Ask Siri something on your Apple Watch in the watchOS 27 public beta, which arrived July 13, and it remembers what you asked when you pick the conversation back up on your iPhone or Mac. Siri finally holds context across every device signed into your account instead of starting from zero every time you open your mouth. It can pull your flight details from Mail, adjust your Activity Ring goals by voice instead of tapping through menus, and search your Notes and Messages for something you don't remember writing down. None of it runs on the watch itself, and every request still routes through a paired iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence.
The app grid rearranges around what you actually use instead of staying fixed, which sounds small until it's the thing you notice every time you press the Digital Crown.
Getting a smarter Siri costs some people their watch entirely. watchOS 27 supports the Series 9, 10, and 11, the Ultra 2 and Ultra 3, and the SE 3, and nothing older, a sharp break from last year, when watchOS 26 still ran on a Series 6 from 2020. This year the cutoff drops the Series 6, 7, and 8, the SE 2, and the original Ultra all at once, which MacRumors called the most sweeping compatibility cut in Apple Watch history. The reason traces to the chip: watchOS 27 needs the A16 Bionic core inside the Series 9 and newer, and even the original Ultra falls off because it runs the older A13 Bionic.
Anyone holding a Series 8, bought as recently as 2022, won't be getting watchOS 27, including the smarter Siri everyone's talking about.