Apple Watch’s interface will become like the Vision Pro
By ForGeeks A new wave of rumors hints that with the release of watchOS 12, the Apple Watch’s interface could change in a big way – this time influenced by the visionOS design developed for the Vision Pro headset. The source claims that the future version of the system will feature translucent elements, redesigned icons and updated menus inspired by the visionOS style. However, he doesn’t specify what stage of development these changes are in, or when we should expect them in the release.
The move seems logical in the context of Apple’s general trend of unifying design across its platforms. Previously, similar speculation had already been made for iOS 18, but it wasn’t confirmed. Now it’s expected that a visual rethinking of the interface could debut in iOS 19 and macOS 16. If Apple really wants to bring its OSes to a unified visual style, a visionOS-inspired transition looks quite plausible.
The same report, however, makes a far less realistic claim: Apple is allegedly preparing to integrate Apple Intelligence into the Apple Watch Ultra, and other models in the future.
And if Apple really wants to bring a unified visual style to its OS, a visionOS-inspired transition to watchOS looks quite plausible.
As of now, this looks extremely unlikely. All of Apple’s known AI capabilities, including Genmoji emoji generation, smart notification summarization, and the new version of Siri, require Apple Silicon chips with at least 8GB of RAM. The Apple Watch, on the other hand, only has 1GB of RAM on board. Even top-of-the-line models like the Apple Watch Ultra don’t meet those requirements, so running Apple Intelligence directly on the watch is unlikely.
It’s likely that if any AI features do appear on the Apple Watch, they’ll be in the form of displaying data already processed from the iPhone, such as Genmoji or prioritized notifications. A scenario in which more complex Siri commands are transferred from the Watch to the iPhone is also possible. This would preserve visual and functional capabilities without overloading the wearable platform itself.
It’s also worth noting that the source of the leak, The Verifier, has previously published unconfirmed predictions, including a claim about the iOS 18 redesign supposedly being pushed to iOS 19 for the sake of prioritizing Apple Intelligence. So the claim of AI coming to the Apple Watch should be treated with a degree of skepticism.
Nevertheless, the idea of a visionOS-style UI update seems much more realistic and could be unveiled as early as WWDC 2025.
