Sure, Watchos 26 brings Apple’s floating glass to your wrist, a ‘training mate’ to give you a self -maternity voice or a push to hit a personal best during a workout and a lot of new message features. All that is cool, but it is one of the more basic updates has me the most jazzy and I have had a chance to try it already.
If you are something like me, when a barrier of slack warnings comes through, or really any messages that are not super urgent, I will feel hum on my wrist and ignore it or place my other hand’s palm over Apple Watch to reject them. So far it has worked well, but Apple’s latest gesture is to take things to the next level.
‘Wristflick’ is exactly what it sounds like – when a review comes through, you just want to flick your wrist backwards to reject it. You can also use it to go back a step anywhere within the Apple Watch’s interface or to close or silent incoming calls, whether cellular or facetime.
So say you check the Weather app for the forecast but have to go back just flick your wrist twice. Once you lead you back to the lifting rocket and someone else brings you back to your watch.
It joins them like Double Tap when it arrives with Watchos 26, which is set to arrive in the fall (probably in September or October). Although available in developer Beta Now, it is sent with the public beta, expected this month, July 2025.
To be clear, the developer beta is very much what the name entails – it is an early version of the software and is not recommended for installation on your primary device as you can expect errors, slowdowns, speedups and instability. It is simply not final software, but rather an early look.
In my quick demo at Apple Park in a briefing after WWDC headtles, I quickly got hold of using ‘wrist flick’ and I suspect that when it arrives at your wrist, it becomes a daily habit. It is simply to pair something you would expect with a gesture, making it easier to navigate the Apple Watch without having to touch the screen or reject a review or two.
You need a relatively new Apple Watch to watch ‘Wristflick’ appears with Watchos 26 update: It works on the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. Interestingly, there is no support for neither Apple Watch SE nor the original Apple Watch Ultra as the feature requires the S9 or S10 chip. For some, it may be a reason to upgrade to a newer Apple Watch.
Additional features
I’m excited about ‘Wristflick’, but in Apple’s eyes, it’s probably not one of the flagship additions to Watchos 26. There’s also ‘Trainingmate’, which I got to see in action-this upgrade only requires Apple Watch to be paired with an Apple Intelligence-Capable iPhone.
In a demo, I saw the AI -driven coach speech in a style that looks like some of the best fitness+ trainer (shouting to Jessica Skye) used to train the model. They interact with key joins during training: at the beginning of setting the stage, in the middle at different milestones and finally.
The feature is there to give a push at times, but more a dose of encouragement. The coach I heard was very peppy; She knew the day and time and noticed that we were going to a workout on Monday night, and eventually I told me that I brought it all the way home. It’s a nice upgrade that I think I get to work more.
There is also the liquid glass interface and smart tip – subtle icons that appear on the bottom of your watch surface or at the top of the interface, suggesting actions. So if you are using the camera app on your iPhone, a review on your wrist may remind you that you can check the shutter that way.
It all assembles for a rather compelling software upgrade to Apple’s most important laptops, but I think you find that wrist flick is a prominent one. And if you’re eager to have an Apple Watch capable of this feature, thanks to Amazon Prime Day 2025 on the horizon, there is a deal to have: Apple Watch Series 10 is back at the lowest price we’ve seen.
