I need a personal trainer. Not just to motivate me to get off the couch in the first place but also to push me out of my comfort zone mid-workout so I burn some real calories and maybe even build muscle. I’m meeting with my trainer, Jorge, later this evening so he can subject me to an hour of torment for my own betterment. Apple wants to put Jorge out of a job.

Workout Buddy, a new feature headed to your Apple Watch later this fall, can provide a pep talk via your connected AirPods during workouts. The Apple Intelligence-powered assistant, part of watchOS 26, announced at Apple’s WWDC, is primarily designed to offer vocal encouragement. It takes what it knows about you from past workouts and offers feedback in the form of praise for new milestones or statistical updates to keep you motivated during workouts like cycling, running, walking, and select CrossFit routines.

While it’s not going to totally replace a real trainer by your side—at least not yet—Workout Buddy could serve as a stand-in when needed. The WWDC demo had me concerned, though, that it could quickly become so irritating that I feel compelled to disable it.

Here are three things Workout Buddy needs to do to be a helpful partner at the gym and not an annoying nag.

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1. Getting the Cadence Just Right

Apple provided a video demo of Workout Buddy that used the example of a woman headed out for a run. As soon as she initiates the workout on her Apple Watch, Workout Buddy chimes in via her AirPods and says, “Great job going for a run. This is your second run this week.” A moment later, Workout Buddy speaks up again: “You’re crushing it. Closing that move ring for six straight days. Let’s keep building on that with your run today.”

Then the video cuts to Workout Buddy commenting on a completed mile and calling it her “fastest yet” while noting the runner’s average heart rate. The buddy goes on to talk to her about overall accomplishments, like completing her 100th mile of the year. At the end of the run, it provides one last pep talk, featuring her stats and averages, and notes her completed in-app awards.

(Credit: Apple)

You can probably guess why I’m concerned: Workout Buddy seems to offer a lot of interaction and information. Granted, Apple had to show us what Workout Buddy does in the compressed window of a demo video, as opposed to over the course of a 30-minute run. It’s possible, then, that Workout Buddy will chime in only occasionally rather than every few seconds, as we saw in the demo.

To be a true motivational force, Workout Buddy’s cadence will need to be just right. To ensure that it is, Apple should offer a combination of automatic and manual adjustment options that dictate how often Workout Buddy speaks up.

A good personal trainer knows instinctively when to gently offer encouragement, when to bark commands, and when to sit back and let the moment ride. While I expect Workout Buddy will likely have something to say at the beginning and end of each workout, I don’t want to hear from it every single mile. I want it to chime in only when it senses I need that extra push, perhaps because my pace is starting to lag. I also want it to stay silent if my music is popping and I’m in a groove.

If I had to guess, Workout Buddy will launch with a cadence already tuned to some degree by Apple Intelligence. Whether it’s user-adjustable or even has the means to adapt on its own, however, is unknown—and vitally important to Workout Buddy’s usefulness.

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2. Watch That Tone

Along the same lines, I want the ability to adjust the tone or attitude of Workout Buddy’s feedback. In the demo, Workout Buddy was just too darn chipper and nice for me. I tend to recoil at anything overly saccharine, and I’ll definitely tune out Workout Buddy over time if it only offers cheery platitudes. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a Full Metal Jacket-style gunnery sergeant cursing in my ear also wouldn’t work for me—though it might do the trick for others.

Working out with the Series 10 (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

I respond quite well to wit and would definitely thrive if Workout Buddy offered a pithy insult after a slow mile. For example, if I was out for a run and Workout Buddy calmly asked if I was getting lapped by toddlers in strollers, I’d certainly pick up the pace.

I’d also want the tone to adapt to the occasion. While I might actually appreciate the occasional friendly, data-driven compliment on my progress, I’d also want a quiet but firm push at the right moment.

Obviously, everyone has their own preference here. At the very least, I hope Apple allows us to pick from a few preset vocal or tonal options as it does for Siri.

3. Give Us Form Guidance

I go to a personal trainer for accountability and motivation, but I also need one so I can improve at different exercises over time with form guidance and correction. Workout Buddy could be incredibly useful if it provides gentle reminders or tips to improve my form as I exercise. In fact, the technology to support form guidance is already available for certain types of workouts.

Recent Apple Watches can track specific form metrics of workouts that line up well with the ones compatible with Workout Buddy. The form metrics include cadence, ground contact time, and vertical oscillation. If Workout Buddy could use this data while I am running to suggest something like shortening my stride for more power and comfort, that would elevate the feature from a nice motivator to a truly useful companion.

Keeping Me Moving

The new look of watchOS 26 (Credit: Apple)

The Apple Watch Workout app, with its exercise rings and burnout info from Training Load, already helps with accountability for starting exercise. I have plenty of friends who stay moving every day just to close their rings.

That’s still not the same as having an appointment with a human, of course. Jorge continually comes up with new exercises for me to try, while Workout Buddy will be limited to only a handful of options at launch. Still, on days when I’m not meeting with Jorge, the feature could be a boon.

We’ll find out what Workout Buddy can do when Apple launches the public beta for watchOS 26 in July. In the meantime, check out our impressions of its predecessor, watchOS 11, and check out all of our favorite smartwatches and fitness trackers.

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About Andrew Gebhart

Senior Analyst, Smart Home and Wearables

I’m PCMag’s senior analyst covering smart home and wearable devices. I’ve been writing about tech professionally for nearly a decade and have been obsessing about it for much longer than that. Prior to joining PCMag, I made educational videos for an electronics store called Abt Electronics in Illinois, and before that I spent eight years covering the smart home market for CNET. 

I foster many flavors of nerdom in my personal life. I’m an avid board gamer and video gamer. I love fantasy football, which I view as a combination of role-playing games and sports. Plus, I can talk to you about craft beer for hours and am on a personal quest to have a flight of beer at each microbrewery in my home city of Chicago.

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