watchOS 26 Brings Your iPhone's Control Center to Your Apple Watch
Apple Watches are gaining support for custom Control Center controls.
Starting with watchOS 26, controls that are available in the Control Center gallery on an iPhone are automatically available on the Apple Watch as well. This is true even if the iOS app offering the control lacks a corresponding watchOS app. When you tap on one of these controls, the action is performed on the companion iPhone.
watchOS app developers can also create entirely new custom controls for watchOS, and in this case the action is performed on the Apple Watch directly.
The custom controls can even be assigned to the Action button on all Apple Watch Ultra models.
Until now, the Apple Watch's Control Center only offered controls from Apple, such as Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode, Theater Mode, and Flashlight toggles. You can access the Control Center on watchOS by pressing on the side button.
All of these changes mirror those introduced on the iPhone with iOS 18 last year.
watchOS 26 is currently in beta for the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer. The update will likely be released to the general public in September.
Popular Stories
Apple has published a new ad to appeal to customers in the market for an iPhone and Apple Watch pairing, highlighting the insights it can offer for your health.
Titled simply "Health with iPhone + Apple Watch," the half-minute ad focuses on a woman waiting in line at a cafe who begins receiving unsolicited health and fitness advice from other people in the queue, as well as local residents,...
iOS 26.5 and watchOS 26.5 will have a new Pride Luminance wallpaper and Apple Watch face when the updates are released in the coming weeks, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In a brief tweet, Gurman revealed that Pride Luminance will "Celebrate the vibrancy and individuality of the LGBTQ+ community and customize your watch face with colors from Pride
flags."
iOS 26.5 has been in...
For watchOS 27, Apple is testing new Apple Watch faces, and one of them is a simpler version of an existing Apple Watch Ultra watch face that could be coming to standard Series models.
Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple is testing multiple new faces for watchOS 27, code-named "Orchid." One of them is said to be a "simplified take" on the...
