Apple's new Workout Buddy feature is intriguing—a voice from your Apple Watch that gives you pep talks and stats as you exercise. But when I installed the WatchOS public beta (after reading and disregarding all the warnings we've given about doing so), I discovered that my watch couldn't run Workout Buddy, even though it's a Series 10, which should be supported.
And yes, I should have read the fine print a little closer, but this particular caveat isn't exactly being communicated loud and clear: Workout Buddy arguably isn't really a feature of your watch at all, but a feature of your Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone. If you don't have at least an iPhone 15 Pro, you don't get Workout Buddy on your Apple Watch.
I found this out in the most embarrassing way, so feel free to laugh: I accepted the assignment to test out the public beta and report on Workout Buddy; I learned how to install a public beta; I satisfied myself that I was OK with the risks of doing so. I backed up my iPhone, then installed the beta on my phone, then installed the beta on my watch. Then I changed into running clothes, drove to the park where I like to run, slathered myself in sunscreen, and as I was about to start my first run with my new Workout Buddy, found that the option wasn't there. I triple-checked everything. The beta was installed, I had the new workout screen view, I was looking in the correct menu…but I was carrying an iPhone 12 mini (the last phone Apple ever made that fits comfortably in my pocket, but that's a rant for another time). And that means no Workout Buddy for me.
Workout Buddy needs an iPhone 15 Pro or 16 to work, and it needs to be with you the whole time
If you've been paying close attention to Apple's announcements about Apple Intelligence, you might know offhand exactly which iPhones it means when it says (in the sixth of six paragraphs on the feature) that “Workout Buddy will be available on Apple Watch with Bluetooth headphones, and requires an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone nearby.”
What do you think so far?
Me, I'm just a dumb jock, so checking the list of Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone versions did not occur to me. I just noticed that Workout Buddy is listed among the features of WatchOS, so I thought it was a WatchOS feature. But to get that peppy coach voice, your watch has to get your Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone to generate it. And Apple Intelligence sometimes sends requests off for cloud computing, which means your Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone may need to be connected to the internet for this to work.
So even if you have the right kind of iPhone, you can't use Workout Buddy if you're in the habit of leaving it at home (or in your gym locker) during workouts, and it may not work properly if your runs and walks take you to places that have no cellular signal—as many of my trail runs do. This makes it a lot less useful than you might think, even if you aren't a dummy like me who forgets what kind of phone they are carrying.
