New opt-in Apple Watch Siri audio features can listen to and transcribe conversations all day; Apple says raw audio is inaccessible and deleted after processing (Lily Hay Newman/Wired)

Apple has introduced new audio features for its Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, including the ability to listen to and transcribe conversations. These features, part of Apple's Audio Intelligence suite, are designed to help users catch missed moments in conversation and stay aware of important sounds.

The features include Siri Recap, which generates high-level notes from conversations, Live Rewind, which transcribes and displays what was just said in a conversation, Shazam, which identifies music playing nearby, and Sound Recognition, which brings sound alerts to Apple Watch for users who are deaf or hard of hearing.

According to Apple, the raw audio from these features is handled within dedicated hardware and is not saved as a file, making it inaccessible to the operating system, apps, or Apple. The Siri Recap feature is opt-in and configurable, allowing users to control if and when it takes notes.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, AppleInsider, MacRumors, TechRadar, The Verge — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.