Apple Releases First Beta of New watchOS 5 Operating System to Developers

Monday June 4, 2018 1:39 PM PDT by Juli Clover
Apple this morning announced watchOS 5, a new version of the software that runs on the Apple Watch. The first developer beta of watchOS 5 has now been released to developers for testing purposes.

To install the beta, you'll need the proper configuration profile, which can be obtained through the Apple Developer Center. Once the profile is in place, the watchOS 5 beta can be downloaded using the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update.


To install the beta, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone. It would be wise to install the beta on a secondary device instead of a primary device given that this is an early version of the watchOS 5 software that still has bugs to be worked out.

watchOS 5 is a huge update that brings Activity Competitions so you can compete on workouts with friends, Walkie-Talkie with push-to-talk functionality for quickly communicating with the people you talk to most, and auto workout detection to make it easier than ever to start and stop workouts.

Other new features include an improved Siri watch face with support for third-party apps, a dedicated Apple Podcasts app, new Workout types that include Yoga and Hiking, new features for runners, and enhanced notifications, which will make notifications on the Apple Watch interactive.

watchOS 5 is only available to developers and will not be provided to public beta testers (because there's no way to downgrade Apple Watch software), so non-developers will need to wait until the software is officially released in the fall to try it out.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 6
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
28 comments

Top Rated Comments

(View all)
Avatar
ErikGrim
21 months ago

No support for the first generation of the Apple Watch. Looks like early adopters get abandoned again.

That’s literally the accepted risk of being an early adopter.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
mcdj
21 months ago
Still no 3rd party faces. Wow. They would make a killing on a face store. Instead, they’re putting the screws to MacBook screw vendors.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
gsmornot
21 months ago

No support for the first generation of the Apple Watch. Looks like early adopters get abandoned again.

Use it as motivation to update. I held out until a few months ago with the original and man, Series 3 is a huge difference. I assume Series 4 will be along in the fall and I hear it might have a bigger display but 3 is a big leap. I forget to charge so every other day roughly I get a reminder that I'm at 10%. It used to be a nightly charge at bedtime.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
macduke
21 months ago

No support for the first generation of the Apple Watch. Looks like early adopters get abandoned again.

Yeah, but us on Series 0 are also short on battery life and watchOS 4 is already running pretty slow. I've got my settings stripped down to a minimum and still struggle with battery life and performance. I'm looking forward to upgrading this autumn to the newer models which hopefully have a bigger display option or redesign of some sort.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
RamGuy
21 months ago
The whole daily activity/exercise/calorie goal need a re-design. Its one of the few things I feel doesn't really work on my Apple Watch.

I love the Apple Watch. I have tried Fitbit, Garmin and Samsung and I find the Apple Watch to just be better in pretty much every possible way. And Apple keeps on improving the Activity and Workout-app at phase that no one else seems to be even close to match.

But I fully agree. The whole approach to daily goals feels somewhat awkward to me. Having this set amount of calories and exercise mirrored and identical for every single day doesn’t make much sense. I don’t plan exercises for every single day, and no one really should unless they count things like walking for 30 minutes as a exercise.. If I was going to do my exercises every single day it would not be good for my body..

What does this result into? Well, it makes it impossible for me to set activity goals on the watch. Either I have to set a low calorie goal so watchOS won’t be nagging me all day for the days I’m not exercising and completely demolish said goal every day I actually do exercise or I have to set a more realistic goal, something more close to my average daily calorie goal but then have watchOS counting all days without exercises as "fails"… Its rather annoying… And it doesn’t really help motivate or anything when its done in the way its currently working.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
123
21 months ago

('https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/04/apple-releases-first-watchos-5-beta/')

watchOS 5 is a huge update that brings Activity Competitions...


Umm, huge update? More like a point release.

I don't know a single person who uses the Siri face and this is not going to change anytime soon. This stuff must blend in unobtrusively. Instead, it comes across as if it was the sole reason for the watch's existence. Bah

And when it comes to competitions, this is certainly a feature that 2 peope would like to use, if not 3. great.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
wwooden
21 months ago

No support for the first generation of the Apple Watch. Looks like early adopters get abandoned again.


Yeah, I figured it was going to happen this time. I am ready to upgrade anyways, waiting for a hopefully new redesign with Apple Watch 4.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
cflasche
21 months ago

I'm wondering how the "walkie talkie" feature will work. I love the idea, but will the message just come through without me having the option to wait to listen? What if I'm in the middle of a speaking engagement or teaching? I wouldn't want messages to just start talking.

There's a toggle to accept walkie talkie messages. It showed that in the keynote or on the website detailing the walkie talkie feature.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
RamGuy
21 months ago

No support for the first generation of the Apple Watch. Looks like early adopters get abandoned again.


No product is being supported and update forever. Did you expect first-gen/early-adaptors to be something special? Of course its the oldest and slowest devices that will get get EoL first. How is this surprising to anyone?
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
mdellepi
21 months ago

Awesome! Thank you for the help. I knew we had to accept people in the set up but didn’t see where we could wait to hear the messages until later. During the keynote, it seemed the messages just came right through without the lady having to “tap to listen” or anything like that.
[doublepost=1528173163][/doublepost]
I just rewatched the walkie talkie part of the keynote. It still looks like the messages come in live just like a walkie talkie does. That would be crazy when people are working. I’ve got to be missing something. Guess I’ll find out soon enough. Thanks again.

I kind of think you accept the opening of a communication channel and than it stays open for a while, with direct voice message exchange. I suppose you would need to accept the start of the conversation every time.
Rating: 1 Votes
[ Read All Comments ]