Apple Intelligence ‘officially’ is only supported on compatible iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but the Apple Watch also gains select features when paired with a modern iPhone. Here are two key AI features available on your Watch.
#1: Notification summaries
One of my favorite Apple Intelligence features (and also the most controversial) is notification summaries.
Essentially, AI analyzes the contents of an incoming message, news alert, and more, and can summarize that info in a short, sweet notification.
It’s especially nice for stacks of notifications from, say, Messages or Slack, because you can get a single AI-summarized notification that informs you about all the things happening in that stack.
Apple Watch benefits from notification summaries too, and I’ve found it an especially useful feature on my wrist.
When I get a notification, I want to be able to glance down quickly, get the info I need, then go about my day.
Notification summaries make that easy to do, saving me time and minimizing interruptions. Speaking of which…
#2: Reduce Interruptions Focus mode
Another supported AI feature on Apple Watch is the new Reduce Interruptions Focus mode.
This feature first arrived in iOS 18.1 as a way to—you guessed it—reduce the interruptions in your life.
Here’s how Apple describes the newest Focus mode:
When Reduce Interruptions is active, intelligently allow important notifications to interrupt you and silence notifications determined not to be important.
The way it works is that Apple Intelligence understands what notifications are generally about, and will only surface ones that seem particularly important. Anything that seems non-urgent will be kept silenced.
You can still explicitly allow or silence certain apps if you’d like, but by default Reduce Interruptions will let your Watch and Apple Intelligence do all the work for you.
Apple Watch’s AI features: wrap-up
There’s a lot of potential still untapped for Apple Intelligence on the Apple Watch. However, these two initial features provide a great start. Each enables you to go throughout your day with fewer big interruptions from technology, and that’s a valuable addition.
What do you think of these Apple Intelligence features? Do you use them on your Watch? Let us know in the comments.
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