watchOS 26 rumored to bring third-party widgets in Control Center
watchOS 26 should support third-party widgets in the Control Center, allowing the Apple Watch to go beyond Apple’s built-in toggles and tiles for the first time ever.
9to5Mac has learned from a reliable source that watchOS 26 will bring support for third-party widgets in the Control Center. The site warns that Apple may roll out this feature in a future update to watchOS 26 if it’s not ready by this fall.
“watchOS 26 will allow developers to plug their own widgets directly into the Control Center,” notes the publication. “This will let users surface relevant actions or data from third-party apps alongside Wi-Fi, Battery and Focus Mode.”
Rumor: watchOS 26 to boost the Control Center with third-party widgets
This should bring the Apple Watch’s Control Center on par with the iPhone’s. With iOS 24 (iOS 17), Apple brought a customizable Control Center to the iPhone which lets you add, remove and rearrange controls from built-in and third-party apps. You can also resize individual controls and group controls across multiple pages.
9to5Mac claims the Control Center will be fully customizable through the companion Watch app on your paired iPhone, “letting users add, remove or reorder Control Center widgets far more easily than with the current on-watch method.”
The Apple Watch’s Control Center has remained largely unchanged for years, so this update will be a refreshing change, both visually and functionally. There are many awesome Control Center widgets on the iPhone from third-party apps. On the tiny Apple Watch screen, third-party widgets in the Control Center probably make even more sense, especially as native Apple Watch apps have proved disappointing.
iPhone widgets on the Apple Watch?
There’s just one slight problem with that: A third-party widget for the watchOS Control Center is useless without a native Apple Watch app.
On my iPhone, I can add Slack’s New Message control to my Control Center to quickly create a new message, which launches the Slack app and opens a new message.But Slack, like so many major developers, has removed its Apple Watch app due to low engagement, so a Slack widget for the watchOS Control Center would make little sense.
One way to work around this would be to permit existing iOS Control Center widgets to also run on the Apple Watch but carry out actions in the iPhone app. So, for example, hitting a New Message control on my Apple Watch would launch Slack on my iPhone to create a new message. That wouldn’t be unheard of: Apple already allows your Mac to show widgets from your iPhone.
A design overhaul
An updated Control Center will be part of a bigger design overhaul coming not only to the Apple Watch and Apple TV, but also the iPhone, iPad Mac and CarPlay. Apple will preview the latest advancements across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26 and other platforms at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, running from June 9-13. However, Apple Intelligence is not expected to be a major emphasis at this year’s WWDC following the Siri debacle and a series of AI setbacks.
