Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software update.
To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone.
watchOS 5.1 includes support for Group FaceTime, with Group FaceTime calls able to be answered in an audio-only capacity on the Apple Watch. Group FaceTime allows you to chat with up to 32 people at one time.
The watchOS 5.1 update also brings a full-screen new "Color" watch face option for the Apple Watch Series 4, with users able to choose between multiple shades. There's also a filled-in circular color option for older Apple Watch models that joins the standard Color clock face.
Should additional new features be found in the second beta of watchOS 5.1, we'll update this post.
Sunday November 1, 2026 3:34 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple has published a support document describing what to do if your Apple Watch continues to show time that's off by one hour after daylight savings time changes. "This incorrect time appears only on the Always On display when your wrist is down," says Apple. "When you activate the display by tapping it or raising your wrist, the time changes to the correct hour."
To fix the issue, Apple says ...
Tuesday November 3, 2026 10:35 am PST by Juli Clover
With the first beta of watchOS 27.3, Apple is introducing new Audio Intelligence features it previewed for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 earlier this year. Powered by the S11 chip, Audio Intelligence includes Live Rewind, Siri Recap, Sound Recognition, and Shazam Music Recognition.
Sound Recognition and Shazam are already on the watch, but Live Rewind and Siri Recap are now available ...
Monday October 26, 2026 5:26 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Some Apple Watch users running watchOS 27 are reporting a daylight saving glitch after clocks went back in the UK and Europe on Sunday. In a MacRumors forums thread, five users – several in the UK and central Europe – say their watch shows the correct time when activated, but the Always-On display keeps showing summer time, leaving it an hour fast.
The problem has also been reported in...
The new “Infograph” and “Infograph Modular” Watch Series 4 faces which support the having the highest number complications at once — also have the smallest selection of complications that can be displayed on those faces... thereby making them useless for me. Many of the native complications on the Watch cannot be displayed anywhere on those faces.
Even if they’re just icons to launch the apps, “Messages” and “Now Playing” (among other native complications) are indispensable for me on my watch face.
Why does Apple limit which complications I can put on which faces? I am far from alone in this disappointment.
I don't understand why the new infograph watch faces on my Series 4 allow you to have shortcuts to Music, Exercise, Weather, Walkie Talkie, etc but don't let you shortcut to Messages, Radio, Apple TV Remote, HomeKit, etc. It's bizarre. A lot of third party apps don't work with them either, but for some reason work with the older faces.
The specific reason is that those complications on the new watch faces are actually DIFFERENT than the ones available before S4 and watchOS 5. Third party developers have to port their old ones to that new format. Some have, some will do it eventually.
The issue is, when will Apple? watchOS 5.1? watchOS5.2? watchOS 6?
It's very frustrating that they did not do it out of the gate.
