Apple Seeds watchOS 10.1 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Seeds watchOS 10.1 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the release candidate version of an upcoming watchOS 10.1 update to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, with the beta coming a week after the release of the third watchOS 10.1 beta.

Apple Watch Faces watchOS 10 Feature Blue
To install the ‌watchOS 10‌.1 update, developers will need to open the Apple Watch app, go to the Software Update section under "General" in Settings, and toggle on the ‌watchOS 10‌.1 Developer Beta. An Apple ID linked to a developer account is required. Public beta testers will need to follow the same steps after opting in to the beta through Apple's public beta testing website.

Once beta updates have been activated, ‌watchOS 10.1‌ can be downloaded under the same Software Update section. To install software, an Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery life and it must be placed on an Apple Watch charger.

watchOS 10.1 adds NameDrop support for sharing contact information with another Apple Watch or an iPhone, plus it includes Double Tap.

NameDrop can be used by tapping into the Apple Watch Contacts app, selecting your profile, and tapping on the "Share" option. From there, touching the Apple Watch to another Apple Watch running watchOS 10.1 or an iPhone running iOS 17 will initiate a contact transfer.

Double Tap is a gesture exclusive to the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra, and it allows users to tap their thumb and index fingers together to do things like bring up the Smart Stack, start a call, pause a song, and more.

Related Roundup: watchOS 26
Related Forum: Apple Watch

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...

Top Rated Comments

jonnysods Avatar
32 months ago
Resurrect my AW6's battery life please!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dadiy Avatar
32 months ago
Really miffed by double tap. Been using it for years on aw6, you enable it in accessibility so why can I use that in watchOS 10 but not the “new” double tap.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacNut Avatar
32 months ago
Hopefully it fixes the altimeter readings.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pdaholic Avatar
32 months ago

Interesting. Of all the things I don't like, I think the redesigns are mostly good. Which app redesign did you not like?

I don't like the game of musical chairs they played between control center, app view, and dock.

I also wish they had a corner digital time complication, while we're at it.
A couple of things that come to mind immediately--the scrolling list view of the calendar and its fonts having a similar color to the background on the entry; calendar entries in the widgets have bright white backgrounds, while the rest of the OS looks to be in "dark mode"; tapping the calendar complication takes me now to a detailed list of information about the entry that I don't need...I could keep going. There also seems to be a bug with third party calendar apps not showing entries, but I'm hoping that will be fixed.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
32 months ago

That is ...not a fix.
People can’t even see the watch in dark rooms and they are not doing anything — do you really think they are going to undo a “feature” that was intentionally removed LOL
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonnysods Avatar
32 months ago

I had a S6 and just made a trade in for an Ultra 2. Got 130 USD for the trade-in.
S6 was a great series - and I miss it but if you can afford - I would recommend it because next year it’s not gonna be worth too much.

Again, it;s all about your financials - I know it’s expensive… :( but if you can - it’s an insane upgrade
I really want the AWU2 and was holding out for it - but its the coinage, need to be wise with what I have (even though it pains me!)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)