About Audio Intelligence features on Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4
Audio Intelligence is a brand-new class of Apple Intelligence features that use the microphones of Apple Watch, the power of Apple silicon, and on-device and cloud-based AI models to help you detect sounds, identify music, and stay present and engaged — all while protecting your privacy at every step. Audio Intelligence includes Sound Recognition, automatic Music Recognition with Shazam, Live Rewind, and Siri Recap.
Live Rewind and Siri Recap will be available in beta later this year, starting with English. More details will be available at launch.
What Audio Intelligence features do
Audio Intelligence on Apple Watch relies on the tight integration of hardware and software with the latest AI models to provide four new features.
Sound Recognition
Sound Recognition detects important sounds like sirens, alarms, and doorbells, and notifies you — even when your iPhone is not with you. This is especially useful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Music Recognition
Music Recognition with Shazam automatically detects the song playing in the background and displays the title and artist name in the Smart Stack, all without tapping the widget.
Live Rewind
Live Rewind1 recalls what was just said in the last 15 seconds by showing a text snippet on your Apple Watch when you double-press the Digital Crown, so you can catch something you missed or are less familiar with. You can ask Siri about the content of the snippet or simply save it to the Siri app.
Siri Recap
Siri Recap1 ambiently takes notes on your conversations throughout your day and creates high-level Apple Intelligence–generated summaries that you can use later to jog your memory, so you can stay present in the moment. Your summaries auto-delete after 7 days if you choose not to save them.
You're in control
Each Audio Intelligence feature is opt-in. And for Live Rewind and Siri Recap, you decide when and where each feature is active.
Sound Recognition can be enabled through the iPhone Settings app. Open the Settings app on iPhone, then tap Accessibility, then Sound & Name Recognition, then Sound Recognition, and then turn on “Detect using Apple Watch”. If you have Sound Recognition already enabled on your iPhone, it will be automatically enabled on your Apple Watch.
Shazam can be turned on in the Settings app on Apple Watch. Open the Settings app on Apple Watch, then tap Smart Stack, and then turn on “Music Detection” (or tap the “Enable Music Detection” widget when it surfaces in your Smart Stack). If you have Music Detection already enabled on Apple Watch, you don't need to opt in again.
Live Rewind only activates when you deliberately double-press the Digital Crown. It only shows the last 15 seconds of speech as a text snippet on your display. It doesn't continue to transcribe in the background, nor does it save the text unless you choose to ask Siri about the content or save it to the Siri app. You can turn it on through the Watch app on iPhone — just open the Watch app, tap Siri, then tap Live Rewind and turn on “Double Click Digital Crown”.
Siri Recap runs only when you choose. You can turn on Siri Recap in the Watch app on iPhone. When you turn it on, you can set a schedule based on time and/or location (for example, "only at work" or "never at night"), or you can manually turn it on and off. Across all these options, you can always turn it on or off at any time from Control Center.
Your data stays yours. You can view, edit, and delete your Siri Recap summaries at any time in the Siri app, including any Live Rewind text snippets you chose to save. Deleting one removes it from all your synced devices. You can also export your summaries and text snippets to other apps, including Notes, Journal, and more.
Only you can access your summaries. Siri Recap summaries and saved Live Rewind text snippets stored in the Siri app are end-to-end encrypted when synced through iCloud, so only you can access them, and only on your trusted devices.
How Audio Intelligence features protect your privacy
Like all of our products and features, Audio Intelligence on Apple Watch was built from the ground up to protect your privacy.
Audio is not recorded or stored. Audio Intelligence features don't create audio recordings. No audio can be accessed by the operating system, apps, you, or even Apple. There is no recording to share, forward, or produce if requested by any party, because no recording exists.
Raw audio is never accessible. Audio flows into a protected buffer inside the S11 chip’s Secure Exclave — a hardware-isolated compartment built into the silicon of Apple Watch and iPhone that processes sensor data separately from the rest of the system. Data that is processed and analyzed in the Secure Exclave can't be accessed by the operating system, apps, you, or even Apple. Once processed, this data is immediately deleted.
Siri Recap and Live Rewind help jog your memory, not provide a detailed record. Siri Recap doesn't produce a transcript. It generates a brief, high-level summary — comparable to notes you might jot down after a conversation. Live Rewind shows a text snippet of what was just said in the last 15 seconds, so you can catch something you missed.
Your data is not accessible to Apple. For Siri Recap, Apple Foundation Models running on Private Cloud Compute (PCC) summarize and format the final output. Data in PCC is never stored or accessible by Apple or anyone else. It is used only to fulfill your request, and independent security experts can verify this promise at any time.
Your data auto-deletes if you take no action. Siri Recaps auto-delete after 7 days if you don't save or export them. Live Rewind 15-second text snippets disappear permanently from your Apple Watch approximately 30 seconds after the Apple Watch display dims, unless you save them to the Siri app or tap “Ask Siri”.
Your data is end-to-end encrypted syncing with iCloud. If you use iCloud with two-factor authentication and have a device passcode, any Siri Recap summary or Live Rewind text snippet you choose to save syncs across your devices end-to-end encrypted in the Siri app. Only you can access this information, and only on devices where you are signed in to iCloud. Apple does not hold the encryption keys. No one else, not even Apple, can access the end-to-end encrypted data that you saved in the Siri app.
How Audio Intelligence features protect the privacy of those nearby
These features are designed to protect not only your privacy, but also the privacy of those nearby.
No speaker attribution. By design, Audio Intelligence features don't identify and attribute speakers. Siri Recap may contain names if mentioned in the conversation, but doesn’t directly attribute speakers (for example, "John said..." or labeling as "Speaker A" versus "Speaker B"). Similarly, Live Rewind may transcribe what someone said word-for-word, but does not attribute quotes to speakers.
Audible and visible signals for Live Rewind. When activated, an audible chime plays from the speaker on your Apple Watch, even if your Apple Watch is on silent or you have headphones connected. A full-display animation and microphone indicator appear on the display, and a distinct double-press gesture is required to activate Live Rewind. This is to alert those nearby that the feature has been activated.
Omitted content. Siri Recaps are designed to omit potentially harmful content, such as language that promotes self-harm or hateful speech, and sensitive information, such as financial data, government-assigned identifiers, authentication data, and certain personal identifiers.
Be mindful of those around you. While audio is not recorded and stored, and no speakers are attributed, consider those around you where conversations might be private or sensitive.
How your data is processed by Audio Intelligence
Privacy is designed into Apple Watch, from the silicon up, with hardware and software working seamlessly together. While different Audio Intelligence features handle your data differently, one thing is consistent — none of your data is ever accessible to Apple.
Audio is protected in hardware. All four features are enabled by the new S11 chip on Apple Watch and its Secure Exclave, the dedicated secure buffer that processes audio privately in a protected environment that no one can access, not even Apple.
Shazam shares only an acoustic signature. If you open the Smart Stack on Apple Watch and music has been detected, the Secure Exclave will process the audio in the secure buffer and create an acoustic signature of that song (a compact representation that can't be reversed into the original audio). That signature — not the raw audio — is then sent to Shazam servers to identify the song.
Sound Recognition and Live Rewind are processed on device. All processing, including speech recognition, happens on your Apple Watch and iPhone. If you choose to ask Siri about the content of your Live Rewind text snippet or save it to the Siri app, it will be securely sent to Private Cloud Compute.
Siri Recap uses Private Cloud Compute. The Secure Exclave on Apple Watch encrypts the detected audio and transmits it to the Secure Exclave on the paired iPhone. The encrypted audio is then decrypted, transcribed, and condensed inside the iPhone Secure Exclave. To create a summary, Siri Recap sends an encrypted, condensed version of the conversation transcript from your iPhone to Private Cloud Compute. This condensed text is designed to be less than half the length of the original transcript and distills the conversation to its core meaning. Content suggestive of conversation tone, non-essential language, filler words, and redundancies are removed, while preserving the topics discussed. This condensed text is sent to PCC along with some contextual information to generate the summary. The finished, text-based summary is encrypted and sent from Private Cloud Compute back to iPhone and Apple Watch.
End-to-end encrypted syncing with iCloud. Siri Recap summaries and saved Live Rewind text snippets live in the Siri app in the Recaps tab, end-to-end encrypted with iCloud syncing.
All within Apple’s hardware and software architecture. Audio Intelligence features are designed with a tightly-integrated architecture in which your data is processed only on-device and with Private Cloud Compute.
What you need
Sound Recognition and automatic Music Recognition with Shazam
Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4
iPhone 11 or later, or iPhone SE (2nd generation or later) with iOS 27
Live Rewind and Siri Recap
These features will be available in beta later this year.
Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4
iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 17, iPhone 17e, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, or iPhone Duo
Requires Apple Intelligence and Siri AI (Beta)2
Live Rewind and Siri Recap are not available for users under age 13. For users under 18 on a Child Account, access to Live Rewind and Siri Recap must be turned on by a parent or guardian.
Available in English with more languages to follow
Learn more
Siri Recap summaries and Live Rewind text snippets are generated using Apple Intelligence and may be incomplete or inaccurate. Important details may be omitted, misunderstood, or summarized incorrectly. When accuracy matters, confirm important information with the people involved or another reliable source. Siri Recap is designed to limit certain potentially sensitive content, such as financial information, government-assigned identifiers, and more, but automated filtering may not remove all sensitive information.
Our newest version of Siri, Siri AI, will roll out gradually in beta. Siri AI will be available in beta later this year and requires an Apple Intelligence–enabled device set to a supported language. Siri AI will not initially be available in the EU on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS.