Apple Seeds Third Beta of watchOS 9.4 to Developers - MacRumors
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Apple Seeds Third Beta of watchOS 9.4 to Developers

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming watchOS 9.4 update to developers for testing purposes, with the software update coming one week after launch of the second beta.

Apple watchOS 9 Feature
To install the watchOS 9.4 update, developers will need to download the configuration profile from the Apple Developer Center.

Once installed, ‌watchOS 9.4 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 has to be placed on the charger, and it will need to be in range of the ‌iPhone‌ it is paired with.

watchOS 9.4 gains support for new emoji characters that include donkey, goose, black bird, shaking head, hyacinth, pea pod, and more, with 31 new characters available in total.

Through iOS 16.4, the update adds support for Web Push notifications that are sent to an iPhone, with the notifications able to be set up for a website that is added to the iPhone's Home Screen.

watchOS 9.4 will go through several rounds of beta testing, and it is expected to see a launch in the spring alongside iOS 16.4.

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Top Rated Comments

floral Avatar
42 months ago
More emoji is crucial for watch users... have no clue how they type on that thing for over a minute without going ballistic.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
surfzen21 Avatar
42 months ago

More emoji is crucial for watch users... have no clue how they type on that thing for over a minute without going ballistic.
Yep. Dictation is very helpful and more accurate than I expected. Ill swipe a few words to a sentence but if I want to communicate more on my AWU I just dictate it.

The one thing I wish for dictation was the ability to scroll through the dictation to see what it wrote. That doesnt seem to be a feature. Although I haven't tried to use the crown, just my fingers.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
surfzen21 Avatar
42 months ago
I hope this build is more stable for everyone who's using it!!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)