Apple’s latest watchOS beta includes its new always-on Audio Intelligence features

THE NEWS

What happened

Apple has rolled out watchOS 27.3 developer beta featuring new 'Audio Intelligence' capabilities for Siri. These features include 'Live Rewind,' which transcribes the last 15 seconds of audio upon a double-press of the Digital Crown, and 'Siri Recap,' which generates summaries and titles of conversations using ambient listening. Simultaneously, Apple released a redesigned Health app in iOS 27.3 with expanded language support and new insights features. The update emphasizes privacy, claiming raw audio is processed on dedicated hardware without saving files or accessing the OS.

CONTEXT

Why it matters

Apple is testing watchOS 27.3 with groundbreaking Audio Intelligence for Siri. The new system allows you to instantly transcribe the last 15 seconds of any conversation via a double-press of the Digital Crown using 'Live Rewind.' Additionally, 'Siri Recap' automatically summarizes conversations and highlights key points while you talk. This update also brings a redesigned Health app with global language support. Apple emphasizes that raw audio is processed on dedicated hardware for privacy, ensuring your data isn't saved as files or accessed by the OS.

AT A GLANCE

Key facts

• Siri now supports 'Live Rewind' to transcribe the last 15 seconds of detected audio via a double-press of the Digital Crown.
• 'Siri Recap' uses ambient listening to generate conversation summaries, titles, and key points automatically in the Siri app.
• These features are available in watchOS 27.3 developer beta alongside a redesigned Health app in iOS 27.3.
• Apple expanded language support for these features to include Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
• Apple asserts that raw audio is handled within dedicated hardware, not saved as a file, and is inaccessible to the operating system or apps.
• Saved Siri Recap summaries and Live Rewind snippets are end-to-end encrypted when synced via iCloud with two-factor authentication.