Apple Watch Beta Tests New Audio Intelligence Features

Apple has initiated beta testing for a new suite of Audio Intelligence tools designed for the Apple Watch, initially rolling out to developers. The technology introduces four opt-in capabilities, covering sound recognition, song identification, conversational rewinds, and conversation recapping.

The sound recognition tool assists deaf and hard-of-hearing users by identifying environmental noises like sirens and doorbells, while the song identification tool uses Shazam to detect background music. Meanwhile, features that engage with human speech—namely Live Rewind and Siri Recaps—aim to help wearers recall spoken information.

Live Rewind allows users to double-press the digital crown to review a text snippet of the previous 15 seconds of a conversation. If not manually saved, these snippets and their associated audio are automatically deleted after brief retention periods, with privacy safeguards designed to omit sensitive data such as financial details and government identifiers.