flick-with-the-miss gesture.
By tilting your wrist away from you in Watchos 26, you can reject a review when your opposite hand is occupied. This action can also be used to dampen incoming calls, silence stims and alarms and close Smart Stack. When it works, gently tap your wrist to tell you the alarm has been rejected.
Apple’s wrist flick gesture is sometimes more problems than is worth it.
Apple
It sounds good, but I’ve found it was pretty unstable since I started testing it. Sometimes it works perfectly, with a quick wrist that flires my watch and gets the message out of the way. When that happens, it feels like a smart, useful addition to my laptop.
But “when” in the last sentence makes a terrible mass of heavy lifting. Like so many Watchos 26 features, this gesture feels frustrating unreliable. In my experience, the flick -gesture fails to clear my messages about half the time, I try it, forcing me into a longer interaction with two hands.
When it works, it often needs a more powerful, exaggerated movement than Apple demonstrated in its WWDC video. And even then it feels like my watch takes half a second too long to respond to gesture and remove the message slower than it should.
This means that the wrist flick gesture, while it is a good idea, comes across as beautiful half -baked in its current incarnation. I hope Apple tightens its execution here, as with the rest of Watchos 26.