For years, iPhone users had to accept that they could only unlock the system’s full capabilities by buying same-brand accessories. As reported by MacRumors, the iOS 26.5 operating system finally tears down this “walled garden,” introducing unprecedented interoperability changes across the European Union. The new features allow for deep integration between third-party wearables and Apple smartphones.
The biggest upgrades for European consumers cover three key areas:
- Interactive notifications: Third-party smartwatches are gaining the ability to receive and react to iPhone notifications. Users will be able to actively reply to messages directly from their wrists, a capability previously exclusive to the Apple Watch.
- Live Activities: Dynamic smartphone data – like sports scores, flight statuses, or food delivery ETAs – can now be displayed in real time directly on the screens of third-party smartwatches.
- Quick proximity pairing: Third-party headphones are getting the mechanism AirPods users know all too well. Just bring the accessory close to the iPhone, and a prompt will pop up on the screen, allowing for a one-click connection that bypasses the hassle of manual Bluetooth pairing.
Apple has also updated its Developer Program License Agreement, laying down strict privacy guardrails. Notifications and Live Activities data forwarded to external devices cannot be used for serving ads, user profiling, location tracking, or training artificial intelligence models. Additionally, this information can only be routed to the intended accessory, and altering its meaning in any way is strictly prohibited.
Rolling these features out in practice won’t happen overnight, however. The capabilities are regionally locked and reserved solely for users with Apple accounts tied to an EU member state. Furthermore, the ball is now in the court of third-party hardware makers (spanning smartwatches, headphones, and TVs) – iPhone users will have to wait for individual companies to update their own software and add support for Apple’s new mechanisms.
There is currently no word on whether Apple plans to introduce a similar solution in the US, but it is safe to assume that without pressure from Congress, nothing of the sort will happen.