Apple Seeds First Beta of watchOS 8 to Developers - MacRumors
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Apple Seeds First Beta of watchOS 8 to Developers

In addition to seeding the first betas of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, tvOS 15, and macOS 12, Apple has also seeded the first beta of the watchOS 8 update to developers for testing purposes.

watchOS 8 on Apple Watch feature
To install watchOS 8, developers will need to download the configuration profile from the Apple Developer Center. Once installed, watchOS 8 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General > Software update.

To update to new software, an Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery life, it must be placed on the charger, and it needs to be in range of the iPhone. It's not recommended to install watchOS 8 on a main Apple Watch as the software may be unstable at this early date.

watchOS 8 is limited to developers at the current time, but Apple plans to provide a public beta later this year ahead of the software's fall launch.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 11

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Top Rated Comments

akidokraja Avatar
67 months ago
Need low power mode on WatchOS. Please, Apple. And not that ultra-low power mode that is available now. That’s completely useless.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jayjay14 Avatar
67 months ago

Normally I’d be afraid to upgrade due to the hit on battery life you get with a new beta, but so far battery life has been trash on 7.5 so maybe I should just jump to 8.
The battery life on my S6 AW has been atrocious lately.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Johnny907 Avatar
67 months ago
Normally I’d be afraid to upgrade due to the hit on battery life you get with a new beta, but so far battery life has been trash on 7.5 so maybe I should just jump to 8.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
67 months ago
Damn, it looks like they’re activating the U1 chip in the Series 6 but only using it for CarKey. I was really hoping that it would be used to find AirTags with the new Find My app, but I don’t see any indication that’s the case.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MorePixels Avatar
67 months ago
Yawn…
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)