First impressions of watchOS 26

TidBITS Talk
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Let’s collect first impressions of watchOS 26 here.

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I have an implanted heart device that is a pacemaker/defibrillator. Previous versions of Watch OS could not do the EKG successfully. WatchOS 26 can, at least with my device. Helpful for keeping an eye on what my heart is doing.

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So far I have updated my Ultra and my spare SE2 to watchOS 26. My thoughts so far:

watchOS 26 is running fine for me so far; I prefer it to watchOS 11.

  • The workout view is better, but now instead of one tiny icon target to touch in order to customize a workout, there are four equally tiny icons? Boy, I’d prefer long-press or something else.
  • At first I turned on live activity of the workout data to the iPhone, but I think I’ll turn that off. I won’t look at the phone during a workout anyway, and I’d think it will save power.
  • Like the iOS Lock Screen, the Photos face is even better. I’m using it a bit more since the update, but I’m not sure that I will stay with it.
  • The glassy notifications are a little less good on the watch, but they are fine, still readable.
  • Battery life appears about the same.
  • Sleep score seems interesting and compares well with the sleep tracking app I’ve been using all year (Sleep+ by David Smith, who also wrote Pedometer+, Watchsmith and Widgetsmith (for iOS).) The numbers Sleep+ gives aren’t the same, but relatively after a few days they seem to track each other.

I will be getting an Ultra 3 to replace the Ultra on Sept 19, so I may have further thoughts with new hardware.

I have a long-term gripe with watchOS since it starting supporting Focus modes, but this is not exclusive to watchOS 26 - it’s just not working the way I’d like. I have automations that change my focus modes during the day. I have one called “Morning” that turns on at 7:00 am and stays on until 10:15 - this is the time when I usually do workouts every day, and this focus reduces the people and apps that can notify me, plus it changes the watch face to one that has complications for the workout and media apps that I use.

At 10:15, the focus changes to normal (and the watch switches back. to my normal watch face automatically.)

At 10:00 pm, my devices start the Do Not Disturb focus, which also changes my watch face as well as limiting who and what can notify me. And at 11:00 pm sleep focus starts, which goes until 6:30 am (when it switches to Do Not Disturb again, until 7:15 am.)

Sorry for the long build-up; here is my gripe. On the watch, after the focus has changed, the watch insists on showing me the notifications that I missed when my watch was in a particular focus the first time that I activate it after the focus change. So if that happens when I am trying to start a timer, after pressing the side button I get instead of the list of apps a message “here are the notifications that you missed in do not disturb”; another press “here are the notifications that you missed in sleep”; another press “here are the notifications you missed in fitness.” It’s a huge pain in the neck when I just want to start a timer.