(Credit: Eric Zeman/PCMag)
Apple's watchOS 27 will be unveiled at WWDC in a few weeks, and the latest rumors suggest the company is focused on refining core features rather than introducing flashy new ones.
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple will improve the heart-rate tracking for Apple Watches with watchOS 27 and release the rumored AI health coach in the latter part of the update cycle.
Gurman doesn’t say why Apple is looking to improve heart-rate tracking on Apple Watches. PCMag’s Andrew Gebhart compared the Apple Ultra 3 with the Whoop 5.0 and noticed that both delivered similar heart-rate numbers.
As for the AI health coach, we first heard about the possibility in March 2025. Codenamed Project Mulberry, it was expected to debut this year within the Health app as part of a new Health+ subscription. One of its rumored features was the ability to pull up a video explaining the risks of heart disease when the Apple Watch detects a potential heart-related issue.
The project reportedly got scaled back significantly after Apple's services chief, Eddy Cue, took over the health and fitness team last year and felt that Oura and Whoop offered better AI features. At the time, Gurman also reported that some of the planned AI health coach features could make their way into the Health app over time. He now expects them to launch later in the iOS 27 update cycle.
While many features have been rumored for iOS 27, far fewer have surfaced about watchOS 27. We should get a clearer picture of Apple’s new software during the WWDC 2026 keynote, which starts at 10:00 a.m PT on June 8.