Hands-on with the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4

Apple unveiled a new meeting notetaker feature for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 on Wednesday, part of a range of audio intelligence enhancements. Dubbed Siri Recap, this functionality utilizes ambient listening to produce concise summaries of conversations, including titles and key points automatically generated by Apple Intelligence. Users can decide to keep Siri Recap constantly active, schedule its use, or turn it off altogether.

The notetaking capabilities were not the only audio-related feature introduced alongside the Watch. Apple's audio intelligence suite now includes Shazam, which can identify songs instantly, closing the gap with Google's Now Playing capability. Additionally, the Watch can detect loud sounds such as sirens, alarms, doorbells, or a baby's cries, alerting users promptly.

Apple also presented Live Rewind, enabling users to review 15 seconds of a conversation by double-pressing the digital crown. This feature ensures end-to-end encryption, ensuring raw audio remains inaccessible. Notably, Siri Recap does not attribute speakers in its summaries.

While these guardrails aim to protect user privacy, the always-on nature of Siri Recap could still pose privacy concerns, potentially capturing sensitive information. Nonetheless, Siri Recap shares similarities with other notetaking apps like Granola and Circleback, which also offer Apple Watch applications.