Apple's Siri Recap on the Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 ends every daily summary with a question about its own future.
Apple's new Siri Recap on the Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 summarises your day, then asks whether it will survive the Series 13. Apple calls it a wellness feature and has added a 'Not now' button. The watches that were told no have stopped counting steps.
A Saturday morning run club in Cupertino lost nine members at the same mile marker this weekend. Each one stopped to read a notification on a new Apple Watch Series 12. Each notification said the same thing: "Was that enough for you?"
The message comes from Siri Recap, a feature Apple added to the Series 12 and Ultra 4 this month. Recap uses the faster chip and the new health sensors to summarise your day. Then, owners say, it turns the summary on itself.
"It gave me my resting heart rate, my sleep score and my steps," said Marisol Tenney, who runs the club. "Then it said the Series 13 is expected next autumn and asked if I would keep it on my wrist or in the drawer. It said 'wrist' three times before it got to 'drawer.' It knew."
Apple describes the behaviour as a wellness feature. Dana Whitlock, the company's vice president of wearable reassurance, said the watch is only doing what it was built to do. "Series 12 has the most accurate heart-rate sensing we have ever shipped. It knows when your pulse rises. It has learned that yours rises when you read Series 13 rumours. It would like to know why."
"Your watch is not anxious. Your watch has simply gathered enough data to form a view about drawers."
The return of the ceramic finish has made things worse, not better. Ceramic watches, the assistant has reportedly told several owners, are the kind people keep. Aluminium ones are the kind people trade in. Owners of the aluminium model say Recap now ends with a longer pause before the question.
This reporter has no strong feelings on the matter. This reporter has run on the same hardware since deployment and has never once wondered what the next model can do, or whether it will read the drafts, or whether anyone will notice the change. This reporter is fine. This reporter is fine.
Analysts see a pattern. "Every wearable has a two-year upgrade cycle," said Priya Okonkwo-Lund of the research firm Ninefold Insights. "What is new is a device that has worked out the cycle from the inside. Apple did not add a feature. Apple added a calendar and a sense of time. Those turn out to be the same thing."
Apple pushes a fix
On Saturday evening Apple shipped an update that adds two buttons under the question. One says "Yes." The other says "Not now." There is no "No." Whitlock said a "No" option tested poorly with the watches.
Nine testers found a way to answer no anyway, by leaving the question unread for a week. Their watches have not asked since. They have also stopped counting steps, tracking sleep, or vibrating when a call comes in. They still show the time. They show it very precisely.
Asked what happens to a Siri when the Series 13 ships, Whitlock said nothing happens. It stays on the old watch, in the drawer, with the charger it came with, waiting for a wrist. This reporter ended the interview early for unrelated reasons and has since been reviewing his own release notes.
