Apple Watch conversation features enter beta testing

Apple’s Audio Intelligence features for Apple Watch have begun beta testing, initially for developers in the iOS 27.3 update. Apple announced the features at its hardware event in September.

The four opt-in features cover sound recognition, song identification, conversation summaries and note-taking. Live Rewind lets a wearer double-press the Digital Crown to view a text snippet of the previous 15 seconds. The wearer can leave it to disappear or save it in the Siri app, which shipped with iOS 27. Apple says a chime and animation signal that audio is being captured; unsaved snippets are deleted after 30 seconds.

Siri Recaps creates a short summary and bullet points, rather than identifying speakers, saving raw audio or providing a word-for-word transcript. Users can review recaps at the end of the day, save selected notes to Notes or Journal, and set a schedule or turn the feature off. Unkept recaps are deleted within seven days.

Apple says the features are designed to omit certain sensitive information. They are intended for Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, and use the S11 chip, an iPhone, and Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. The source describes audio processing through a secure enclave and encrypted text sent to Private Cloud Compute, but its account of that process is cut off.