Apple has released its watchOS 27.3 developer beta, introducing its new Audio Intelligence features to the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, according to TechCrunch and The Verge. Originally announced at Apple's September hardware event, the technology consists of opt-in AI tools designed to detect sounds, identify songs, and process conversations.
Audio Intelligence Features and Capabilities
The Audio Intelligence suite includes four main features. Sound Recognition helps deaf and hard-of-hearing users identify important sounds like sirens, alarms, and doorbells, while Song Recognition utilizes Apple's Shazam app to identify background music and artist names.
The more discussion-heavy additions are Live Rewind and Siri Recaps, which utilize ambient listening. Live Rewind allows users to double-press the Digital Crown to view a text snippet of the last 15 seconds of audio detected by the watch's microphone. According to TechCrunch, a double-press triggers an audible chime and an animation to signal to others that something was captured. Users can ask Siri questions about the text or save the snippet to the stand-alone Siri app. Unsaved snippets are deleted automatically after 30 seconds.
Siri Recap generates high-level summaries of conversations, providing a short sentence and bullet points highlighting key details such as important dates, deadlines, or pricing information. Users can review recaps when prompted or configure schedules, such as running only during work hours. Unsaved recaps delete themselves within seven days, and users can save them to the Notes or Journal apps. According to TechCrunch, Siri Recaps will omit sensitive data like government identifiers and financial information, and the feature does not operate when users listen to music with headphones or active noise cancellation.
Privacy and Security
To address privacy concerns regarding an ambient listening tool, Apple stated that raw audio is handled inside dedicated hardware, is not saved as a file, and remains inaccessible to the operating system, apps, or Apple. Lifehacker reported that audio streams are processed through the Secure Enclave on the S11 chip before moving to the iPhone's Secure Enclave, ensuring the watch never stores audio and never identifies speakers. Saved text snippets or summaries sync across devices end-to-end encrypted in the Siri app if iCloud uses two-factor authentication and a device passcode.
Redesigned Health App Updates
In addition to the watchOS beta, Apple released a redesigned Health app in the iOS 27.3 developer beta. According to Apple's press release, the update expands language support to global English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Built with Apple Intelligence, the app features an Insights tab with holistic summaries for heart, sleep, readiness, fitness, vitals, and cycle tracking, alongside a For You section for personalized recommendations and a Longevity tab featuring Health Age.