---
title: 'The Apple Watch Has a Problem'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=pOX1l1edBME'
video_id: 'pOX1l1edBME'
date: 2026-09-22
duration_sec: 906
channel: 'Marques Brownlee'
---

# The Apple Watch Has a Problem

> Source: [The Apple Watch Has a Problem](https://youtube.com/watch?v=pOX1l1edBME)

## Summary

The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 were announced with mostly minor updates, but the video argues they contain two significant strategic moves: one targeting the screenless fitness tracker market (led by Whoop) and another targeting the emerging AI companion hardware market (led by OpenAI). The latter introduces controversial audio intelligence features like Live Rewind and Siri Recap, which raise serious privacy concerns.

### Key Points

- **Two strategic targets** [00:13] — The Apple Watch updates are specifically designed to compete with two companies: Whoop (screenless fitness trackers) and OpenAI (AI companion hardware).
- **Screenless fitness tracker market growth** [00:26] — The market for screenless fitness trackers has more than doubled in the past year, with Whoop holding more than half the market, and competitors like Fitbit Air, Garmin Circa, and AmazeFit emerging.
- **Improved sensor array** [00:54] — The Series 12 has a redesigned sensor array with larger, more powerful, and more efficient LEDs and photodiodes, allowing it to sample background heart rate every five seconds instead of every five minutes, without sacrificing battery life.
- **Health app AI upgrades** [01:22] — The updated Health app uses AI to transform from a data repository into a beautifully organized display of overall health with actionable tips, similar to Whoop's approach.
- **Feature parity with Whoop** [02:03] — Apple Health now offers sleep score, readiness score, health age (longevity section), and metabolic health section with blood testing, directly mirroring Whoop's features.
- **Audio intelligence features** [03:21] — Four audio intelligence features are introduced: Music detection, Sound recognition (accessibility), Live Rewind, and Siri Recap. The latter two are considered 'creepier' and potentially problematic.
- **Siri Recap and Live Rewind explained** [03:53] — Siri Recap uses ambient listening to take high-level notes of conversations all day, saved in the Siri app. Live Rewind lets users double-tap the digital crown to get a transcript of the last 15 seconds of audio.
- **Privacy concerns** [05:02] — The video argues these features create a 'privacy nightmare' because the watch is always listening, and it's hard to explain to people that it's not recording all the time.
- **Apple's privacy safeguards** [05:14] — Apple claims audio is not recorded or stored, individual speakers are not identified, and syncing is end-to-end encrypted. The S11 chip includes a 'Secure X-Clave' that processes audio in isolation.
- **How the Secure X-Clave works** [05:44] — The microphone always captures raw audio, which is written to the Secure X-Clave, a sectioned-off part of the S11 chip. A machine learning algorithm recognizes sound signatures (e.g., doorbell, songs) without storing the audio.
- **Live Rewind process** [06:53] — When Live Rewind is triggered, the last 15 seconds of audio are encrypted, sent to the iPhone, decrypted, transcribed, and sent back to the watch. The raw audio is then deleted from both devices.
- **Siri Recap's invasive nature** [08:17] — Siri Recap runs all day, capturing conversations and summarizing them. The video highlights that other people in those conversations are not opting in, making it invasive and shocking.
- **Apple's cautious rollout** [09:19] — The feature is not yet live, will be in beta, and Apple seems nervous about the reputation risk. This suggests they know it's controversial.
- **Targeting AI companion market** [09:35] — The audio features are seen as a direct response to the physical AI companion market, including OpenAI's rumored hardware with Jony Ive's design firm, which is expected to be a portable AI that listens all day.
- **Apple's strategic position** [10:45] — Apple is leveraging its hundreds of millions of iPhone users to stay ahead in the AI hardware race, betting that its AI can keep people on the iPhone.
- **The line crossed** [11:25] — The video argues this is over the line because it subjects other people (not just the wearer) to constant listening, unlike smart speakers at home or Meta glasses with visible indicators.
- **No indicator for others** [12:46] — Unlike Live Rewind's audible chime, Siri Recap has no indicator for people nearby, making it impossible to know when a conversation is being summarized.
- **Privacy is multi-party** [13:12] — Privacy is not just about the individual; if everyone around you is subject to it, that's a different line. The video suggests Apple is trying to launch this quietly.
- **Future implications** [13:39] — Rumors of AirPods with cameras (infrared emitters) suggest Apple is moving toward ambient awareness, which will be even harder to explain to the public.
- **Competitors will cross lines** [14:34] — OpenAI, Google, and Amazon are likely to cross similar lines, so the public reaction to Apple's features will be a test case for the industry.

### Conclusion

The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 are strategic moves to counter Whoop and OpenAI, but the audio intelligence features, especially Siri Recap, cross a privacy line by subjecting bystanders to constant listening. Apple's cautious rollout suggests they know this is controversial, and the public reaction will shape the future of AI companion hardware.

## Transcript

So the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 just got announced. They're mostly pretty minor updates and were appropriately overshadowed by the iPhone Duo and all types of other tech-tumber hype.
But you know what? I think there's something pretty crazy happening with the Apple Watch right now. These updates were very specifically attempted kind of to kill two different companies. The first one I think is pretty obvious. The second one I think is kind of insane.
So the first one, the market for screenless fitness trackers has more than doubled in just the past year alone, and that's been thanks to Whoop, who's more than half the market, and all the competitors that have risen up to chase them.
The Fitbit Air, the Garmin Circa, there's AmazeFit, there's some others. And so of course Apple sees all this action and they run in, but instead of making their own screenless fitness band to join the market, which honestly I would like to see them do, they instead have updated the Apple Watch Series 12 to compete instead.
They've redesigned the whole sensor array down here at the bottom of the watch with larger, more powerful, and more efficient LEDs and photodiodes so it can sample way more often without the watch getting worse battery life. It reads background heart rate every five seconds now instead of the previous five minutes,
and I put that on par with a lot of the other most competitive wearables and smartwatches on the market. They also published this whole paper that I'll link down below if you want to read it on why they think it's the most accurate heart rate sensing wearable, rings and everything
included. why it's going after Whoop. It's going after Whoop because of the updated Health app, which uses AI now to turn it from a repository of mundane information and data, that's what it was before, into this, this beautifully organized display of your overall health with
the tips and actions that you can actually take to improve. You know, kind of like a Whoop. You might remember from the Whoop review that it's targeted at people who are trying to be more proactive about their health. So they want a little bit more customized advice
more than just stand up once in a while and close your rings. So the Whoop gives you a sleep score and a recovery score, so you have an idea of how well-rested you are and then how primed your body is for the day ahead.
Now, Apple Health also gives you a sleep score and a readiness score, so you also have an idea of how well-rested you are and how primed your body is for the day ahead. Whoop gives you a health span section where they tell you your Whoop age based on a number of factors
and how each of them is contributing to your overall health so you can know which one to focus on improving. Now Apple Health has a longevity section where they tell you your health age based on a number of factors and how each of them is contributing to your overall health so you know which one you can focus on improving.
Whoop even has an advanced lab section where you can get comprehensive blood testing done and then upload the results into here to get a more detailed look at the stuff you could be missing. Now, Apple Health has a new metabolic health section where you can get comprehensive blood testing done and upload your results to get even more detailed information on the stuff that you could be missing.
It's pretty clear what they're doing. Now, I happen to still want Apple to actually make a dedicated screenless fitness tracker because I think that this market exists because people really want something without a screen and all the digital detox and battery life improvements that come with that.
But that's a story for another day, and that is the less interesting change. The other change is the new audio intelligence features. And this, well, this is where I think it starts to get kind of crazy.
So on Apple's website, there are four audio intelligence features. Music detection, which we've had. Sound recognition, which has been an accessibility feature. But then these two new ones, Live Rewind and Siri Recap, the creepier ones.
I think these features especially the last two are going to give Apple a lot of trouble And actually I kind of think Apple already knows their trouble and is nervous about that but it also very much a sign of the times I explain So Siri Recap This feature
uses ambient listening to take high-level notes of your conversations all day and then saves them in the Siri app as well. And then the Live Rewind feature, which we got a demo of at the keynote,
lets you double tap at any point on the watch's digital crown, and it gives you a transcript of what was just said for the last 15 seconds. And then you can also save that into the Siri app for later. I don't think people want or are asking for this.
And, like, these use cases seem kind of contrived. It almost reminds me of that visual intelligence feature of asking, like, what kind of dog is right in front of you instead of just asking the owner of the dog who's standing right there. So the example they gave in the keynote for this
is a waiter giving a really long list of specials for the day, which starts to get kind of hard to remember, so you double tap, you trigger live rewind to see that list on your watch instead of just asking the waitress to just say it again.
Convenient, maybe, I guess. But more importantly, I think this is now going to be impossible to escape the reputation of this newest generation Apple Watch is listening to you all the time.
And this is a privacy nightmare. Now, it is Apple. And so, of course, they have considered all of this stuff very carefully. and they say things on their site, like audio is not recorded or stored,
and audio cannot be accessed, and individual speakers are not identified in the recaps, so identities are protected, and syncing is end-to-end encrypted. And honestly, Apple does go far than you might expect any other company to go in this department
when you look into how it works. A few features are only on the newest Series 12 and Ultra 4, because they have the new S11 chip inside, and the S11 chip has a new piece called the Secure X-Clave, And that's really key to how they're able to say that no audio is stored.
Basically what's happening is the microphone on the side of the Apple Watch is in fact always taking in raw audio all the time. So the way to think about it is that secure X-Quade is kind of like a sectioned-off piece
that doesn't touch any other part of the S11. And so the raw audio is always being captured and written through here, constantly overriding it all day, all the time. and then there is a machine learning algorithm in this secure X-Glaze
that essentially acts as a pattern recognition for certain sound signatures. So for the doorbell, for example, a doorbell chime has a certain shape and once that shape gets recognized in the raw audio,
it triggers a doorbell notification to show on the watch. Simple enough, right? That's a great accessibility feature. Songs also have very recognizable shapes too, so that's how they're doing that very quick recognition of whatever song is playing.
You've probably also seen this feature in the Pixels now playing or even in Shazam, which Apple bought. But if you double tap the crown to trigger the live rewind feature, you can kind of think of that as manually deciding to close that container and take those last 15 seconds of audio.
It encrypts it, sends it to your iPhone, which decrypts it, transcribes it, and then sends that transcription back to the watch to display. and then the raw audio is deleted from the phone and from the watch.
That's all a very complex way of being able to make sure you can say nobody ever has access to that audio and that it's technically not recording all day, although that part is, I would argue it is recording all day
just because the S11 chip doesn't actually see the stuff on the secure X-Clade doesn mean that not capturing and recording but maybe that just semantics Honestly I don think that will matter though to most people What will matter is the public perception and it going to be really really hard to explain to people
that the Appalachian both is taking notes for you all day on things that you say and can constantly recall the last 15 seconds and transcribe it for you, but is also not recording all the time.
Like, most people aren't trying to sit through that technical explanation. But even more importantly than the reputation or the explanations or all that, the Siri recap feature is running all day. And, you know, they explain it as a bunch of notes at the end of the day in a Siri app with a title and summaries and key points of various conversations you've had from the whole day that you had the watch on, like meetings you were in, etc.
The way it works in principle is, again, the microphone is taking in audio all day, but sometimes it'll hear something that sounds like a conversation. human speaking word shape.
Okay, great. That trigger's capturing raw data again, encrypting, transcribing it and all that, and this time condensing the text into something readable at the end of the day that's saved and displayed on your phone. They say that it is opt-in
and that you can also gate it to only be during certain times of the day, like only at work, so it'll capture things like meetings and conversations you're having there. But you know what else is involved in those meetings and conversations?
Other people. who are not opting in to any of this, that are essentially having their conversations captured and summarized in some way and saved for later. That was what was surprising to me.
That is what's invasive. That is what is shocking. And honestly, when I was seeing the keynote, I was kind of surprised that Apple would do this at all. And like I said, I think Apple even knows that this is kind of sketchy territory
because the watches are out. This feature is not yet out. And even when it does show up on the watch, it will be in beta. So why would they do this at all? Well, the same way a lot of the health stuff that we saw earlier is directly targeting Whoop
and a lot of the screenless fitness tracker market that's emerging so much, a lot of this stuff is also now directly targeting the physical AI companion market and open AI
that are making a lot of headlines lately, too. There is a couple other things like this that you can actually already buy. There's the portable AI note takers. There's even wearable pins. But also, the big story that's been brewing for years is OpenAI has poached tons of Apple employees
and is literally working with Johnny Ives' design firm to create their first piece of hardware, which is widely expected to be some sort of portable AI companion that you take everywhere, that you can put in your pocket, that listens to you all day,
and provides summaries and help and proactive assistance. There's a lot of people, a growing group of people, who really think that this is a brand new device category that could be the next frontier of tech, that could replace the smartphone, basically.
So naturally, if you're a smartphone maker like Apple, then you're thinking about leveraging your position of the hundreds of millions of people who use your smartphone already every day to make sure you're ahead.
If you've seen my Apple versus AI race video, this is probably ringing a bell. So here's the end of that video. Yeah, okay, so the real question. Do you think an AI company is going to come along and make some new hardware that's so good that it can get people to switch from the iPhone?
Or do you believe Apple could make their AI good enough to keep people on the iPhone? So the newest Apple Watch is potentially listening to everyone around it all day all the time With everything else going around is this over the line
I think that the reason it is over the line is because it goes out into the world with all these other people around you. I think that's what makes it different. Like, Google Homes and Alexa's sit in people's houses all over the world doing a lot of the same thing, like waiting to hear and recognize a wake word,
and then when it recognizes it, it lights up and starts working. But that's under your own roof. That doesn't subject anyone else to anything. And, you know, a lot of people have started to hate meta glasses because of a lot of creepy stuff,
like people going out and recording in weird situations and lots of articles you've probably seen about them getting banned from places. But at least with those, if I see the person with the glasses with the camera on it and the little glowing light,
I can, like, walk away and remove myself from that situation. but the watch doesn't it's just quietly doing it in the background now it's not like Apple's never thought about this in fact of course they have thought about it
and they're nervous about it and there's a whole section on their site on their audio intelligence features about how they protect the privacy of those nearby by not doing speaker attribution and Siri if you trust it
will try to leave things out that sound like they may be sensitive and an audible chime plays from the watch speaker whenever you activate that live rewind feature. But that recap feature can just be running all the time.
No chime, no light. Like there is no indicator from the person next to you wearing the watch when it might have picked up that it's going to summarize this conversation. You know, Apple, I'm sure, will point to all of the work that they've done on the technology behind the scenes
to make this the privacy-focused version where, you know, there's no speaker identification. You know, Apple can never hear any raw recordings and all that. So they never crossed that line. That line.
But yeah, privacy is not just a one-party thing. If everyone around you everywhere is subject to it, that's a different line. And honestly, it feels like they're trying to launch this as quietly as possible. Like I said, the watch is out. This is the Series 12 on my wrist.
It has the F11. It has the DirectX. The feature is not live. And when it does go live, it will be in beta. And just in a beta on a watch on a delayed release is one thing. They could have put this on the new iPhone if they really wanted to and wanted to put in that work,
but that's a whole new can of worms, having this crazy, creepy reputation feature on the iPhone that they don't want to take those types of risks with. There are rumors, though, that AirPods with cameras are potentially next.
And again, they would have the same set of things to be able to say, oh, they're not real cameras, you know, they're infrared emitters, so no real footage ever gets recorded of your environment. And even if there was, Apple could never see it.
There's encryption. It's sending it to your phone and back. No one will ever be able to see what it sees. But the pitch for the future will be this sort of ambient awareness of your surroundings for visual intelligence to be able to identify landmarks, things around you.
And that's another tough version of this. It's going to be very difficult, very difficult for Apple to explain all of this to people and to justify the public thing.
But there's also the other companies coming up making this stuff. And OpenAI, do we think they're going to cross that line? They're probably going to cross that line. Google, Amazon, they're probably crossing all sorts of lines too.
And so we'll just have to wait and see. Whenever this launches, we'll see what the public reaction is. And we'll go from there. Thanks for watching. Catch you guys in the next one.
Peace.