GoKawiilApple's WWDC keynote on Monday put a supercharged Siri in the spotlight, but the ripple effects of that upgrade will likely be felt most on the Apple Watch -- if you have a new enough model, that is.
With WatchOS 27, Apple is bringing a revamped Siri -- now dubbed Siri AI -- to the wrist, with better contextual awareness, natural language support and the ability to pull information from other apps on the fly. In theory, that should finally stop Siri on Apple Watch from defaulting to showing a list of web links for nearly every request. That's especially important on a device where you don't have the screen real estate or time to dig through websites or conduct a back-and-forth chat with a chatbot.
If you've used an Android-based watch running Wear OS recently, the gap is pretty obvious. Google brought Gemini to the wrist last year, and after I tested it on the Galaxy Watch, the difference was stark.
Ask a Pixel Watch, "How do I make buttermilk?" and it surfaces a list of ingredients with quick steps on-screen, then reads them aloud so you don't even have to look down. Ask the same thing on an Apple Watch, and you get a list of websites you'd have to wait to load, and then squint and scroll to read through on a tiny display (if they even load at all). Multiple follow-ups? Not happening.
That kind of on-the-fly, hands-free utility changes how you actually use a watch, and I'm glad it's finally arriving on the Apple Watch, even if it's coming a year later than Android.
The end of the update road for many Apple Watch owners
The problem is that not many current Apple Watch owners will get to use WatchOS 27. The update will be available only on the Series 9 and newer, Ultra 2 and newer and the SE 3. It's a much more aggressive cutoff than usual: Apple is dropping the Series 6, 7 and 8, the original Ultra and the second-generation SE.
So, if you bought an Apple Watch before 2024, there's a good chance you're at the end of the update road.
Some of the new AI features have legitimate hardware requirements, but Apple hasn't traditionally treated that as grounds for cutting off older watches entirely. Last year, older models still received the update, while newer hardware had access to more advanced AI features. This year, Apple appears to have tied the entire update to the same compatibility wall, even though many of the new features don't seem to require the hardware needed for Siri AI.
With more people holding onto secondary devices like smartwatches for longer, that's a notable shift.
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