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Apple Seeds Third Beta of watchOS 11 to Developers

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming watchOS 11 update to developers for testing purposes, with the beta coming two weeks after the second beta was released.

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To install the ‌watchOS 11 update, developers need to open the Apple Watch app, go to the Software Update section under "General" in Settings, and toggle on the watchOS 11 Developer Beta. An Apple ID linked to a developer account is required.

Once beta updates have been activated, watchOS 11 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 11 introduces a new Vitals app that aggregates health metrics collected during sleep like heart rate and respiratory rate, providing day-to-day health insights to track whether something has changed. There's also a Training Load feature for monitoring the intensity of workouts and how that impacts the body over time.

The Smart Stack has been updated with new widgets and support for Live Activities and Translate, plus it is better able to suggest widgets based on time and daily routine. The Photos watch face includes suggestions for the best images to use, and the Check In safety feature now works with Workouts.

Activity Rings can be customized to change the goals for each day, and there is an option to pause for rest days or when ill without losing an activity streak. Double Tap now works for navigating through apps with one hand, and Apple Maps lets users create their own walking and hiking routes.

Related Roundup: watchOS 26
Related Forum: Apple Watch

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Top Rated Comments

honglong1976 Avatar
25 months ago
If anyone updates and it gets stuck on “estimated time …” the fix I used:

Iphone wifi off
iphone Wi-Fi on

Updated then :)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
honglong1976 Avatar
25 months ago

Yeah, what I really mean is that I can’t believe there aren’t more face options every release.
Watch faces are the worst thing about the watch. They are all terribl.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
25 months ago

There doesn't seem to be any outrage happening here - no bricks, no excessive battery drain etc. ;)
Sure, it's been a few hours, but... :D
I'm tempted to install it on my Ultra 2.
Here on iPhone 12 + Ultra 2. No problems whatsoever!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
honglong1976 Avatar
25 months ago

Am I the only one who basically just wants a bunch of new face options and doesn’t care about much else??
Me too. But training load is great.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
25 months ago
The watchOS betas have been stable for me and I like the Smart Stack changes (live activities) but I just want better battery life. We'll see what happens over the next couple of days on both my Series 9 and 15 Pro Max
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)