Apple Intelligence is not officially supported on Apple Watch. But one of the key AI features in iOS 18.1 is available — and at its best — when used on the Watch. Here’s how to bring Apple Intelligence notification summaries to your wrist.
Notification summaries powered by Apple Intelligence
One of the pillars of support for Apple Intelligence is its linguistic tools. This umbrella covers features like AI-powered writing assistants for proofreading and rewriting, priority messages in mail, smart reply suggestions, and more.
Notification summaries are another feature powered by AI language tools.
When appropriate, Apple Intelligence uses notifications to provide brief summaries of message contents.
Notifications are not the only place where summaries are published. Below is an example of summary emails within the Mail app.
If the message is really short, you’ll still see its actual text included in the notification.
But with longer messages, notifications no longer display only the first part of the message. Brief excerpts like these rarely provide useful information.
Instead, thanks to Apple Intelligence, notifications in iOS 18.1 now include a summary of the full contents of the message.
This sums up an entire conversation, too: if you have a bunch of unread message notifications on your watch, the summary will dynamically update to include everything you missed.
Basically, notification summaries help you understand the main message or contents of a thread with just a quick glance.
That’s why this feature is a perfect fit for the Apple Watch.
AI notifications are coming to Apple Watch
The Apple Watch is not technically an Apple Intelligence-supported device.
However, since the iPhone feeds notifications to its paired watch, it benefits from these iOS 18.1 AI notifications.
As nice as these “smart” notifications are on the iPhone, I’ve found them to be a stronger asset on the Watch. The screen real estate is of such a high quality on the Apple Watch that this feature seems designed specifically for watchOS.
The best part? You don’t need new Watch hardware to get this feature.
As long as you’re using an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, your Watch will record these new and updated notifications.
Notification summaries show what’s possible with AI in watchOS
Many of the features that come with Apple Intelligence don’t make much sense on the Watch.
I don’t need my watch to text me back, create AI-generated photos, or remove unwanted objects from my photos.
But notification summaries show how AI could be a boon to the wrist.
Some other Apple Intelligence features that could be great in watchOS include:
And this is just the beginning. Apple will undoubtedly add new ones Apple intelligence features In the coming years. Some of these things would be great for the watch.
There are processor limitations that make the AI based on the original Watch a challenge. But notice summaries show how the Apple Watch will benefit from Apple’s investment in this area.
Have you used AI notification summaries on your watch? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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