- Code in watchOS 26 suggests that a new privacy setting is coming
- It would let you hide data in complications until your Watch is unlocked
- Health data will always be hidden on a locked Watch
Apple’s watchOS 26 update contains a bunch of useful tweaks, but not everything new has been announced by Apple – and it looks like a secret feature has been discovered in the watchOS 26 beta that could bring an interesting change to your watch faces.
MacRumors contributor Steve Moser has apparently uncovered code in the watchOS 26 developer beta that brings a new setting to your watch: the ability to show or hide data inside complications while your watch is locked.
In practice, this would mean that you could disable complications on your watch face – such as weather info, your battery level, calendar info, and more – from appearing until you unlock your Watch. This is somewhat similar to an iOS setting that can obscure the content of notifications until your iPhone is unlocked.
The, err, complication here is that MacRumors has been unable to find where this setting is actually located. A Reddit user has supposedly been able to activate it, but they didn’t explain how they did so or where they found the setting.
Privacy protections
The one addendum to this purported setting is that your Apple Watch will never display your health data when your device is locked, regardless of whether you toggle the feature on or off. This is to protect your private health info from people who might otherwise be able to see it (and potentially misuse it).
One of Apple’s strengths is its commitment to user privacy, and this can be seen across many of its products and devices, from its iCloud Private Relay that obfuscates your internet activity to the Private Cloud Compute capabilities of its Apple Intelligence AI model. The company even fought, and won, a very public battle with the FBI over access to users’ devices, and has pushed back strongly against attempts to compromise its end-to-end encryption policies.
That means it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Apple is adding more privacy features to the Apple Watch with watchOS 26.
We’ll likely come across similar instances over the coming weeks and months while Apple refines its software betas and gets them ready for the full release, likely in September alongside the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch SE 3, and the iPhone 17 lineup.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
