Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 introduce a new set of features called Audio Intelligence, expanding how the watches can respond to sounds and spoken conversations around the wearer.
Audio Intelligence includes four features: Sound Recognition, automatic Music Recognition with Shazam, Live Rewind and Siri Recap. Together, they can alert users to important sounds, identify music, show what was just said in a conversation and create summaries for later reference.
The features do not all work the same way or arrive at the same time. Sound Recognition and Music Recognition are available on the new watches, while Live Rewind and Siri Recap are scheduled to launch in beta later in 2026. Each can also be controlled separately, giving users the option to enable only the features they want.
Sound Recognition Can Alert You to Sirens, Alarms and Doorbells
Sound Recognition allows Apple Watch to detect selected sounds around you and send an alert when one is recognized.
Apple lists examples including sirens, alarms and doorbells. The feature can work even when the paired iPhone is not nearby and may be particularly useful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Sound Recognition can be managed from the paired iPhone under:
Settings >> Accessibility >> Sound & Name Recognition >> Sound Recognition
The “Detect using Apple Watch” option controls whether the watch participates in sound detection. Turning that option off disables Apple Watch detection.
Shazam Can Identify Music Automatically
Audio Intelligence also adds automatic Music Recognition through Shazam.
Instead of requiring the wearer to manually ask Siri or open Shazam, Apple Watch can recognize music playing nearby and show the song title and artist in the Smart Stack.
Music Detection can be controlled directly on Apple Watch under:
Settings >> Smart Stack >> Music Detection
Users who do not want automatic song detection can turn Music Detection off from the same setting.
Apple says the watch does not send the raw audio recording to Shazam. Instead, the device creates an acoustic signature — a mathematical representation of the song — and sends that signature for identification.
Live Rewind Shows What Was Said in the Previous 15 Seconds
Live Rewind is intended for situations where someone misses part of a conversation or wants to check what was just said.
When enabled, double-pressing the Digital Crown displays a text snippet covering roughly the previous 15 seconds of speech. The wearer can read the text, ask Siri about it or choose to save it.
Live Rewind does not continuously save conversations. Apple says the text normally disappears shortly after the watch display dims unless the user deliberately saves it or asks Siri about the content.
The feature also plays an audible chime and displays a visual indicator when activated, including when the watch is on silent, to notify people nearby that Live Rewind is being used.
Live Rewind can be controlled from the Watch app on iPhone:
Watch app >> Siri >> Live Rewind
Turning off “Double Click Digital Crown” disables the gesture used to activate it.
Siri Recap Creates Short Conversation Summaries
Siri Recap goes beyond the previous 15 seconds and can create high-level summaries of conversations throughout the day.
Rather than producing a word-for-word transcript, Apple says the feature is designed to create shorter notes covering the main points of a conversation. Unsaved recaps are automatically deleted after seven days.
Users can decide when Siri Recap is active. It can be scheduled by time or location, for example only while at work or switched on and off manually through Control Center.
Siri Recap can be configured through the Watch app on the paired iPhone. Users who no longer want the feature running can disable it there or turn it off from Control Center.
Saved recaps can be viewed, edited or deleted through the Siri app and can also be exported to apps such as Notes and Journal.
Apple cautions that Siri Recap and Live Rewind use AI-generated text and may sometimes omit, misunderstand or inaccurately summarize information. Important details should therefore be confirmed separately when accuracy matters.
How Audio Intelligence Handles Audio and Privacy
Apple says Audio Intelligence does not create or store conventional audio recordings.
Raw audio is first handled inside a protected area of the S11 chip called the Secure Exclave, which keeps that data separate from the operating system and other apps. Apple says the processed audio is deleted afterward.
Sound Recognition and Live Rewind are processed on Apple devices.
Siri Recap uses a combination of the Apple Watch, paired iPhone and Apple’s Private Cloud Compute system. Apple says a shortened version of the conversation text is sent to Private Cloud Compute to generate the final summary rather than sending a normal audio recording.
Saved Live Rewind snippets and Siri Recap summaries can also sync through iCloud with end-to-end encryption.
Which Devices Support Audio Intelligence?
All four features require either an Apple Watch Series 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4.
Sound Recognition and automatic Music Recognition can work with an iPhone 11 or later, or a second-generation iPhone SE or later, running iOS 27.
Live Rewind and Siri Recap have higher requirements. They need a supported Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone and Siri AI, and will initially launch in English when the beta becomes available later in 2026.
Each Audio Intelligence feature is optional, so users can enable only the functions they want and turn individual features off later without disabling Audio Intelligence as a whole.
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