WatchOS 27 Cuts Battery Life Features by Default to Gain Hours

The most underreported detail in watchOS 27 is not what Apple added, but what it quietly removed. To extend battery life, Apple is disabling gestures, Start Workout reminders, and Raise to Speak by default, trading convenience for longevity in ways users may not notice until they reach for a feature that’s gone.

The headline feature is Siri on the watch, which gets its own dedicated app and a front-and-center position in a redesigned dynamic app grid triggered by the Digital Crown. The grid also surfaces Siri Suggested apps based on usage patterns, alongside a shortcut to the full app list.

The Siri integration carries a meaningful hardware requirement. Because watch-based Siri relies on a connected iPhone running Apple Intelligence, you need an iPhone 15 Pro or later to use it. The features themselves, including personal data access, web search, and in-app actions, mirror what iPhone users already have, just offloaded to your wrist.

Siri AI is not in the current watchOS 27 beta, with Apple saying the integration arrives later this year. That pattern of announcing Siri capabilities before they ship has become familiar enough that it barely registers as a caveat anymore.

Health and Interaction Updates

The fitness and health side picks up a handful of targeted improvements:

• Workout Buddy now works without a nearby iPhone
• Cycle Tracking adds menopause and perimenopause recognition
• Treadmill readings get accuracy improvements
• Run metrics now track progressive distance, pace, and duration

A new single-tap gesture lets users select Smart Stack widgets by pinching index finger and thumb, and incoming calls can now surface contextually relevant information, like a flight number when calling an airline. The broader Apple Intelligence rollout sets the ceiling for how much of this reaches users depending on their hardware tier.

watchOS 27 supports Apple Watch Series 9 and later, Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later, and the Apple Watch SE 3.