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Products & Applications

Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4: Setup Tips for New Health and Music Features

Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 can gain new complications, automatic Shazam and readiness data through setup changes.

AI News Feed · 2026-10-06 05:15

A first step is to refresh the watch face. Series 12 and Ultra 4 can display exclusive complications for live heart rate, step count and readiness score. 9to5Mac says these can be added to a favorite watch face. The report's author describes live heart rate as an essential new complication because it uses a single slot and provides better data than an older wide slot with less current data. Step tracking, the author writes, has motivated earlier activity logging. Because readiness score can change through the day based on vitals and activity, displaying it on the watch face is another suggestion. Quick switching between watch faces with a swipe is off by default, but users can enable it through Settings, Clock, Swipe to Switch Watch Face.

Automatic Shazam is another setup change. The new Watch can identify music around the user without a Siri request or a tap in Shazam, according to the report. On Apple Watch, users open Settings and Smart Stack and enable Music Detection. When they open Smart Stack, Music Recognition can show the song title and artist. 9to5Mac calls it a small setup change with an obvious benefit the next time unfamiliar music plays in a restaurant or coffee shop.

Siri Modular comes to every Apple Watch running watchOS 27, the report says, though Series 12 and Ultra 4 have more complication options. The 9to5Mac author says the face can be styled in different ways, and keeps a few Siri Modular faces in rotation with different colors, fonts, layout styles and complications.

Readiness score requires more than a complication. 9to5Mac reports that Apple says users must complete Health Details, set up Activity and overnight vitals, enable Sleep, and wear the Watch while sleeping for at least seven nights. Sleep data from the previous night is also required. The report suggests finding a charging window during the day to make overnight tracking easier to maintain. The author says readiness has been an interesting experiment but that it is still too early to call it useful personally.

The Vitals app also offers more insight with Series 12 and Ultra 4 hardware, according to 9to5Mac. Users can see daytime vitals, not only overnight vitals, in the app. Daytime vitals are based on heart rate and recovery heart rate variability, while overnight vitals also factor in respiratory rate and wrist temperature.

The report adds that more features are coming to Series 12 and Ultra 4, including Siri Recap and Live Rewind. It asks readers to share their favorite ways to get the most out of the new watches.