Apple Watch Audio Intelligence enters beta on Series 12

Press the Digital Crown twice on an Apple Watch Series 12 and Siri will show you a transcript of the last 15 seconds of what was just said. That is Live Rewind, one half of Apple's Audio Intelligence feature now in the watchOS 27.3 developer beta, tested by Victoria Song of The Verge.

The second half, Siri Recap, operates in the background and produces high-level summaries of conversations throughout the day without full transcripts or speaker identification. Recaps auto-delete after seven days unless saved. Both features are opt-in, require an iPhone 16 or later and the matching iOS 27.3 developer beta, and run through the Secure Exclave, a hardware-isolated compartment on the S11 chip.

"These features are not turned on by default," Song writes, noting that enabling Live Rewind requires microphone calibration on the paired iPhone first. When the feature activates, the watch produces "an audible chime signaling the feature is in use," even in silent mode.

Users can constrain Siri Recap by time and location. Song gives the example of restricting it to "only at the office during weekdays from 1 PM to 4 PM." In early use Live Rewind "functioned as described," though testing so far has been limited to a quiet home-office setting with a spouse, with occasional word misunderstandings in subsequent tries.

Apple's framing is that "audio recordings aren't created or stored, and no audio can be accessed by apps, the operating system, or Apple." The features launch in English only, with a minimum age of 13 and parental approval required for ages 13 to 17. Siri Recap, Song writes, remains untested for full conversations during the initial beta period.