The more I use my Apple Watch, the more I miss one app above all others. The Apple Watch is great for managing notifications, checking on reminders, and tracking workouts. But the one thing it’s never had was an honest to goodness Notes app.
On my iPhone, I use the Notes app religiously. I use it for travel plans, for research, for planning out longer articles, and I prefer to use Notes for checklists instead of Reminders. When I leave my iPhone behind and am only using my Watch, these are the features I miss the most. It would be so convenient to be able to check things off or refer to a note right from my wrist. And if I could quickly add a new idea to a research note without lifting my iPhone, that would be sweet, too.
It seems like I’m not the only one who wants this (my editor, Jake Peterson, is also quite looking forward to it) because in watchOS 26, Apple is finally adding a real Notes app to the Apple Watch.
How the Notes app for Apple Watch works
The Notes app on the Apple Watch will work similarly to the Reminders app, and will let you see a list of all your recent notes. You’ll even be able to pin notes to the top of the app, in case you regularly refer to them.
And yes, standard Notes formatting is supported, so you’ll see headings, emojis, images, and the rest, all on your wrist. Most importantly, for me, the Notes app will support checklists, too, so you’ll finally be able to check things off in your Notes app right from your wrist.
If you want to add to a note, or make a new one, you can even do that. You can use the Dictation feature to take quick notes, or you can use the Keyboard to type things out (although, that sounds really tedious to me).
The Notes app will ship with the watchOS 26 update, publicly available in fall 2025. Currently, you can get it as part of a developer beta, but I would strongly advise against installing a developer beta on your Apple Watch . Developer betas are notorious for being buggy, but at least on the iPhone, there are ways to roll back if something goes wrong. On the Apple Watch, you can’t downgrade or reset your OS, so you’ll have to wait until Apple rolls out a new beta update or a stable build. This applies to public betas, too, so I’d just recommend waiting until the full release. But at this point, I’m writing out these warnings more as a reminder for myself than you. Because I can’t wait to start using the Notes app on the Apple Watch, and it’s going to be hard waiting until fall to do it.
