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# watchOS 27: 10 Settings to Change First on Your Apple Watch
- URL: https://www.techbetweenthelines.com/watchos-27-settings-to-change-first/
- Published: 2026-10-26T13:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-26T13:00:00.000Z
- Description: watchOS 27 changed the Digital Crown, added a single tap and put Siri at the center. The ten settings worth sorting out first, with the exact path for each.
- Author: Justin Scharlemann
- Tags: How To, Wearables, Apple, Apple OS 27, #toc

watchOS 27 changed what happens when you press the Digital Crown, added a second finger tap and put Siri in the middle of everything. None of it announces itself after the update installs. Your watch just starts behaving a little differently and leaves you to work out why.

These are the ten settings and habits worth sorting out first, with the exact path for each. Most of them apply to every watch that runs watchOS 27, which means Series 9 and later, SE 3, and Ultra 2 and later. The last one is only for Series 12 and Ultra 4 owners, and it's marked.

## Install watchOS 27.0.1 before anything else

Apple released watchOS 27.0.1 on September 28 with a fix for "an issue where Apple Watch may restart unexpectedly." If your Series 12 or Ultra 4 has rebooted on its own, [the bug we covered in September](https://www.techbetweenthelines.com/the-reboot-bug-hiding-in-two-of-apples-newest-devices/), this is the update you want. It's out for every watch that runs watchOS 27.

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Tap **My Watch**, then **General**, then **Software Update**.
3. Leave the watch on its charger, close to your iPhone, until the install finishes.

Another update is close. watchOS 27.2 reached the release candidate stage on October 19, and we'll update this guide when it ships. One change no setting will undo: Walkie-Talkie is gone in watchOS 27\. Apple removed the app outright, so if you relied on it with family, that conversation needs to move to Messages or a phone call.

## Turn on Siri AI from your iPhone

Siri AI is the headline feature of watchOS 27, and Apple still labels it a beta. You won't find the switch on the watch. It follows your iPhone.

1. Open **Settings** on your iPhone and tap **Siri**.
2. If Siri is off, tap **Turn on Siri**.
3. Tap **Try the new Siri (Beta)** and follow the prompts.

It needs an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or any iPhone 16 or later), Siri set to a supported language, and you can't get it in the EU yet. Apple also warns that usage limits may apply. Once it's on, the new Siri app on your watch keeps your conversations, so a question you started on your iPhone can carry on from your wrist.

![Two Apple Watch screens showing a Siri AI conversation about a warm up routine](https://www.techbetweenthelines.com/content/images/2026/10/watchos-27-siri-conversation-1.jpg)

Siri AI conversations live in the new Siri app on the watch. Image: Apple

## Add the Siri Modular watch face

This is the face Apple built for watchOS 27\. Its big center slot shows whichever Smart Stack widget matters right now, turning the Digital Crown flips through the rest, and a Siri complication lets you ask a question with one tap. You can pick from four styles and three fonts, and swap in most of Apple's complications around the edges.

1. Touch and hold your current watch face.
2. Swipe left to the end and tap the **Add** button.
3. Open the **New Watch Faces** collection, tap **Get** next to Siri Modular, then tap **Add**.

Editing complications is easier on the iPhone. Open the Apple Watch app, tap **Face Gallery**, find Siri Modular and tap **Get**, then set each complication before you tap **Add to Watch**.

## Learn the new app grid, then pick your full view

Press the Digital Crown on watchOS 27 and you no longer land on all of your apps. You get the dynamic app grid, with the Siri app in the center and the apps you use most and used most recently around it. Turn the Crown and you reach the Home Screen with everything else.

![Apple Watch Series 12 in radiant gold titanium showing the dynamic app grid](https://www.techbetweenthelines.com/content/images/2026/10/watchos-27-dynamic-app-grid-crop.jpg)

The dynamic app grid now sits between your watch face and the full Home Screen. Image: Apple

That second screen is the one worth setting up. Open **Settings** on the watch, tap **App View** and choose Grid View or List View. You can also scroll to the very bottom of the Home Screen and switch there. List view is alphabetical, and with a lot of apps installed it's much quicker to scroll with the Crown than the grid.

To move apps around in grid view, touch and hold an app and drag it, then press the Crown when you're done. On iPhone, the same thing lives in the Apple Watch app under **My Watch**, **App View**, **Arrangement**.

## Get used to single tap, and decide what double tap does

watchOS 27 adds a single tap: touch your index finger and thumb together once. In the Smart Stack it selects the highlighted widget, or a button inside one, like play or pause. Double tap still answers calls, replies to messages and scrolls supported apps. Put together, the flow from the watch face is double tap to open the Smart Stack, double tap again to move down, single tap to open the widget you want and a flick of the wrist to get back to the face.

![Illustration of a hand tapping index finger and thumb together while wearing Apple Watch](https://www.techbetweenthelines.com/content/images/2026/10/watchos-27-single-tap-1.jpg)

One tap selects, two taps scroll. Image: Apple

To change it, open **Settings** on the watch and tap **Tap Gestures**. **Playback** sets double tap to play and pause or skip when media is playing, **Ignore Tap Gestures** pauses them while you use Apple Vision Pro, and **Off** turns them off. If a tap seems to do nothing, check the obvious first: gestures don't work in Low Power Mode, during the Sleep Focus, when the watch is locked or when your wrist is down.

## Pin the widgets you always want in the Smart Stack

The Smart Stack now suggests more on its own, like a birthday you're about to miss, where you parked or your transit card balance. Apple says suggestions take time to learn your routine, so the first week can feel random. Anything you want every time should be pinned instead of left to the algorithm.

![Apple Watch Series 12 showing a Smart Stack suggestion to wish a contact happy birthday](https://www.techbetweenthelines.com/content/images/2026/10/watchos-27-smart-stack-1.jpg)

Birthday reminders are one of the new Smart Stack suggestions. Image: Apple

1. From the watch face, turn the Digital Crown up or swipe up to open the Smart Stack.
2. Scroll to the bottom and tap **Edit**.
3. Tap the **Pin** button beside any widget you want to stay put, **Add Widget** to bring in a new one, or **Delete** to drop one. Then tap **Done**.

If the little hint icon at the bottom of your watch face gets in the way, swipe down on it to mute it for 24 hours.

## Set up Workout Buddy, which no longer needs your iPhone

Workout Buddy talks you through a workout in a generated voice. In watchOS 27 it adds notes on your pace, distance and workout length, and it works with your iPhone left at home as long as the watch has Wi-Fi or cellular. You need Bluetooth headphones, a paired iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, and your device and Siri language set to English or Spanish.

1. Open the Workout app and turn the Crown to the workout you want.
2. Tap the **Alerts** button, tap **Workout Buddy** and turn on **Use Workout Buddy**.
3. Choose a voice, tap **Back** twice, then tap **Start**.

It covers indoor and outdoor runs, walks and rides, plus hiking, elliptical, stair stepper, HIIT and strength training. If it gets chatty mid workout, swipe right and tap **Mute**.

![Apple Watch Series 12 showing indoor run metrics including pace and distance](https://www.techbetweenthelines.com/content/images/2026/10/watchos-27-treadmill-workout-1.jpg)

watchOS 27 also measures treadmill runs and walks more accurately. Image: Apple

## Use Extended Workout for anything long

A marathon, a long hike or a full day of skiing used to mean battery math. Extended Workout turns on Low Power Mode for the length of one workout, at the cost of some running metrics. Max Extended Workout goes further for Outdoor Walk, Outdoor Run and Hiking, dropping some metrics and splits to stretch the battery as far as it goes. On the Ultra 4, Apple rates them at up to 25 and 45 hours.

1. Open the Workout app and turn the Crown to your workout.
2. Tap the **Goals** button, then tap **Extended**.
3. Choose **Extended Workout** or, where it's offered, **Max Extended Workout**.

If you'd rather every workout ran in Low Power Mode, open **Settings** on the watch, tap **Workout** and turn on **Low Power Mode**.

## Check Find My, then meet the new Find My app

watchOS 27 folds Find Devices, Find People and Find Items into one Find My app built around a map. None of that helps if Find My isn't switched on for the watch itself before you lose it.

1. Open **Settings** on the watch and tap your name.
2. Scroll down to your Apple Watch, tap it, then tap **Find My Watch**.
3. Make sure **Find My network** is on.

A watch paired to an iPhone sets this up on its own when Find My iPhone is on, so most people will find it already done. In the new Find My app, sharing your location takes a few taps: tap the button at the top left, choose **People**, swipe up and tap **Share Location**.

![The redesigned Find My app on Apple Watch showing a friend's location on a map](https://www.techbetweenthelines.com/content/images/2026/10/watchos-27-find-my-1.jpg)

People, devices and items now share one map. Image: Apple

## Series 12 or Ultra 4? Start wearing it to bed now

Readiness, Apple's new daily score from 0 to 10, only runs on Series 12 and Ultra 4, and it can't score you until it knows your normal. Apple's setup list is short, but the nights are the part you can't rush.

1. In the Fitness app on your iPhone, make sure your height, weight and age are set.
2. Set up Activity and Sleep, and turn on Overnight Vitals.
3. Wear the watch to bed for at least seven nights.

Your vitals baseline needs at least 7 of the past 49 nights, so a watch that spends every night on the charger will never give you a useful score. We wrote a [full explainer on what Readiness measures and when to trust it](https://www.techbetweenthelines.com/apple-watch-readiness-score-explained/). These two watches also get a new Steps complication that counts in real time, which is worth adding to whichever face you settle on.

A couple of watchOS 27 changes need nothing from you. Call Context will put something like an airline confirmation code from Mail on screen when you call that airline, as long as your iPhone supports Apple Intelligence and is nearby. Live Rewind, which turns the last 15 seconds of a conversation into text, and Siri Recap, which summarizes a conversation afterward, are Series 12 and Ultra 4 features Apple says arrive as betas later this year. When they arrive, along with watchOS 27.2, they'll be added here.