For years, iPhone owners who prefer smartwatches from brands like Garmin, Huawei, and others have run into the same frustrating reality: the Apple Watch is the only device that truly “just works” with iOS. And it’s not necessarily because competing smartwatch makers didn’t try. The bigger issue has been how the iPhone operating system limits what third-party wearables can do.
One of the most noticeable restrictions has been notifications. On an Apple Watch, you can handle incoming alerts in a natural, convenient way—like replying to a WhatsApp message straight from your wrist. With many non-Apple smartwatches, that kind of direct interaction has historically been blocked or heavily limited, forcing users to pull out their iPhone to respond.
According to Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky, things haven’t only stayed restrictive—they’ve gotten worse over time. Workarounds that once helped third-party watches function more independently have become increasingly complicated. In some cases, trying to bypass iPhone limitations by sending messages through the carrier network instead of routing them through the iPhone can even require turning off iMessage, which is a dealbreaker for many users who rely on Apple’s messaging ecosystem.
Now, change is finally on the way—thanks largely to regulatory pressure in Europe. With iOS 26.3, Apple is expected to introduce a capability described as notification forwarding. The idea is simple but potentially game-changing: notifications can be forwarded to an accessory device, and that accessory can then interact with messages instead of acting like a “read-only” screen.
There is, however, an important limitation. Users will need to pick a lane: an Apple Watch or a non-Apple smartwatch. iOS won’t allow message interactions to be pushed to multiple smartwatches at the same time, meaning you can’t fully share the experience across two different wrist devices.
Even with that catch, iOS 26.3 may still deliver another upgrade that matters just as much—especially for fitness-focused users. Early beta information suggests that after updating, an iPhone should be able to keep syncing with a smartwatch even when the companion app isn’t actively running in the background. That’s a big deal for people using watches tied to apps like Garmin’s, where a crash or long period of inactivity could previously lead to missing health metrics, lost workout records, or incomplete heart rate tracking.
If this improvement arrives as expected, it could reduce one of the biggest reliability complaints iPhone users have had with third-party wearables: losing data simply because iOS didn’t keep the syncing process alive when an app stopped running.
iOS 26.3 is expected to roll out as a free update for all compatible iPhones in February. For iPhone owners who want more freedom in choosing the best smartwatch—without giving up core features like replying to messages or reliably syncing fitness data—this could be one of the most meaningful updates in years.
