Apple released watchOS 27 on September 14, bringing a new set of Audio Intelligence to its latest Apple Watch models. However, owners of previous models will be missing out on twice as much from this change. The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 coming later this year will feature Live Rewind, a feature that provides a transcript of any audio content recorded by the device in the last 15 seconds.
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To activate the feature, users must double-click the Digital Crown. The Live Rewind feature is a major innovation for Apple, offering users the ability to rewind recent audio events, which can be extremely useful in a variety of situations, such as when someone wants to hear important information that was just said again. However, this new feature does not come without a cost. The double-click action on the Digital Crown, which in watchOS 26 was used to switch between the current app and the previously used app, will no longer be available for this use in the new models.
This clever way to multitask on the Apple Watch, which allows users to quickly jump between apps without having to touch the screen, has been hugely popular. Losing this feature will significantly impact the user experience for many, especially those who are used to using it every day. Predictably, this feature will no longer work for those who upgrade to the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models when the devices launch on September 18. Apple has reserved the double-click action for activating the new Live Rewind feature later this year.
However, what's perhaps more disappointing is that owners of older Apple Watch models who upgrade to watchOS 27 will also lose the ability to switch between apps using a double-click on the Digital Crown. After upgrading to watchOS 27, double-clicking the Digital Crown 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.
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This is despite the fact that the new Live Rewind feature is tied to the hardware of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. Owners of previous models are simply out of luck in both cases, losing a useful feature while also losing the new feature that replaces it. This situation also creates another problem for new Series 12 and Ultra 4 owners: What if people don't want to use Live Rewind and its privacy implications?
Apple could have made the double-click action work for switching between apps like in watchOS 26, while also providing an option to assign the action to Live Rewind if that's preferred.
The lack of options to customize this feature could prove problematic for many users who are concerned about their privacy or who simply prefer the previous functionality. 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 that the company hears enough demands to change course in watchOS 27.1 or a future update.
See also: Apple: You can't secretly use Apple Watch's Live Rewind
Pre-orders for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 are now available ahead of their release on Friday, September 18. Apple continues to innovate with each new version of watchOS, but these changes aren’t always to the benefit of all users. The balance between new features and maintaining existing functionality is critical to user satisfaction and the success of the platform.
