Apple’s Sound Recognition feature on iPhone has been extended to the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, so your watch can listen for important sounds such as a doorbell, siren or alarm and notify you even when your iPhone isn’t nearby.
The feature is particularly useful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but also for everyday situations — for example, your watch can alert you if you wear noise-cancelling headphones and don’t want to miss a delivery or a visitor at the door.
Sounds Your Apple Watch Can Detect
Sound Recognition can detect 15 sounds. Any sounds you enable in the iPhone’s Sounds list are also detected by your Apple Watch when Detect using Apple Watch is enabled:
– Fire Alarm
– Siren
– Smoke Alarm
– Cat
– Dog
– Appliances
– Car Horn
– Doorbell
– Door Knock
– Glass Breaking
– Kettle
– Water Running
– Baby Crying
– Coughing
– Shouting
If a sound isn’t recognized automatically, you can teach your iPhone a Custom Alarm or Custom Appliance or Doorbell from the same Sounds list.
What You’ll Need and How to Set It Up
To use Sound Recognition on the watch you need an Apple Watch Series 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4 paired with an iPhone 11 or later, or an iPhone SE (2nd generation or later), running iOS 27. If you already use Sound Recognition on your iPhone, it turns on automatically for your Apple Watch and you may not need to change any settings.
To set it up manually:
1. Open Settings on your iPhone and tap Accessibility. In the Hearing section, tap Sound & Name Recognition.
2. Tap Sound Recognition and turn on the Sound Recognition toggle, then enable Detect using Apple Watch.
3. Tap Sounds and turn on the specific sounds you want to be alerted about, such as Doorbell. You can also choose a specific alert tone for each sound.
Apple says Sound Recognition is processed on your Apple Watch and iPhone and doesn’t record or store audio. The company also warns that Sound Recognition should not be treated as a safety system and should not be relied on in situations where you may be harmed or injured, in high-risk or emergency situations, or for navigation.
