Apple Introduces New Audio Intelligence Features for Apple Watch

Apple has introduced a new set of Audio Intelligence features for the Apple Watch, bringing artificial intelligence-powered tools designed to help users catch missed parts of conversations, recognise important sounds and identify music automatically.

The features are available on the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, which use Apple’s S11 chip and built-in microphones to power the new audio capabilities. Apple says the features are designed with privacy and accessibility in mind.

Live Rewind Helps Users Catch Missed Conversation

One of the new features is Live Rewind, which allows users to revisit the last 15 seconds of speech.

By double-pressing the Digital Crown, the Apple Watch can display a text snippet of what was just said. Users can then ask Siri about the content or save the information to the Siri app for later reference.

Apple says Live Rewind does not continuously transcribe conversations in the background. It only activates when the user deliberately double-presses the Digital Crown.

The feature could be useful in situations where someone misses a sentence during a conversation or has difficulty hearing what was said in a noisy environment.

Siri Recap Summarises Conversations

Apple is also introducing Siri Recap, which uses Apple Intelligence to create high-level summaries of conversations throughout the day.

Rather than providing a full transcript, Siri Recap produces a shorter summary intended to help users remember the main points of a conversation. Users can choose when the feature is active, including setting schedules based on time or location.

Apple says Siri Recap summaries are automatically deleted after seven days if users do not save or export them.

Sound Recognition Detects Important Sounds

The new Audio Intelligence system also includes Sound Recognition, which can alert users when the Apple Watch detects sounds such as sirens, alarms and doorbells.

The feature is designed in part to help people who are deaf or hard of hearing stay aware of important sounds around them. The Apple Watch can provide an alert even when the paired iPhone is not nearby.

Apple says Sound Recognition can be enabled through the iPhone's settings, while users who already have the feature enabled on their iPhone can have it automatically enabled on the Apple Watch.

Shazam Can Automatically Identify Music

Apple is also expanding music recognition on the Apple Watch through Shazam.

With automatic Music Recognition enabled, the watch can detect music playing nearby and display the song title and artist in the Music Recognition widget in the Smart Stack without requiring the user to tap the widget.

The feature builds on Shazam's existing music identification capabilities but makes the process more automatic on the latest Apple Watch models.

Apple Focuses on Privacy

Apple says privacy is a key part of how Audio Intelligence works.

The company says each Audio Intelligence feature is opt-in, while Live Rewind and Siri Recap give users additional controls over when the features are active. Live Rewind processes speech on the Apple Watch and iPhone, while Siri Recap uses Apple's Private Cloud Compute for part of the summarisation process.

Apple also says data sent to Private Cloud Compute is not stored or accessible by Apple. Saved Siri Recap summaries and Live Rewind snippets are protected with end-to-end encryption when synced through iCloud.

Availability

Audio Intelligence is available on the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4.

Apple's support documentation says Sound Recognition and automatic Music Recognition with Shazam are available with supported devices, while Live Rewind and Siri Recap will arrive in beta later in 2026, starting with English.

Live Rewind and Siri Recap also require a compatible Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone and Siri AI.

With these features, Apple is extending its artificial intelligence capabilities beyond the iPhone and into everyday conversations, sounds and music on the wrist.

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