Samsung’s old Tizen OS smartwatches offered basic, albeit limited, compatibility with iPhones. These watches could only be paired with iPhones to display notifications. However, Samsung discontinued this feature with Google’s switch to Wear OS and hasn’t released an official app that allows the Galaxy Watch to pair with iPhones since then. Here are the details.

Galaxy Watch users can receive notifications from iPhones with iOS 26.1

According to information found by Macworld in iOS 26.1 beta 1 code, Apple is working on a new feature called “Notification Forwarding.” This will allow users to see iPhone notifications on a paired non-Apple device.

The feature has one significant limitation: Notifications can only be forwarded to “one accessory at a time.” This means that if a Galaxy Watch is paired, your iPhone will not send notifications to your Apple Watch. This will require the user to choose an option.

This development could enable basic notification support to work directly with the changes Apple is considering for iOS 26.1, without Samsung having to create an app. However, this support will be limited to notifications only and will not apply to other functions (such as replying to messages, managing calls, etc.).

There’s also a caveat that this feature may not be available in all markets. It’s likely that Apple is developing this feature specifically to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which aims to provide greater interoperability between iPhones and non-Apple devices. Therefore, it seems likely that Apple will only offer this feature in Europe, while other regions will remain the same.

So, what are your thoughts on this? Share them in the comments.