- Code in Watchos 26 suggests that a new privacy setting is coming
- It allows you to hide data in complications until your clock is unlocked
- Health data will always be hidden on a locked clock
Apple’s Watchos 26 update contains a lot of useful adjustments, but not everything new has been announced by Apple – and it seems that a secret feature has been discovered in Watcho’s 26 beta that can bring an interesting change to your watch surfaces.
Macrumors -contributor Steve Moser has apparently revealed code in the Watchos 26 developer Beta, which brings a new setting to your watch: the ability to display or hide data inside complications while your watch is locked.
In practice, this would mean that you can disable complications on your watch surface – such as weather info, your battery level, calendar info and more – from displaying until you unlock your watch. This looks like something in an iOS setting that can hide the contents of messages until your iPhone is unlocked.
It, Err, complication Here is that macumors have not been able to find where this setting is actually located. A Reddit user has allegedly been able to activate it, but they did not explain how they were doing it or where they found the setting.
Privacy protection
One addition to this alleged setting is that your Apple Watch never shows your health data when your device is locked, whether you are tapping the feature on or off. This is to protect your private health information from people who might otherwise be able to see it (and potentially abuse it).
One of Apple’s strengths is its commitment to users’ privacy, and this can be seen across many of its products and devices, from its iCloud Private Relay, which reveals your Internet activity to the private cloud calculation features of its Apple Intelligence AI model. The company even fought and won a very public match with the FBI for access to users’ devices and has pushed back strongly against attempts to compromise on its end-to-end encryption policies.
This means that it should not come as too much of a surprise that Apple adds more privacy features to Apple Watch with Watchos 26.
We are likely to encounter similar cases in the coming weeks and months, while Apple fine -tunes its software betas and getting them ready for the full release, probably in September along with Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch View 3 and iPhone 17 setup.
