Apple’s new iOS feature is huge for people with non-Apple smartwatches

Apple’s iPhone is a great smartphone, but it’s strangely hostile towards people who own smartwatches that aren’t called Apple Watch.

While most Bluetooth smartwatches can connect to the iPhone, even the most basic functions aren’t supported, including the ability to see iPhone notifications on your watch (on the Apple Watch, of course, this works flawlessly).

Now, this is finally changing, but with a big caveat.

The new beta version of iOS, 26.3, brings a new feature called Notification Forwarding. First spied in September, it allows notifications to be forwarded to “one accessory at a time,” which can be a third-party smartwatch.

Apple does warn that if Notification Forwarding is turned on, notifications “will not appear on Apple Watch.”

If you happen to own an iPhone but want to use any smartwatch that isn’t an Apple Watch, such as a sports watch from Suunto or Garmin, or a watch from Google or Samsung, it finally makes some sense to do so. Of course, this still doesn’t mean your smartwatch will be able to do everything that Apple Watch can, but at least you get notifications, which is as basic a feature as they come.

The very big caveat is that Notification Forwarding only works in the 27 countries of the European Union, where the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is forcing Apple to add the feature. That means you’ll need to be in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, or Sweden.

Apple isn’t very happy about it — the company says it’s a privacy problem, as it reveals notification content to third-party companies – but we still think some users might benefit from it.

The feature can be enabled in Settings – Notifications – Notification Forwarding. It will only be there if you have the iOS 26.3 beta installed and are located in the European Union.