Apple might want to consider moving up its WWDC 2025 keynote, because the internet seems intent on spoiling every announcement ahead of time. After spilling the beans about iOS 26 app upgrades and new features for AirPods earlier this week, 9to5Mac returned on Thursday with a fresh leak about watchOS 26.
Citing a reliable source, 9to5Mac says that watchOS 26 will give third-party app developers the ability to put widgets in Control Center on Apple Watch. Plus, the source says the layout will be “fully customizable” in the Watch app on iPhone, allowing Apple Watch owners to add, remove, and reorder widgets directly from their smartphones.
watchOS 11, last year’s update for Apple’s wearable OS, gave widgets on Apple Watch a major overhaul. In addition to adding widgets for severe weather alerts, Photos, and Shazam, widgets also started showing up automatically in the Smart Stack.
This was a step in the right direction, but it was also a rather limited implementation of widgets, especially compared to what we see in iOS and iPadOS.
Potentially game-changing
As an Apple Watch owner myself, I’ve always found the device to be relatively limited beyond its exercise and health-tracking features. For many, those use cases are enough, but this opens the door to so much more functionality than was previously available.
We don’t know exactly what this implementation is going to look like, nor do we know if it will be ready in time for the launch of watchOS 26 this fall. The good news is that we won’t have to wait much longer to find out, as Apple will take the virtual stage on June 9th at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET to tell us all about its upcoming software updates.
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