Watchos 26 will appear later this year and is the next major update for the Apple Watch – this hidden function makes your watch much better!
Hidden Watchos 26 function makes your Apple Watch better
Watchos 26 includes a new notes app, Apple Intelligence functions, upgrades for the control panel and much more. But there is one hidden new function for your Apple Watch: ‘Hints’ are added to the dials, as a supplement to the smart stack.
In the past two years, Apple has introduced the smart stack in Watchos and gradually improved every year. The smart pile are the widgets that you see when you scroll with the digital crown while you look at your dial. In Watchos 26, Apple improves the smart stack again. This time, the most important function is technically not part of the smart stack.
Smart stack-hints
In Watchos 26, the forecast algorithms of the smart stack have been improved. Apple did this by integrating more contextual data, sensor data and data from the user’s routine. It results in a hidden position for your Apple Watch that we call smart stack-hints. These are proactive suggestions for actions that you can use immediately.
These hints encourage you to open the smart stack at times when it can be particularly useful. If you never open the smart pile, then it will not help you either. Apple knows that Apple Watch users spend almost all their time on the dial, so the hints in Watchos 26 appear on the screen at the bottom. That looks like this:
If you tap the hint (see left image below), the smart stack is opened with the widget marked (right image). It looks like the hints may get in the way on dials with other widgets at the bottom. But Apple may have already come up with a solution for that.
If the hints work as Apple intended them, it seems a good way to make the smart pile a bit more useful again. Instead of having to look for the widgets of the smart stack, you will automatically see the most relevant widgets.
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