Granola launches Apple Watch app to bring AI note-taking directly to your wrist

Granola launches an Apple Watch app

AI note-taking app Granola is launching an app for the Apple Watch in hopes that its users will want to record meetings and take notes without using their smartphones. Users can set the Granola app as one of the watch faces to start transcribing at any time. The app can also surface reminders about upcoming meetings, and works with the iOS app, which launched last year. The company's co-founder, Chris Pedregal, told TechCrunch that the Apple Watch app is meant to be a way to capture in-person meetings without having to take your phone out of your pocket -- for example, if someone is having a walking one-on-one meeting. When Granola tested its app with employees who had Apple Watches, a big chunk of their mobile usage switched from iOS to the Watch, the company said. In the past year, companies have released auxiliary devices that can be used with smartphones to record and transcribe meetings. Granola said it considered it easier to develop an app for Apple Watches rather than integrate with another hardware product at this point. Dictation app Monlogue earlier this year also added support for meeting note-taking, for both online and offline modalities, along with Apple Watch support. Granola became a unicorn earlier this year with a $125 million Series C round that was led by Index Ventures.

Apple Watch just gained a brand-new app for AI meeting notes

Granola, the AI-powered meeting notepad best known for its Mac app, is expanding to Apple Watch today. Granola has traveled from Mac to iPhone to Apple Watch The watchOS app is designed for conversations away from a computer. Think sessions like walking one-on-ones, whiteboard sessions, and coffee meetings. One tap starts note-taking, with a green screen and sound confirming that Granola is listening. Scheduled meetings can trigger a subtle reminder, while a watch face complication puts recording one tap away. On the Mac, Granola has made its name by capturing system audio from services such as Zoom, Google Meet, and FaceTime, without sending a meeting bot into the call. It combines the transcript with anything the user types, then produces full notes, summaries, decisions, and action items. Granola's iPhone app extended that experience to in-person conversations and outbound phone calls, while providing access to synced notes and Granola Chat. The Apple Watch now becomes an even less intrusive capture point. Users can leave their laptop closed and phone in their pocket, then review or edit the notes on iPhone, Mac, or Windows moments later. Apple Watch is becoming an AI device The launch comes as Apple Watch starts receiving AI attention. Apple's watchOS 27 introduces a more capable Siri AI experience and a dedicated Siri app that collects conversations and lets users move between iPhone and Apple Watch. Granola's arrival suggests third-party developers see potential for bringing AI tools to the wrist. Granola for Apple Watch is available free today and requires watchOS 11 or later. Users can install or update Granola for iPhone, sign in, and follow the setup instructions.

AI Notetakers Have Reached the Wrist. Big Privacy Questions Are Now at Hand

Granola has reached peak millennial: It is now both a breakfast food and a startup with an Apple Watch app. The note-taking company launched the free app Tuesday, letting workers record and transcribe conversations from their wrists during walking meetings, conference sessions, and impromptu office conversations. For co-founder and CEO Chris Pedregal, whose education startup Socratic was acquired by Google, the Watch app supports a larger ambition: turning workplace conversations into searchable company memory. "Conversation transcripts are the richest source of context for what's happening across your company," Pedregal wrote when announcing Granola's $125 million Series C in March, which valued the company at $1.5 billion. The company has since expanded from a personal note-taking tool into an enterprise platform designed to put that context to work. The app requires a paired iPhone and an Apple Watch running watchOS 11 or later. Users can select a calendar meeting or begin an unscheduled recording, including while offline. The audio later syncs through the iPhone, where Granola produces a transcript and structured notes accessible on mobile and desktop.