Apple’s watchOS 27.3 developer beta adds Live Rewind and Siri Recap to the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. The features are part of Audio Intelligence, and remain subject to change before a public release.
Live Rewind displays a transcript of the previous 15 seconds. Siri Recap creates a high-level summary of conversations. Neither feature is enabled by default: users must turn them on through the Watch app on a compatible iPhone running the corresponding iOS beta. Live Rewind also requires an initial microphone calibration with the phone.
In early testing in a quiet home office, Live Rewind worked as described, although getting the timing of its double-press control right took some practice. A chime signalled that the feature was active, while the person testing it’s spouse noticed the sound but not the on-screen animation. The transcription captured a conversation about getting a cat to roll over, though later tests included a few misheard words.
Siri Recap has had less extensive testing so far. Its first summary covered an editorial planning meeting and identified several topics while omitting some sensitive information. That filtering made the notes less useful for the writer’s work, and the early results do not yet show how the feature will handle a wider range of conversations.
Users can set detailed schedules for Siri Recap, such as limiting it to certain hours on weekdays. Apple’s onboarding explains its approach to the features, but the early hands-on report notes that people nearby may not understand when audio processing is active. The writer argues that informing people who are frequently around the watch’s user is an important part of using the features responsibly.
Sources: The Verge.