Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of watchOS 8.5 to Developers

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Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming watchOS 8.5 update to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after the release of the third watchOS 8.5 beta.

watchOS 8 on Apple Watch feature
To install ‌‌‌watchOS 8.5, developers will need to download the configuration profile from the Apple Developer Center. Once installed, ‌‌‌watchOS 8.5‌‌‌ 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. You'll also need the accompanying iOS 15.4 update before you can install watchOS 8.5.

watchOS 8.5 introduces support for Emoji 14 characters, with new additions including melting face, biting lip, heart hands, bubbles, beans, face with diagonal mouth, palm up hand, eggs, troll, low battery, coral, lotus, and more.

Related Roundups: watchOS 10, watchOS 9
Related Forum: iOS, Mac, tvOS, watchOS Programming

Top Rated Comments

gomichaelgo Avatar
gomichaelgo
17 months ago
Does anyone else recall the feature for the watch for "notify when left behind"
I feel like it used to have it but no longer is supported.
When I charge my watch and leave the house with my phone, i would be pinged to tell me I left my watch behind. Same as my keys or phone if left behind.
Either way if it used to exist or not, why is it not supported or used? I hate when i take my watch off to charge and leave behind.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darcyf Avatar
darcyf
17 months ago
Way too many updates for a watch, especially when you consider how clunky the watch update process is. I want my watch to receive an OS update every year, and maybe take one supplemental update somewhere in between, but 5+ updates every year for a device I wear on my wrist is just bizarre.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gugy Avatar
gugy
17 months ago
My AW S5 bricked after the latest update. This is the second time it happened through the OS 8 updates. I was able to go back to the 8.0 and make it work again. Apple keeps screwing these updates. They can't keep stable and many of the past issues return. Get your sh-t together, please!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gomichaelgo Avatar
gomichaelgo
17 months ago

My AW S5 bricked after the latest update. This is the second time it happened through the OS 8 updates. I was able to go back to the 8.0 and make it work again. Apple keeps screwing these updates. They can't keep stable and many of the past issues return. Get your sh-t together, please!
That's awful. Sorry that happened. Was this on beta or the standard ones. You are commenting on the beta release and i feel like those are always a bit riskier. However I have been on the betas for all of iOS 8.0 and haven't had many issues really. Very minor ones that I report to Apple to help fix in the beta stage.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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