Put on OS Weekly
My weekly column focuses on the state of Put on OS, from new developments and updates to the most recent apps and options we need to spotlight.
WatchOS 26 and Put on OS 6 will arrive later this yr, and it is fascinating to see how Apple, Google, and Samsung are taking totally different approaches to maintain their watches related amidst this yr’s AI explosion.
Watching WWDC tends to set off a zero-sum mindset for Android telephone followers, mentioning the new iOS 26 features stolen from Android or how Apple Intelligence falls in need of Gemini.
On the wearable entrance, although, characteristic thievery is rampant and indiscriminate. Galaxy and Pixel Watch homeowners eagerly await when these manufacturers will “borrow” higher health watch options or Apple instruments just like the Good Stack.
I can level out that the Galaxy Watch 7 already has an equal to Apple’s “new” wrist-flick gesture for dismissing notifications, or that Google Maintain preempted Apple Notes on watches.
Nonetheless, Apple beat Samsung and Google to the punch with health instruments like operating dynamics, customized exercises, and coaching load, in addition to key security options.
Checking who was “first” to a smartwatch characteristic is not necessary (at the very least to me). What’s extra related is who executes a characteristic nicely, regardless of hurdles like battery life, weak CPUs, and tiny screens.
It is clear from Apple’s watchOS 26 presentation, plus Google and Samsung’s Wear OS 6 plans, that revamped UI, personalization, and AI are the priorities for smartwatches in 2025. Nonetheless, solely the Apple Watch 11, Galaxy Watch 8, and Pixel Watch 4 can reveal which model can truly ship in actuality.
Can Apple Intelligence or Gemini anticipate your wants?
WatchOS 26 will use “prediction algorithms” based mostly in your contextual, sensor, and routine information to create Good Stack hints, or “actionable solutions” that pop up as tiny icons on the principle watch face.
For instance, it will present a Pilates pop-up in case your GPS reveals you on the studio the place you often work out. Or the Watch can choose “the very best playlist for a consumer’s exercise based mostly on the exercise sort and their preferences.”
Different key watchOS 26 instruments depend on AI, similar to “extra exact” on-device Good Replies and “related motion” solutions based mostly on the message, like opening Apple Money if a pal requests cash.
We additionally know from a One UI APK teardown that Samsung (allegedly) plans so as to add the Now Bar software. You’d make a double-tap gesture to tug up contextually related apps from the house view, similar to music controls.
In each instances, Samsung and Apple declare that they know your routines so nicely that they know what you will need, saving you the swipes or voice command to seek out it. However can Gemini or Apple Intelligence be trusted for this, or will these solutions be too simplistic? We’ll discover out quickly sufficient!
Merely from a UI perspective, I like Apple’s Good Stack as a result of it may throw a couple of solutions on prime, whereas a Now Bar seemingly solely has room for one guess. Google’s new smooth-morphing Put on OS 6 UI might create an equal to Good Stack, however to this point, Google solely makes use of it for notification Playing cards.
Exercise Buddy: AI coach or one other novelty?
Apple’s Exercise Buddy will use Apple Intelligence to level out related information throughout and after exercises, similar to “You’re 18 minutes away from closing your Train ring,” “You picked up the tempo and ran that final one in 8 minutes,” or that you just “simply crossed the 200-mile mark” for the yr.
This instantly jogged my memory of Garmin Connect Plus, which has an AI chatbot that summarizes your current stats within the app, or Strava’s Athlete Intelligence data that judges each exercise. Different chatbots exist, too, with various ranges of accuracy and usefulness.
Frankly, Apple’s imaginative and prescient of AI teaching sounds considerably simplistic, specializing in rings and primary trivia that may be seen in your watch. Nonetheless, it could delve deeper into matters like coaching load and coronary heart fee zones, and at the very least Apple’s audio model can present this data throughout exercises for motivation.
For comparability, Fitbit Premium added AI operating teaching and prompt exercises final yr, based mostly in your health stage and Cardio Load. Apple has the apparent lead in at-home video exercises with Health Plus, however not AI exercises. It has a brand new Health UI to emphasise Customized Exercises, however not everybody has the time to create these themselves.
Apple says that its Exercise Buddy will work for operating, strolling, biking, HIIT, and power coaching — a broader vary than Fitbit’s give attention to operating. However will it supply something extra insightful than analyzing your period, tempo, and coronary heart fee? That’ll be the true check of its usefulness.
As for Samsung, it is reportedly engaged on some form of primary Running Coach this yr, however particulars are obscure. Its greater focus is a Samsung Well being AI Coach that may allow you to “ask questions, get real-time insights, and obtain personalised teaching,” in addition to supply “personalised diet recommendation” and “tailor-made meal plans and recipes.”
A generalized Well being coach to your way of life may need broader enchantment than Apple and Fitbit, which focus so closely on AI health. Or it will be too broad or generic, making it simple for folks to disregard Samsung’s recommendation. Once more, it is onerous to say till we see these insights in motion.
Materials 3 Expressive vs. Liquid Glass
If you would like me to choose a winner between Google’s Material 3 Expressive and Apple’s new Liquid Glass, I’ve unhealthy information for you: I really like them each.
Each designs flip weaknesses into strengths, accepting the restricted house of a smartwatch display and stylizing content material in order that it naturally suits higher into small areas whereas trying cool doing so.
WatchOS 26’s Images watch face hides parts of the time stylistically in order that it is nonetheless seen however suits in with regardless of the featured picture is. And if you open different content material, the watch makes use of “real-time rendering” to refract key content material out onto empty house. The background colours reinforce no matter your eyes are imagined to give attention to.
I additionally respect how Apple performs into its sq. show house for the redesigned Health app by including features like customized exercises or race routes into every nook.
It is an ideal UI option to have the principle content material sit within the middle, surrounded by colourful empty house, with extra features alongside the sting which are unfold aside sufficient to keep away from mis-taps.
It is similar to how Wear OS 6’s new Tiles match a number of extra buttons than earlier than, making them extra helpful, with set parts on the prime and backside to make the UI acquainted to customers.
Plus, the brand new design properly hugs the spherical show edge, with content material naturally morphing to suit no matter quantity of house it has. Spherical shows cannot match sq. ones for sheer house, however Put on OS can at the very least make content material extra helpful when it is squeezed right into a smaller portion of house.
I like how Liquid Glass samples on-display content material to push distinctive coloration schemes, however Put on OS’s dynamic coloration theming based mostly in your watch face is cool as nicely, providing you with extra of a selection to specific your self in how issues look.
Completely different strokes
Apple and Google have taken totally different paths to make software program on a smartwatch look trendy, and when Samsung reveals its new UI, it will even have a really totally different take.
Contemplating that Apple and Android watches will quickly be flooded with comparable AI instruments making an attempt to anticipate your wants, I discover it comforting that, on the very least, these watches will all take totally different approaches in different areas like UI.
