Controversial Privacy Features Are Now In Beta For The Latest Apple Watches - Should You Worry?

Apple is testing two controversial audio privacy features in the watchOS 27.3 beta for developers, aimed at the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4: Live Rewind and Siri Recap. Both rely on the new S11 SoC and Apple Intelligence. Live Rewind lets users double-press the Digital Crown to view a text snippet of the previous 15 seconds of a conversation, while Siri Recap produces “high-level” conversation summaries in the Siri app. Apple says the watch never records voice, using a hardware-isolated Secure Exclave where 24/7 voice handling occurs; it outputs only temporary text snippets, then deletes data. Apple describes Secure Exclave handoffs to the iPhone and immediate permanent deletion of raw audio. A concern remains that participants may not be aware they’re being recorded.