At the same time as iOS 27.3, Apple opened a preview of watchOS 27.3 with two of the most talked about features from the September event: Live Rewind and Siri Recap. In short, one helps review what people just said, the other helps take notes on conversations during the day. Victoria Song of The Verge tried it out on the first day, and her feelings were quite realistic, neither too praise nor too much criticism.

Only available on Series 12 and Ultra 4

These two features belong to the Audio Intelligence group, only running on Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. According to Apple, they need to come with iPhone 16 or later with Apple Intelligence (except iPhone 16e), which is initially only available in English and not yet available in Europe. The remaining two features in the group are sound recognition such as fire alarms and doorbells and automatic song recognition using Shazam, which has been available for the past few weeks.

Live Rewind: if you hear something wrong, click twice

Double press the Digital Crown button, the clock displays the text of the 15 seconds just mentioned. You can ask Siri about that segment or save it to the Siri app to view later. If you do nothing, the text disappears about 30 seconds after the screen goes dark.

The first thing The Verge noticed was that the feature was not enabled. After installing the beta, double-clicking the knob will cause nothing to happen. You have to go to the Watch app on your iPhone to turn it on, and you also have to calibrate the microphone with the phone for the first time. When tested in the home office with my partner, Live Rewind ran as described, accurately recording the scene of the two coaxing the cat to roll around, although a few times later I misheard a word or two. The other person hears the alarm that the watch is using the feature, but does not pay attention to the effect on the screen. The double-click rhythm also takes a while to get used to.

Siri Recap: notes the entire meeting

Siri Recap listens around according to the schedule you set, after each conversation it will create a title and some main ideas in the Siri application. You can set very detailed schedules, for example, only turn on in the office on weekdays from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm if it is meeting time. Summaries can be set to automatically delete after up to 7 days if not saved.

The Verge's first Recap was an article planning meeting. Siri can divide the topics discussed, and automatically remove some sensitive information. There's so much that an outsider reading it won't understand anything, so the summary doesn't help much with the work. As for the short conversation with your partner, Siri does not find it worth summarizing.

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Are people around you being recorded?

This is the question I think many people will ask first. According to Apple's support documents, these features do not create audio files. The sound goes into a separate processing area in the S11 chip that cannot be accessed by the operating system, applications, users or Apple. Once processed, it is deleted. Siri Recap only creates a summary, not a verbatim copy, does not record who said what, and intentionally leaves out information such as account numbers and identification numbers. Saves are end-to-end encrypted when synced via iCloud.

However, The Verge believes that it is very difficult for people around to know that the watch is listening, and thinks users should tell those they often come into contact with in advance. I also agree. No matter how good the protection technique is, being polite to the other person is still up to the wearer.

Different from Amazon Bee?

The Verge is also testing the Amazon Bee Frontier, Amazon's conversation note-taking device. According to Ms. Song, Bee demonstrates AI more clearly, comments on emotions in conversations, is sometimes a bit judgmental, and has suggestions for Amazon purchases based on the content she has heard. Live Rewind is just a transcription, Siri Recap is a dry, factual note, and has nothing to do with sales.

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This is just the first beta so many features may change before release. For Vietnamese people, they still have to wait for Vietnamese language support to actually use it. If so, do you dare turn on Siri Recap during company meetings?