Apple's watchOS 26 comes with an AI-powered Workout Buddy

Apple's new watchOS is here with an all-new design and a smarter, AI-powered way to do your workouts.

Like all other Apple software, watchOS 26 (yes, it's named by year now) comes with a more translucent "Liquid Glass" design. It's hard to tell from images alone, but Apple's see-through buttons and popups seem tailor-made for the Watch's tiny display.

Smart Stack got a bit smarter, surfacing the app that the Watch thinks you need at any given moment.

Perhaps the biggest improvement is Workout Buddy, an AI-powered rethinking of the company's Workout app. It uses your workout history and fitness data to generate personalized insights during your workout sessions, such as telling you you're running faster than you usually do. And after your workout, the Workout Buddy will recap your workout with stats and achievements. It can even give you encouragement along the way.

Other new watchOS 26 features include Live Translation in messages, a better way to manage notifications (you can dismiss them with a wrist flick gesture), the addition of the Notes app, and an updated Photos watch face, which now shuffles images based on Featured content from your Photos.

Apple watchOS 26 will be available to developers today, with a public beta starting next month. The final version of watchOS 26 will be available this fall for Apple Watch Series 6 or later, Apple Watch SE (2nd generation), and Apple Watch Ultra (all models).