![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/watchos-26-hints.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t<\/p>\n
watchOS 26 launched last month as a major Apple Watch update. It brought a new Apple Notes app<\/a>, Apple Intelligence features<\/a>, Control Center upgrades<\/a>, and more. One new feature is especially unique: \u2018hints\u2019 have been added to watch faces in watchOS 26 as a companion of the Smart Stack.<\/p>\n Hints in watchOS 26 solve the Smart Stack\u2019s discoverability problem<\/p>\n In the last two years, Apple launched the Smart Stack<\/a> in watchOS and has been progressively upgrading it each year.<\/p>\n The Smart Stack is the stack of widgets you see when scrolling the Digital Crown while viewing your watch face.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s big upgrade was Live Activity support<\/a>, which made the Smart Stack more timely and relevant.<\/p>\n In watchOS 26, Apple has improved the Smart Stack again. But this time, its key feature may not technically be part of the Smart Stack at all.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what\u2019s new, per Apple<\/a>:<\/p>\n In watchOS 26, the Smart Stack improves its prediction algorithms by incorporating more contextual data, sensor data, and data from a user\u2019s routine to provide Smart Stack hints, a proactive prompt for actionable suggestions that are immediately useful. Made of Liquid Glass, Smart Stack hints will appear on the display as a gentle visual prompt. For example, a hint for Backtrack may appear when a user is in a remote location with no connectivity, or a hint for a Pilates workout may show up when a user arrives at a studio location at their usual time.<\/p>\n Hints are Apple\u2019s way of nudging you to open the Smart Stack at key moments when it might be especially helpful.<\/p>\n They exist because the reality is, as useful as the Smart Stack might be, if you never open it, it won\u2019t do you any good.<\/p>\n Apple knows that Apple Watch users spend nearly all of their time in one place: the watch face.<\/p>\n So now, watch faces will provide a \u2018hint\u2019 at the bottom of the screen to indicate a Smart Stack suggestion.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what that looks like:<\/p>\n Tapping the hint (seen at the bottom of the left image) will open the Smart Stack with the hinted widget highlighted (right image).<\/p>\n I\u2019m fascinated to see how well hints work in watchOS 26 over time. One concern I have is that they seem like they might get in the way on watch faces that have widgets at the bottom. So far though, I haven\u2019t encountered them often.<\/p>\n If hints work as Apple intends, they could be a fantastic new way to make the Smart Stack more useful. Rather than having to go looking for the Smart Stack\u2019s widgets, the most relevant ones will be brought to you.<\/p>\n How have hints been working for you in watchOS 26? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n Best Apple Watch deals and accessories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/watchos-26-hints-backtrack.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757113987_717_google-preferred-source-badge-dark.png\"){kind=icon}
\n\t\t\t![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757113987_373_google-preferred-source-badge-light.png\"){kind=icon}
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/970-x-150-1.jpg\")
<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"watchOS 26 launched last month as a major Apple Watch update. It brought a new Apple Notes app,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[203,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-68022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-gadgets","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}