If you’ve ever owned a smartwatch paired with an iPhone, you already know the frustration: notifications arrive truncated, replies are impossible, and dismissing a message means reaching for the phone anyway. Amazfit is finally tackling that pain point with a new Beta feature called iOS Notification Forwarding, which brings a far richer alert experience to its wearables.
The headline here isn’t just more text on a tiny screen. The feature lets you view entire messages, reply, send a quick response, or mark a message as read directly from your wrist. In other words, it pulls Amazfit watches closer to the kind of two-way interaction Android users have enjoyed for years, and that Apple has historically kept fenced off from third-party hardware.
There are, predictably, a few strings attached. The Beta is available only to eligible users located in the European Union, and your iPhone needs to be running iOS 26.5 or later. The integration works with supported apps — WhatsApp being a notable example — rather than every notification source on your phone.
Amazfit announced the feature on June 25, 2026, with availability expected to begin June 30 through a phased rollout in the Zepp App. That staggered approach also applies to which watches get the upgrade first.
The initial wave of the Beta program covers three models:
- Cheetah 2 Ultra
- Balance Ultra
- Balance 3
A second batch is set to join in the following weeks, expanding support to a much wider lineup:
- Bip Max
- Active 3 Premium
- Cheetah 2 Pro
- T-Rex 3
- T-Rex 3 Pro
- T-Rex Ultra 2
- Balance 2
It’s worth being clear about what this is: a software feature, not a new gadget. There’s no price tag and no new hardware to buy — if you own one of the listed watches and an iPhone in the EU, this lands as a free upgrade once the rollout reaches you.
The bigger picture is what’s interesting. Smartwatch makers have long complained that Apple offers far less integration to outside brands than it grants the Apple Watch, leaving the iPhone experience feeling second-class. By leaning on iOS Notification Forwarding, Amazfit is closing some of that gap without asking buyers to switch ecosystems. Being a Beta, expect rough edges — but for iPhone owners who’ve been tolerating glance-only notifications, the ability to actually reply from the wrist is a meaningful step.
