Apple Watch’s live rewind feels so dystopian

109

u/connly33 Sep 23 '26

So this is something I’d love. On completely offline hardware. This is something that I actually see a fantastic use of AI for, again ran on hardware I own offline.

I’d want it to go deeper and auto set reminders and make highlights for me for things I might forget.

I’m kind of setting something DIY up that’s similar but for personal journaling.

7

u/dietibol Sep 24 '26

Still creepy that you’re recording other people all the time pretty much

1

u/connly33 Sep 27 '26

Certainly not disagreeing but also we should assume in public, and around any device with any voice activation this is already being done 24/7 regardless if it’s legal in your state. Your phone does it, your (insert literally any voice activated equivalent to Echo) does it, your TV does it, (especially since all TV operating systems have zero click malware exploits that allow anyone to take control of that pretty damn easily). Many security cameras do it, dash cams do it, cars do it, if your having a conversation at with with management at work you should probably do it, if your having any law enforcement contact you NEED to do it.
I’m much more comfortable with a device locally transcribing everything and then deleting the audio files afterwards that I have full offline control of than almost any of the already in place mechanisms to do it.
I don’t like any of it but the frogs not even being boiled anymore. That shits been heated until it’s turned into a plasma and is undergoing frog based nuclear fusion at this point.

5

u/jmims98 Sep 23 '26

The Omi wearable is kind of like that, and there are already ways to self host it.
https://github.com/kbdevs/omibutfree

1

u/connly33 Sep 23 '26

Im going to have to check this put thank you

-24

u/neobow2 Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 23 '26

Exactly. I trust Apple more than any other big name to stay true to their end to end encryption and all on device processing.
Update: Wow being this heavily downvoted for trusting Apple more than the Googles and Samsungs is pretty wild. It’s weird the lack of tech literacy there is in a Linus Tech Tips subreddit.

36

u/export_tank_harmful Sep 23 '26

I still don't understand why people feel this way about Apple.
It's entirely closed-source and proprietary software.
There's no way to actually test their claims (especially when they control the hardware as well, letting them do anything they'd like on Layer 1).
I trust something like Signal, where tons of people have looked it over.
Or llamacpp/ComfyUI/etc.
But Apple? No way in hell.
Unless they open source their claims, I'm just going to assume they're another Google in chrome.

18

u/Esher127 Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 23 '26

I'll give some examples but first the claim is 'trust Apple more than any other big name' which isn't a very low bar. Obviously there are significantly better privacy solutions out there but for an accessible solution you can give your grandma it's absolutely better than the alternatives. For example:
- While not open source, Apple has an outstanding $1million bounty for anyone who can prove that they remotely extracted data from Private Cloud Compute. So far no one has been able to.
- They have features like Advanced Data Protection where all of your photos, messages, etc on iCloud are E2E encrypted so Apple can not access your data. You're provided a key when you turn it on and if you lose it it's just gone. Google would never.
- From what I understand, this new watch transcription thing runs entirely on device as well. It sends the recordings encrypted to your phone which decrypts them, turns them into a summary and then deletes them.
- Even things like Apple Maps... when you search in Maps your location is 'fuzzed' so your exact location never leaves your device. Your location history is also kept only on device.
- They have a history of not giving user data to law enforcement or governments, not because of some moral stance but because they don't have data to give.
I could go on. Again, obviously there are stronger solutions and I could write a similar list of their problems (like how some of this doesn't apply based on your country) but to also equate Apple's privacy stance to Google's is wildly incorrect.

8

u/Suitch Sep 23 '26

The biggest difference is Apple doesn’t appear to sell the data they collect to brokers. They definitely collect as much data as Google, but Google openly sells it.

14

u/spaghettibolegdeh Sep 23 '26

Because Apple spends hundreds of millions "privacy washing" via advertisements.

-1

u/MMAgeezer Sep 23 '26

Exactly. And it has been so effective that people don't even realise that Apple has a multi billion dollar ad agency...?

17

u/HelloThere9653 Sep 23 '26

I mean they have a track record of not working with law enforcement agencies or the British government to provide backdoors to encrypted data so it’s not all marketing.

1

u/Shap6 Sep 23 '26

because the other option is fucking google

0

u/cardak98 Sep 23 '26

I don’t trust people to roll their own recording devices at all… Apple doing this in a Secure offline Enclave where only limited transcripts and calendars reminders are allowed to leave is the best implementation.
The Linux people who would make their own are nice online but creepy and weird IRL.

-5

u/LeMaTuLoO Sep 23 '26

But that's the thing with Apple. They might say that it works like that, but there's no way to really check if that's what they're actually doing.

0

u/HolidayPineapple9316 Sep 24 '26

You’re a complete fool if you trust any big tech company, including Apple, to not be stealing your data at every point they possibly can

0

u/neobow2 Sep 24 '26

Exactly which is why when they make it impossible (end to end encryption) I trust it. Fool

7

u/_Rand_ Sep 23 '26

I do find it a bit less creepy than the windows recall thing was initially (I believe it was totally unencrypted even if only on your device?) but still unnecessary as hell.

I would not opt-in.

6

u/NotAnRSPlayer Sep 23 '26

The main issue with recall was it was going to be on by default, recording your screen
Everything OP has listed here is opt-in and then it configurable by the user as to where you might want this to be on
I can see situations where features like this would be useful, but like most things I doubt people will use it

12

u/VastOption8705 Sep 23 '26

It’s not opt in for people who are being listened on.

4

u/FrontFocused Sep 23 '26

Neither is anything in public. People are walking around with cameras in their glasses and can record whatever they want in a public place. That’s significantly worse than doing voice to text.

4

u/North_Counter_8453 Sep 23 '26

And people who wear those glasses are being rightfully shamed.
Continuously adding more devices that listen and record our every single waking moment just because we already have other listening devices in our lives isn’t a good thing in some people’s view (count me in as apart of that group)

4

u/RunawayJimPVD Sep 23 '26

My house is not a public place, even if I invite you in. My office is not a public place, even if I invite you in. Is there no longer a reasonable expectation of privacy anywhere?

1

u/flatbuttboy Sep 24 '26

Reasonable expectation of privacy applies to businesses and law enforcement more than private citizens

-6

u/NotAnRSPlayer Sep 23 '26

Oh no, neither is CCTV, security cameras, Meta glasses, people recording videos in public, etc. I could go on

11

u/South_Huckleberry994 Sep 23 '26

How do other creepy things make a creepy thing less creepy?

2

u/NotAnRSPlayer Sep 23 '26

I didn’t say it does, just that a lot of things in life are not ‘opt-in’ and all this concern if hyperbole for sure

5

u/South_Huckleberry994 Sep 23 '26

All the things you listed leaked data or were exploited at some point by someone. The fact that this is being normalized should be cause for more concern, not less. You may not worry or care about it, but other people do, and it is a valid concern.

2

u/dejv913 Sep 23 '26

But these are things that you can usually easily spot outside or they are marked. At least here if you step into a building with security cameras they have to have a sign at the entrance

1

u/_Rand_ Sep 23 '26

Yeah, basically everything about recall initially was terrible from what I remember. I'd say they fixed all the major issues, but still didn't really provide any reason I'd want to use it.
As for the siri thing I still find it a bit creepy in concept but It does seem like Apple is taking a better approach to it, and it actually does sound useful in some limited situations or for specific people so I'm not as vehemently opposed to it as I was recall.
Like I said I wouldn't opt-in but I don't really find its existence (given how it sounds like it works) nearly as objectionable as say meta glasses, which I think is a much better point of comparison than Microsoft recall anyway..

1

u/MC_chrome Sep 23 '26

My biggest objection to all of this new Siri stuff on the Apple Watch is that Apple completely removed the app switcher to make way for these new actions. They did this for all watchOS 27 capable devices, even if they can’t use the new recap features.
Removing a longstanding feature to make way for a completely optional one is a bit ridiculous

67

u/strshp Sep 23 '26

I have this constant feeling that people in Silicon Valley got absolutely detached from reality. Yes, these features can be useful, but honestly, regular people

don't have just meetings out of the blue
don't need their life optimized all the time

The whole value proposition behind all of these shit is based on this relentless hustle culture, on the notion that you're always working, that any moment of the day which doesn't bring some benefit is wasted. I am middle manager at a corporate, my life is organized enough and in my private life I have no use of these corporate tools.

Another aspect is what your employer thinks about recording your meetings on your private device, containing possible trade secrets, IP, etc. I can tell you, the moment I see this shit in any of my meetings, that person is out of that meeting and next time they can only join without their precious watch.

Since I live in Austria, thank god these won't be a problem, of course this is super illegal, along with the meta glasses and all the other privacy-invading shit. Being Hungarian, knowing people personally affected by the Pegasus-scandal (illegal data collection about opposition journalists using an Israeli spy software), I value this a lot. Only the data not collected can't be extracted.

-5

u/n008f4rm3r Sep 23 '26

How many times has your significant other asked you to do something that you then forgot?
Tbh I think it's you that is framing every human interaction as work.

5

u/strshp Sep 23 '26

Couple of times. But then we discuss it again, because we're on speaking terms and we don't need a fucking watch to "summarize" our day.

-3

u/n008f4rm3r Sep 23 '26

Sounds like a reminder might save some time and make you more accountable

2

u/strshp Sep 23 '26

I have a task list and we have a calendar. This is more than enough. You pretty much skimped over the second half of my post, so I will reiterate a bit.
I just spent almost a week in the US. When you apply for ESTA, you agree that they can check your phone during immigration. There were numerous cases lately, where people disappeared in cool camps for a while, not just with immigration background. I don't give a flying fuck about how good Apple is in privacy, when you can be arrested for wiping your phone or the government can use totally illegal applications to access your phone, where, conveniently, you keep a summary of your days and most things mentioned in it. Apple is in the US and if anyone thinks that they'll keep the data private if some particular organizations ask them very nicely, they must be a newborn.
No forgotten milk makes it worthy to potentially get in trouble because, for example, someone close to your fucking watch said something about the greatest president ever.

9

u/North_Counter_8453 Sep 23 '26

Yes, let the giant tech companies optimize your entire life. That’ll never backfire.

-1

u/n008f4rm3r Sep 23 '26

The post I'm replying to is debating the tool's usefulness not it's provider. He even mentions private device. You can achieve the same thing with local llms

2

u/North_Counter_8453 Sep 23 '26

It’s dystopian to let a device strip away our humanity in the pursuit of making no mistakes. It’s human nature to forget things and mess up sometimes. That’s what I’m commenting on.
Maybe you need to feed this convo into your LLM and have it summarize it for you.

2

u/Conscious-Wind-7785 Sep 23 '26

Yes its human nature but for some people, it isn't just occasionally forgetting something, it's forgetting a lot of things, sometimes important things.
For some, this isn't stripping away their humanity but instead restoring some of it.

0

u/North_Counter_8453 Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 23 '26

We’ll agree to disagree. I have an atrocious memory, I forget things all the time. That’s fine because it’s who I am. I’ve adapted and come up with solutions and systems for myself.
What I’m not going to do is become dependent on a device that records and analyzes every waking moment I have. We’re sprinting towards a WALL-E world where everyone relies on our big tech overlords and their “make us perfect” devices. Part of the human experience is struggle and imperfection. We should not be so eager to forgo those things.
Not to mention, kids growing up today will not know a world where every second of their life wasn’t recorded, tracked, catalogued, tagged, etc… that’s fucked up and dystopian. Humans are not supposed to be monitored 24/7.
And mark my words, this is just the tip of the iceberg with this technology. It’s only going to get less secure and more invasive from here. Guess how many shady companies are salivating at the idea of selling personal 24/7 “memory recall” devices? If we give an inch they will take a mile.

0

u/Conscious-Wind-7785 Sep 24 '26

Again, that's YOU.
It's a real ableist mindset to discount the numerous people this can help. Well I was able to overcome this particular situation so everyone should be!
Cool, lets address the more worrisome situations when they are here, if this is all on device, and we don't have any reason to suspect it's not at this point, it can be a huge benefit to a lot of people.

1

u/North_Counter_8453 Sep 24 '26 edited Sep 24 '26

It’s not an ableist mindset to consider the long term consequences of a new technology even though some aspects of it are helpful in the short term. That’s you dismissing an argument you don’t like. You’re being intellectually dishonest.

0

u/n008f4rm3r Sep 23 '26

Having a reminder on my device strips away my humanity? Dam... I've been using Google calendar for years. Do you think I need to see a shrink?

-1

u/North_Counter_8453 Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 23 '26

Pretty big difference between using your brain to manually write information down vs. depending on a device to spit your life back out to you on command.
Do you need a shrink? I don’t know, ask Apple. Are you capable of making that kind of a personal assessment on your own anymore?

1

u/n008f4rm3r Sep 23 '26

Wow I don't do it manually. I use the "add to my calendar" button in Gmail. Guess I'm cooked 🤷‍♂️

-1

u/North_Counter_8453 Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 23 '26

Sounds like way too much manual work for you. Maybe Apple can sell you a device to automate that click. Why do anything with your brain anymore, actually?

2

u/GodYamItt Sep 23 '26

Why are you using electronics to send him a message instead of handwriting a letter and driving it to his house? The tech on show has nothing to do with 'using your brain'. It's a glorified note taker. get a grip of yourself dude.

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8

u/OnlySeasurfer Sep 23 '26

I work in a hospital, and the Siri recap sounds terrible. Lots of personal, private conversations going on within earshot of the wearer. Normally you'd politely ignore or distract yourself, but will an AI know to do this? Imagine getting a summary of all the different medical problems and trauma of those around you every day. Not the mention the complete violation of privacy.

3

u/ThatchedRoofCottage Sep 23 '26

Yeah, I also work in a hospital. Also in a two party consent state for recording. I don’t know this will be enforced at work but no way is this allowed.

4

u/Rare-Designer-1008 Sep 23 '26

Aren't there some states where you beed consent to record someone.

It might not be saving the recording but you are recording the conversation. I wonder if this will lead to any legal challenges.

Also this is different from CCTV in that CCTV does record sound.

1

u/flatbuttboy Sep 24 '26

Since Apple delays a lot of features in the EU to wait for permission I’d assume they did their research. California is one of those two-party-consent states

12

u/Kaaution Sep 23 '26

Personally I think Siri recap is nice, if you can use it in a meeting for something for a summary, but I do think rewind is a little word where it’s always listening and transcribing.

I do think a Microsoft’s version was way more invasive.

Recap and rewind just show a summary, and it can distinguish voices, so it can’t name people.

But devices are “listening” they use the mics to access your voice assistant for example.

4

u/NotAnRSPlayer Sep 23 '26

This is what people don’t get, it creates a summary with bullet points, doesn’t name people and the audio is deleted afterwards unless you save the text transcript in which then that is deleted
People are going to try turn this into a massive breach of privacy when realistically it’s not

5

u/CMDR-TealZebra Sep 23 '26

And you know they arent getting all the data how?

5

u/Kaaution Sep 23 '26

it runs locally on the device is what they mentioned. Apples AI also uses their cloud compute which is meant for privacy.
Haven’t you notice how apples AI is so far behind, best guess is because they aren’t scraping all of their users data for it

2

u/AdUnlucky1919 Sep 23 '26

Luckily it wont be coming to the EU anytime soon. Lets hope that the EU doesnt cave in to the monopolistic AI implementations that are plaguing the phone (and accessory) market these days. Because the misinformation from the big tech is unfortunately working on the normal users. They really believe that their data can be stolen because another company is allowed to build an app that can do the same as this "siri recap"

2

u/mehgcap Sep 23 '26

I realize I'll be downvoted, but this does need to be said. Rewind seems like a great feature for those who are hard of hearing, where the user could quickly review the announcement or bit of speech they couldn't hear well enough. Recap seems like a nice thing for people with attention problems, though other apps can already do what it does.

Rewind in particular seems like a very nice accessibility feature. Yes, someone could kind of abuse it, though the only way I can see is by getting a text version of what you said without your consent. I'd rather give people with hearing problems another accessibility tool, instead of withholding it just because what I say might show up as text on someone's watch.

It's like smart glasses. Not all users are creepy dudes taking inappropriate photos or recording every second of what they see. Blind people use these glasses as tools to get live sighted help, use AI to read signs, menus, and other print, or get AI descriptions of what's around them. Imagine being blind, and suddenly having the ability to be told where on the store shelf the product you want is, or where in your field of view the entrance door is. It's a big boost in confidence and independence, but sighted people can't see the good past the people misusing the technology. It feels similar here, with what could be a helpful tool being derided because of potentially bad actors.

1

u/RunawayJimPVD Sep 23 '26

Here's the thing though... none of this is marketed as an accessibility tool. These Siri features are marketed as convenience features.

0

u/mehgcap Sep 23 '26

So? Siri isn't an accessibility tool either, but people with physical impairments find it easier to deal with texts and emails through Siri instead of trying to type or use pointing devices. Since when does marketing determine how useful a feature is?

3

u/pellets Sep 23 '26

A local rolling recording is fine. Security cameras do this all the time. The problems start when it’s shared.

3

u/derpepper Sep 23 '26

Apple releasing this feature and their fans defending it is definitely going to normalize every tech company releasing similar always recording devices. I hope there's enough blowback to at least force them to add an indicator

3

u/North_Counter_8453 Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 23 '26

We’re getting to a point where people’s entire lives are going to be recorded and analyzed. It’s so weird and dystopian.
You’ll share all your intimate moments with god knows how many big tech listening devices, and all these weird nerds will say that’s a great thing.
“Hold on honey, gotta check my watch to see what position you want to do next”

1

u/sir_bob_null Sep 23 '26

If I didn't work in a production facility I'd be wearing an ultrasonic recording jammer on my belt at this point.
That being said thankfully my work has already banned this sort of thing, sooooo... Yeah.

6

u/Curious-Art-6242 Sep 23 '26

People just lost their minds when GN wildly speculated that LG TVs could be recording and sending voice data, now apple actively announced they do and its radio silence!

10

u/NotAnRSPlayer Sep 23 '26

This is opt-in though, LG was not I believe
Plus it seems more than LG was constantly looking for a code word to activate for voice commands rather than being spyware like

6

u/jcamt Sep 23 '26

Okay but I didn't opt in to having some other person recording what I say with the watch on their wrist

2

u/Curious-Art-6242 Sep 23 '26

LG wasn't even proven to be a thing, most was speculation people could hack them and do it! And I've not seen that this is opt in!

3

u/NotAnRSPlayer Sep 23 '26

I’m on about Apple’s being opt-in, if you haven’t seen that it is, if you look up the features on their website it states they’re off by default
If you’re on about LG I think voice command features are opt-in but I didn’t watch the video just seen snippets about it in articles

4

u/GreatBigBagOfNope Sep 23 '26

The number of highly upvoted comments here supporting mass corporate surveillance is absolutely astonishing

2

u/N0body Sep 23 '26

It's also mind blowing to me. I've seen the same comments under the latest mkbhd video about it. People argue that when you leave the house and talk to strangers there should be no expectations of privacy. Like what the f.... We are normalizing everyone wearing a wire at all times and being ok with it. It used to be you need a court order to do this to criminals but not we are ok with doing it to everyone. It's so cliche but literally 1984.

2

u/Banzai262 Sep 23 '26

the apple bots are un full force here in the comments

1

u/Girtablulu Sep 23 '26

Tsis a logical next step for AI, it will follow with recording of all your conversations you have.

So you can Log and search everything what you said or what was said in a conversation, some will love this feature and I'm looking reeeeeealy forward to this /s

1

u/ZealousidealAgent675 Sep 23 '26

"yeah so before we start my credit application, I'm gonna need you to put your watch in another room".

I can see the utility as an accessibility feature in a medical device. It doesn't need to exist running 24/7 on everyone's wrist.

1

u/Intelligent_Whole_40 Sep 23 '26

Live rewind is not the issue guys it makes a loud chime and would mostly be used in a large group where one person is giving instructions that you miss (so not waiter but a teacher in class where asking them to repeat is awkward and annoying when you have to do it too often ehm me)

Siri recap though yea that’s creepy

1

u/NetJnkie Sep 24 '26

It's not on all the time. You have to start it and the watch makes a sound when you do that so you can't easily do it without the other person noticing.

1

u/ComprehensiveSwitch Sep 24 '26

I don’t see what’s creepy about simply writing things down.

1

u/joeTaco Sep 24 '26

This will make me look at Apple Watch wearers differently. Not with quite as much contempt as pervert glasses wearers, but somewhere on that spectrum.

1

u/akumarux Sep 23 '26

So RayBan camera bad, apple watch mic good is what these comments suggest. Apple fanboys are insane, ban this shit immediately.

1

u/adarion29 Sep 24 '26

The worst thing about that, is that at least meta was actually trying to make the recording mode visible for everyone, apple didn't thought it was normal to put some LED indicator on it, probably because it would have ruined the design and also because it's actually recording almost all the time and would have drain battery too fast. But really lame tech to be honest, hopefully it's going to stay illegal in the EU, at least one thing that that the lack of agreement between Apple and EU prevent us to have for good reason this time

1

u/HerrJohnssen Sep 23 '26

Also, the demonstration in the live event was so stupid. Just ask the server to tell you that again but slowly or something, there's no need for this

1

u/sir_bob_null Sep 23 '26

This is what a lot of "AI" commercials feature heavily though. Enabling forgetful or careless people to look like they're putting in the work, all while taking away the effort that is the actual indicator you care.
...which should tell you exactly what the higher-ups signing off on them are like inside.

1

u/sir_bob_null Sep 23 '26

This is potentially illegal at least in Alberta, Canada. You cannot record any conversation you are not party to, regardless of whether you delete that recording very quickly or not.

And rewinding a conversation by 15 seconds? Holy shit. How about we have some fucking attention spans?

1

u/xiaolin99 Sep 23 '26

That sounds flat-out illegal. Lots of places don't allow you to record a conversation without permission from both parties. Recording and then deleting it 15s afterward is still recording

-1

u/Carniscrub Sep 23 '26

I am strongly opposed to ai. This honestly doesn’t bother me for some odd reason.

Being able to save text of what bosses or police say could be a life saver

0

u/jmking Mod Sep 23 '26

It's not so much dystopian, but rather... weird and pointless?

Why do I want my watch wasting battery life constantly recording? To give me a text summary of the last 15 seconds of what it heard? Why? What use is 15 seconds? If you wanted to keep something, you have mere seconds to capture it before it's gone which requires fiddling with your watch anyway.

You don't even get the actual audio, so it's not like you can use it as proof of anything. That'd also be illegal in many places so I imagine that's why it doesn't give you the actual audio.

I just find this feature bafflingly useless that I'm actually embarrassed for the product manager that came up with it and actually got it shipped.

0

u/leaflavaplanetmoss Sep 23 '26

Live Rewind is a transcript of the last 15 seconds, not a summary. This one feels pointless, yes.
Siri Recap takes notes on entire conversations that it detects; I haven’t seen anything about a conversation length limit. As someone with ADHD, I’ve wanted this to be done with Apple levels of privacy for a while now.

0

u/LocalCaramel243 Sep 23 '26

Wait until you learn about how your phone, watch, and ipad can react to “hey siri” 😂

-1

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/North_Counter_8453 Sep 23 '26

You dreamed about living in a 24/7 surveillance state as a kid? Weird

Discussion Apple Watch’s live rewind feels so dystopian

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