Apple Brings Sound Recognition to Apple Watch as watchOS 27 Ships

watchOS 27 became available on Monday, September 14, 2026, for Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later, and requires an iPhone 11 or later running iOS 27. The release brings Apple's new Audio Intelligence features to the wrist, including one designed for users who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Sound Recognition comes to Apple Watch to alert users who are deaf or hard of hearing to important sounds, even when their iPhone is not with them. Apple says the feature listens for sounds such as sirens, alarms, doorbells, or a baby crying, and uses on-device intelligence to notify the wearer when they are detected.

Apple introduced the feature as part of Audio Intelligence, a new class of Apple Intelligence capabilities for Apple Watch Series 12. The company says the S11 chip in that model includes a Secure Exclave, a hardware-isolated compartment that processes audio in isolation from the rest of the system and deletes it immediately afterward.

According to Apple, the Audio Intelligence features do not create or store audio recordings, and raw audio used for processing is inaccessible to the operating system, apps, the user, or Apple. Users opt in to each feature separately, and Apple says the features are designed not to identify or attribute speakers.

The Audio Intelligence suite also includes Live Rewind, which displays the previous 15 seconds of a conversation as a text snippet after a double press of the Digital Crown, and Siri Recap, which generates a title and key points from a conversation so the user can review them later. Apple says the S11 chip enables these capabilities.

The software arrives as Apple Watch Series 12 reaches stores on Friday, September 18, starting at $399 in the United States. watchOS 27 also brings Siri AI to Apple Watch for Apple Intelligence-enabled devices set to a supported language. Apple notes that not all features are available on all devices or in all regions.