Apple Seeds First Beta of watchOS 8.6 to Developers

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Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming watchOS 8.6 beta to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming three weeks after the release of watchOS 8.5.

watchOS 8 on Apple Watch feature
To install ‌‌‌watchOS 8‌‌‌.6, developers will need to download the configuration profile from the Apple Developer Center. Once installed, ‌‌‌watchOS 8.6 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.

We don't yet know what's included in the watchOS 8.6 update, but if if we find new features after installing the beta, we'll update this article.

Related Roundups: watchOS 10, watchOS 9
Related Forum: iOS iPadOS macOS tvOS watchOS visionOS Programming

Top Rated Comments

AndiG Avatar
AndiG
15 months ago
I own my Apple Watch for about 16 months. Using it for payment but mainly for workout tracking/sports. Within this time I must have installed at least 30 updates or so (at least it feels this way).

But nothing changed from my point of view. I'm ok with security updates but all the rest? And if you install an update it probably ships with new bugs.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
doerrmann Avatar
doerrmann
15 months ago

I really hope this fixes the annoying bug introduced in Watch OS 8.5 which makes it sometimes impossible to pull down notifications. It happens only occasionally and I think it might happen after using my Apple Watch with a gym kit enabled device (like Peloton). I cannot pull down the little red dot. It's non-responsive. Only solution is to power the watch off an on again. Apple Watch series 4. Am I the only one?
Apple Watch S7 - I've had this a few times since 8.5. I've been able to restore by holding down the side button to get to the power/ID/SOS sliders, then press the side button again to go back to the Home Screen. I haven't had to do a full shutdown - except to re-enable fast charging, which is another fun 8.5 bug.

You can file a bug report using http://applefeedback in the Safari bar.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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