GoKawiil
Tech News
Apple has removed the double-click Digital Crown shortcut that let users instantly jump between apps on Apple Watch in watchOS 27. The company reassigned that same gesture to trigger Live Rewind, a new Audio Intelligence feature that generates a 15-second transcript of recent spoken audio, but Live Rewind only works on the upcoming Series 12 and Ultra 4 hardware.
Apple's newest Watch models introduce Live Rewind and Siri Recap, two audio-intelligence tools that use the device's microphone to transcribe missed dialogue and summarize conversations. Because they capture speech from everyone nearby, not just the wearer, the features could run afoul of two-party consent laws in several US states, even though Apple says no audio is stored or made replayable to other people.
Apple's Audio Intelligence suite on the Watch Series 12 introduces Live Rewind, which captures the last 15 seconds of nearby audio via a double-press of the Digital Crown, transcribes it on a paired iPhone, and discards the raw audio. A companion feature, Siri Recap, generates AI-written summaries of conversations heard throughout the day. Apple says an audible chime and on-screen animation alert people nearby, but does not obtain explicit consent from every speaker captured.
At its latest hardware event, Apple unveiled new Apple Watch capabilities including Audio Intelligence, Live Rewind, and Siri Recap, which use on-device AI to detect ambient sounds and transcribe spoken conversations. The features combine accessibility benefits, like alerting deaf or hard-of-hearing users to sirens or crying babies, with more invasive capabilities like live transcription of nearby speech.
Apple released a paper explaining how Audio Intelligence works on the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, covering Sound Recognition, Music Recognition with Shazam, Live Rewind, and Siri Recap. The company emphasized that all four features are opt-in, with Live Rewind and Siri Recap arriving in beta later this year with English support.
Apple unveiled Siri Recap, a new Apple Watch feature that uses ambient listening and Apple Intelligence to generate titles, summaries and key points from conversations, viewable in the Siri app. The Watch event also introduced Shazam song identification, alerts for loud sounds like sirens or crying babies, and Live Rewind, which replays the last 15 seconds of audio via the digital crown.
Apple's Series 12 Watch, running the new S11 chip, introduces Audio Intelligence, a suite of microphone-based features including sound recognition, Live Rewind, Siri Recap and Shazam integration. The tools let wearers replay the last 15 seconds of speech, get automatic conversation summaries, and receive alerts for sounds like alarms or crying babies, even without an iPhone nearby.
Apple unveiled its Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro line and foldable iPhone Duo at its 'Surprise and Shine' event, highlighting a new Audio Intelligence system for the watches. The feature set includes ambient sound alerts for things like sirens and doorbells, a Live Rewind tool that transcribes the previous 15 seconds of speech via a crown double-tap, and a Siri Recap function that summarizes key conversations for later reference.
Apple introduced the Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4 at its Cupertino event, keeping hardware largely unchanged but adding new 'Audio Intelligence' software features. These include Live Rewind, which replays the last 15 seconds of conversation as text, and Siri Recap, which uses ambient listening to summarize meetings or conversations into notes in a new Siri app. A Sound Recognition tool for detecting sirens, alarms and crying babies also debuts, alongside an upgraded health-sensing system with more frequent heart-rate tracking.
Apple unveiled the Watch Series 12 with a new 'Audio Intelligence' feature that listens to conversations, letting users rewind the last 15 seconds via Digital Crown tap or ask Siri for a summary afterward. The watch also gets a redesigned sensor platform with larger ECG electrodes and PPG photodiodes, plus a returning ceramic case option after several years' absence.
Apple unveiled the Watch Ultra 4 and Watch Series 12 with two new agentic audio features, Live Rewind and Siri Recap, which let the watch continuously process ambient sound to summarize conversations or replay recent audio. This shifts the Apple Watch from a primarily health-focused device toward one that functions as an ambient AI assistant on the wrist.