Excellent news, Apple Watch house owners. In the event you’ve received a Sequence 6 or later, it appears to be like such as you’ll be capable of set up and run watchOS 26.
On June 9, as a part of its WWDC keynote presentation, Apple will announce this 12 months’s large software program replace for the Apple Watch, and the present idea is that this will probably be known as watchOS 26 (as within the 12 months 2026). It will include new options and certain a redesigned interface, and better of all, it received’t value a penny to put in.
The true query, nonetheless, is whether or not you’ll be capable of run it. Not each Apple Watch can run each model of watchOS, as a result of they turn into extra spec-intensive over time as Apple consists of extra demanding options and extra complicated graphical parts.
In the event you had a Sequence 4 or later you might run watchOS 10 when it launched two years in the past, however the Sequence 4 and Sequence 5 have been each dropped from the checklist of supported gadgets when watchOS 11 got here out in 2024. Sequence 6 house owners will subsequently be scanning the tech information websites nervously to see in the event that they’ll be capable of seize the replace this 12 months.
The excellent news is that Apple doesn’t appear to be planning to drop any extra gadgets this 12 months. In keeping with a reputable new leak reported by MacRumors, the checklist of supported Apple Watches for watchOS 26 would be the similar because it was for watchOS 11: the Sequence 6 and later. The one change would be the addition of the late-2025 watches.
- Apple Watch Sequence 6
- Apple Watch Sequence 7
- Apple Watch Sequence 8
- Apple Watch SE (2nd gen)
- Apple Watch Extremely (1st gen)
- Apple Watch Sequence 9
- Apple Watch Extremely (2nd gen)
- Apple Watch Sequence 10
- Apple Watch Sequence 11 (anticipated)
- Apple Watch SE (third gen, potential)
- Apple Watch Extremely (third gen, potential)
To be frank, this might have been predicted earlier than the leak emerged. Apple has by no means lower watches from its supported checklist two years in a row: watchOS 5, 7, 9, and 11 all dropped fashions (typically a number of fashions directly), however the ones in between stored issues regular. It could have been a significant shock if Apple had swung the hatchet for a second 12 months working.
To be truthful, that stunning flip of occasions might but occur. MacRumors’ supply is a personal account on X/Twitter, and whereas the positioning insists this supply has “a confirmed monitor report for upcoming software program updates,” it’s not possible to make sure they’re proper on this event. The one option to know the reality with any certainty will probably be to tune into the WWDC keynote on June 9. Macworld, for sure, will probably be protecting all of the bulletins as they occur.
