Siri AI finally works like a real app on the Apple Watch. Before watchOS 27 beta 3, Siri on the watch was just a voice button. Ask it something, get an answer, and the second you looked away it forgot the conversation ever happened. Now it's a dedicated app, and whatever you were talking about follows you to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Vision Pro.
Siri AI still needs an iPhone nearby to work on the watch. Workout Buddy doesn't anymore. The AI coach that debuted in watchOS 26 last year used to require a paired iPhone just to run, which defeated the point of a fitness feature built for a device people wear specifically to leave their phone behind. That's gone now. Leave the phone at home and Workout Buddy still talks you through the run.
Both features only work on six models: Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2, SE 3, or newer. A Series 8 or older watch gets neither upgrade, no matter what software the paired iPhone is running.
This is still a beta. The public beta showed up in July, and the finished version of watchOS 27 is expected in September, likely alongside new Apple Watch models.
Apple's whole hardware pipeline reportedly sits stacked up behind the same software. Camera equipped AirPods, a new Apple TV, Apple Glasses, a rumored Home Hub tablet, and an unconfirmed AI pendant are all reportedly close to finished but held back because Siri wasn't ready to ship on top of them, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Developers found code inside the iOS 27 beta that describes handling images from a second camera, which lines up with the camera AirPods rumor. Similar code inside the tvOS 27 beta references the new Siri directly, backing up the Apple TV rumor with something more concrete than a source. If the rumors are true, the delays go deeper than any one product. The camera AirPods were originally supposed to arrive in the first half of this year and have reportedly been suspended entirely. Apple Glasses reportedly slipped from early 2027 to the end of 2027. The watch getting an app is the small version of this story. The bigger one, if the rumors hold up, is how much of Apple's next two years depends on Siri actually working.