Amazfit challenges Apple Watch: new integration options with iPhone in the European Union

Previously, iPhone users who wanted to respond to incoming messages directly from their smartwatch were limited to the Apple ecosystem. Apple has long blocked third-party manufacturers’ access to this function, but under pressure from EU regulators the situation has changed. With the release of the iOS 26.5 update, users in the European Union now have access to the Notification Forwarding feature in System Settings.

What is Notification Forwarding and how does it work?

Enabling this feature in the iPhone’s system settings allows the third-party device to have full access to push notifications. Amazfit has become one of the pioneers among wearable electronics manufacturers to introduce full support for this protocol in its proprietary Zepp application.

Amazfit models supporting the new integration

At the moment, advanced options for interacting with notifications are already available to owners of the following models:

• Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra
• Amazfit Balance Ultra
• Amazfit Balance 3

The price of Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra on Amazon is $599 (aproximately 22,500 UAH). For the remaining Amazfit models, including Bip Max, Active 3 Premium, Cheetah 2 Pro, T-Rex 3, T-Rex 3 Pro, T-Rex Ultra 2 and Balance 2, the corresponding Zepp update is expected soon.

Key benefits of the update

The new feature brings three major improvements for iOS users:

• Direct replies:You can reply to messages directly from the watch screen, including in third-party instant messengers like WhatsApp.
• Interaction: Now you can mark messages as read or make callbacks directly from your wrist.
• Media content in notifications: Smart watches now display images, for example, a frame from a video intercom, if someone pressed the bell.

At the moment, this feature works in beta mode, so the developers warn about possible instability and bugs.