Apple released watchOS 27 on September 14, bringing a new Audio Intelligence feature set to its latest Apple Watch models, but as a result, owners of previous models are set to lose out doubly in the process.
Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models later this year will get Live Rewind, a feature that provides a transcript of any spoken audio that was picked up by the device in the last 15 seconds. To activate the feature, users need to double-click the Digital Crown.
Unforunately, this double-click action is the same one that in watchOS 26 switches between the current app and the previously used app – or indeed the watch face and the last used app.
It's a neat way of multitasking on your Apple Watch without tapping the display.
Needless to say, this feature will no longer work for anyone upgrading to Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models when the devices are released on September 18. Apple has reserved the double-click action for when its new Live Rewind feature is activated later this year.
However, what's arguably more frustrating is that owners of older Apple Watch models who update to watchOS 27 will also lose the ability to jump between apps using the Digital Crown double-click.
After updating to watchOS 27, the Digital Crown double-click no longer works to switch between apps. All it does is bring up the new dynamic app grid, which is the same behavior that a single click offers. This is despite the fact that the new Live Rewind feature is hardware-bound to the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. Owners of previous models are simply out of luck in both senses, losing a useful function while also missing out on the new feature that usurps it.
It also throws up another problem for new Series 12 and Ultra 4 owners: What if people don't want to go near the Live Rewind feature and its privacy implications? Apple could have made the double-click action work to switch between apps as it does in watchOS 26, while also providing an option to assign the action to Live Rewind if that's preferred.
Apple currently doesn't provide options to resolve the situation for either group of users, so all we can do is provide feedback to Apple and hope the company hears enough demand for it to change course in watchOS 27.1 or a later update.
Pre-orders for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 are available now ahead of a Friday, September 18 launch.
