iPhones may finally support your Galaxy Watch, but there's a catch

Samsung's old smartwatches that ran on its Tizen OS had basic compatibility with iPhones. They could be paired with the phone for notifications only. That capability ended when Samsung switched to Google's Wear OS and the company itself hasn't made an app that allows a Galaxy Watch to pair with iPhones.

It appears that this could change in the future as Apple is developing a feature that would allow more non-Apple accessories to be compatible with iOS in the future.

Macworld has found references to a new Notification Forward feature in iOS 26.1 beta 1. It will enable users to show iPhone notifications on a paired non-Apple device. This feature will only allow for notifications to be forwarded to “one accessory at a time,” meaning that if you have a Galaxy Watch paired, the iPhone won't send notifications to your Apple Watch.

So even if Samsung doesn't make an app to enable notifications from the iPhone, the changes Apple is considering for iOS 26.1 would make them work anyway, but it would only be for basic notification support and nothing else beyond that.

The catch is that this feature may not be available in all markets. It's likely that Apple is developing this to comply with EU's Digital Markets Act decisions that seek greater interoperability between iPhones and non-Apple devices. So Apple may only offer this capability in Europe, with things being business as usual everywhere else.