Apple’s latest iOS 26.1 code leak suggests something unusual: your iPhone might soon play nicer with third-party smartwatches.
The feature is called Notification Forwarding, and the language in the code is pretty straightforward.
You’ll be able to pick which apps can send alerts to an accessory, but only one device at a time. And when it’s on, those alerts won’t go to the Apple Watch.
That sounds boring until you think about what it might mean. If you’ve been wearing a Garmin because you care about endurance training or you just want a watch that lasts more than a day on a charge, you’ve probably noticed the iPhone doesn’t make it easy.
Notifications are clumsy, settings are buried, and the whole setup feels like Apple is quietly pushing you back toward the Watch Ultra.
For a lot of iPhone owners, the decision hasn’t been about the best watch. It’s been about which one Apple actually lets work properly.
The EU’s Digital Markets Act is likely why Apple is making this move. Regulators there want companies to open up core system features, and Notification Forwarding fits right into that mandate.
We’ve seen this before: Apple resisted cloud gaming, RCS messaging, and NFC payments until it couldn’t anymore.
Then, almost overnight, those things went from “impossible” to polished and fully supported in iOS. That’s the playbook.
The interesting question is whether Apple keeps this limited to Europe or makes it global. If it stays EU-only, Garmin fans in the U.S. are out of luck.
But if it rolls out everywhere, iPhone owners finally get real choice. The Watch Ultra is still the best option if you want to live fully inside Apple’s ecosystem.
However, if you’d rather have Garmin’s advanced sensors and multi-week battery life, you shouldn’t feel punished for that choice.
That’s really the bigger story here. Apple rarely cedes ground to rivals, but when it does, the iPhone usually comes out stronger.
Notification Forwarding could be the start of Apple realizing that letting other devices work better doesn’t weaken its ecosystem. It just makes the iPhone harder to walk away from.
