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iOS 26.1 beta has rolled out this week with not a lot of features but it seems Apple has something brewing behind the scenes.
Could Apple finally open to other smartwatches?
Apple has blocked the route for third-party smartwatches to work with iPhones, which means most people have Apple Watch as one of the premium options available. But soon the company could allow other brands to support their wearables with iPhone, and some of those traits have been spotted in the latest iOS 26.1 beta this week.
There are a few brands who have managed to bypass Apple’s stringent security measures to work with iPhones but their feature list is limited which doesn’t give you the best experience of pairing both the devices.
iOS 26 To Finally Make Smartwatches Work With iPhone?
That’s what the iOS 26.1 beta seems to suggest as per the folks at MacWorld who have discovered hints of Apple bringing third-party watch support in the later updates. The report claims the new beta code has some unreleased features that are linked to making non-Apple watches work with iPhones.
It also claims that the company could have an easier way to pair these devices with the iPhones once the full feature rollout is confirmed and ready. The chances of this feature coming with the full iOS 26.1 version are pretty slim but it is good to see Apple comply with various regulations, especially in the European Union (EU) regions where third-party support for iPhone is paramount.
iPhones Supporting Smartwatches: What We Can Expect?
It is early to say what Apple’s decision to allow other watches to work on iPhone would offer but we surely expect more features to be compatible and not limited because of the platform differences. The company might still put some restrictions to serve its own purpose of selling the Apple Watch and Watch Ultra models in the market.
The new iOS 26.1 developer beta focuses on adding new features but also fixes some of the existing issues with the stable iOS 26 version that is available for iPhone 11 and later models. From what we have seen, the new beta version brings Apple AI to work in more languages, as well as fixing some of the performance issues with the testing devices.
S Aadeetya, Special Correspondent at News18 Tech, accidentally got into journalism 10 years ago, and since then, has been part of established media houses covering the latest trends in technology and helping fr…Read More
S Aadeetya, Special Correspondent at News18 Tech, accidentally got into journalism 10 years ago, and since then, has been part of established media houses covering the latest trends in technology and helping fr… Read More
September 26, 2025, 09:58 IST
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