Apple Seeds Third Public Beta of watchOS 7 to Public Beta Testers

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded the third public beta of an upcoming watchOS 7 update to public beta testers, one week after seeding the second public beta and just a few days after seeding a new beta to developers.

The watchOS 7 update can be downloaded after installing the proper profile from Apple's Public Beta website. watchOS 7 should not be installed on a primary device as it is still an early beta and there could be bugs, plus there is no way to downgrade back to watchOS 6.

watchOS 7 is a major update that introduces a new Sleep Tracking feature for the Apple Watch, which is designed to measure how long you're asleep as you wear the Apple Watch while sleeping.

It comes along with a Wind Down feature that helps you establish a bedtime routine to make it easier to fall asleep at night, as well as a Sleep Mode that turns on Do Not Disturb and dims the Apple Watch display.

The Apple Watch can also wake you up with haptic vibrations, providing a weather report in the morning as well as info on battery life so you can get your day started.

Along with these sleep tracking features, the Apple Watch has automatic handwashing detection that listens for the sound of running water and handwashing motions and then starts a 20-second timer so you can make sure you're washing your hands for the appropriate amount of time.

There's a new watch Face Sharing feature that lets you share watch faces with others and install new watch faces from the App Store, Messages, Mail, websites, and more.

There's a new Chronograph Pro face with tachymeter, updates to complications, and new workout options in the newly renamed Fitness app, which was previously the Activity app.

The Maps app now supports directions for cyclists, Siri provides spoken translations, and there's a Shortcuts app on the Apple Watch. For more on what's new in watcOS 7, make sure to check out our watchOS 7 roundup.

watchOS 7 is limited to the Apple Watch Series 3, Series 4, and Series 5 models, and is not compatible with the Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Third Public Beta of watchOS 7 to Public Beta Testers

 

[4jasontv]

Excessive hand washing drys your skin. Also, seatbelts wrinkle shirts and turn signals distract other drivers.

 

[drpaul50]

Does this fix the excessive time it takes for the screen to come on when raising the watch to look at the time or notifications? Its a good 2 to 3 seconds. Sometimes I have to turn my wrist twice to get the screen to come on.

 

[jumia]

Available for real this time 😂

 

[JimmyBanks6]

Does this fix the excessive time it takes for the screen to come on when raising the watch to look at the time or notifications? Its a good 2 to 3 seconds. Sometimes I have to turn my wrist twice to get the screen to come on.

Have you reported the issue to Apple?

 

[neoelectronaut]

The handwashing timer has been really neat.

 

[canhaz]

Having never owned a Apple Watch, please forgive me if this is a dumb question.

If one uses their watch during the day, and charge at night (as is the norm from what I've read). Then how is it going to track your sleep, if its charging?

 

[dvdlovr24]

I haven't owned a Apple Watch before. So, please forgive me is if this is a dumb question. But if you use the watch during the day, as everyone does, and charge at night. How is it going to track your sleep, if its charging?

I charge mine for about 2 hours before I go to bed. It goes from around 20% to 100% in that time.

 

[BSG75]

Having never owned a Apple Watch, please forgive me if this is a dumb question.

If one uses their watch during the day, and charge at night (as is the norm from what I've read). Then how is it going to track your sleep, if its charging?

Some people charge their watch while getting ready in the morning.

I usually charge my Series 5 in the evening before going to bed. When I wake up in the morning, it’s charged around 85% and lasts through the day. When I charge it in the evening, it’s around 25-30%. While it’s charging, I put on one of my mechanical watches.

Edited to add: I’m on WatchOS 7 public beta.

 

[ericg301]

Having never owned a Apple Watch, please forgive me if this is a dumb question.

If one uses their watch during the day, and charge at night (as is the norm from what I've read). Then how is it going to track your sleep, if its charging?

charge it an hour in the morning while
You get ready for the day and an hour in the evening while you get ready for bed. It will rarely drop under 70%

 

[testcard]

Having never owned a Apple Watch, please forgive me if this is a dumb question.

If one uses their watch during the day, and charge at night (as is the norm from what I've read). Then how is it going to track your sleep, if its charging?

If you have set a bedtime routine with sleep tracking, you’ll be notified if there’s insufficient charge to get through the night.
“You'll get a notification if the battery is below 30 percent before going to bed, so you can make sure your Apple Watch has enough juice to last through the night.”

 

[canhaz]

If you have set a bedtime routine with sleep tracking, you’ll be notified if there’s insufficient charge to get through the night.
“You'll get a notification if the battery is below 30 percent before going to bed, so you can make sure your Apple Watch has enough juice to last through the night.”

Good to know, thanks. Probably going wait for the Series 6 to drop, before making a decision. Hopefully the 6 will have great battery life like the 4.

It does give me mild anxiety having to worry about managing another device. Have enough electronic babies to feed every day 😂

 

[testcard]

Good to know, thanks. Probably going wait for the Series 6 to drop, before making a decision. Hopefully the 6 will have great battery life like the 4.

It does give me mild anxiety having to worry about managing another device. Have enough electronic babies to feed every day 😂

More info here:

watchOS 7: Everything We Know | MacRumors

watchOS 7 introduces watch face sharing, sleep tracking capabilities, handwashing tracking, Siri translation, Shortcuts, and more.

www.macrumors.com

 

[PSeg90]

Having never owned a Apple Watch, please forgive me if this is a dumb question.

If one uses their watch during the day, and charge at night (as is the norm from what I've read). Then how is it going to track your sleep, if its charging?

I charge mine whenever I take my shower. Just 20 minutes gets me 50% more battery on my Apple Watch series 4.

 

[twistedpixel8]

So none of the new faces are available for Series 3? Lame.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Build number is (18R5368d)

 

[risenphoenixkai]

Like the other betas before it, this one insists it needs over 3 GB of available space to install on my Apple Watch Series 3, which even with only 8 apps, 100 photos, and no music has only 1.4 GB of space available. This despite the actual download of the beta only being 930 MB or so in size.

Apple appears either unwilling or unable to make this beta installable on Series 3 watches without unpairing and re-pairing first, so no thanks.

 

[stumpapi]

Apple today seeded the third public beta of an upcoming watchOS 7 update to public beta testers, one week after seeding the second public beta and just a few days after seeding a new beta to developers.

The watchOS 7 update can be downloaded after installing the proper profile from Apple's Public Beta website. watchOS 7 should not be installed on a primary device as it is still an early beta and there could be bugs, plus there is no way to downgrade back to watchOS 6.

watchOS 7 is a major update that introduces a new Sleep Tracking feature for the Apple Watch, which is designed to measure how long you're asleep as you wear the Apple Watch while sleeping.

It comes along with a Wind Down feature that helps you establish a bedtime routine to make it easier to fall asleep at night, as well as a Sleep Mode that turns on Do Not Disturb and dims the Apple Watch display.

The Apple Watch can also wake you up with haptic vibrations, providing a weather report in the morning as well as info on battery life so you can get your day started.

Along with these sleep tracking features, the Apple Watch has automatic handwashing detection that listens for the sound of running water and handwashing motions and then starts a 20-second timer so you can make sure you're washing your hands for the appropriate amount of time.

There's a new watch Face Sharing feature that lets you share watch faces with others and install new watch faces from the App Store, Messages, Mail, websites, and more.

There's a new Chronograph Pro face with tachymeter, updates to complications, and new workout options in the newly renamed Fitness app, which was previously the Activity app.

The Maps app now supports directions for cyclists, Siri provides spoken translations, and there's a Shortcuts app on the Apple Watch. For more on what's new in watcOS 7, make sure to check out our watchOS 7 roundup.

watchOS 7 is limited to the Apple Watch Series 3, Series 4, and Series 5 models, and is not compatible with the Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Third Public Beta of watchOS 7 to Public Beta Testers

Interesting it just did the OTA update and now it’s stuck on Apple Logo and won’t boot. I will miss it.

 

[jicon]

Like the other betas before it, this one insists it needs over 3 GB of available space to install on my Apple Watch Series 3, which even with only 8 apps, 100 photos, and no music has only 1.4 GB of space available. This despite the actual download of the beta only being 930 MB or so in size.

Apple appears either unwilling or unable to make this beta installable on Series 3 watches without unpairing and re-pairing first, so no thanks.

For the first goaround... yes. I had that issue with the first PB. It sucked. The next two have succeeded with less than 3GB available space. Last update today was only 200MB in size.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I believe my beta download was 181 MB and it took quite a while to unpack and install.

 

[Ntombi]

Having never owned a Apple Watch, please forgive me if this is a dumb question.

If one uses their watch during the day, and charge at night (as is the norm from what I've read). Then how is it going to track your sleep, if its charging?

I got my Watch specifically for Fall Detection, so I wear it while sleeping and in the shower. That means I had to figure out how to charge it outside of those typical times.

Turns out, it charges pretty quickly, so I charge it when I know I’m going to be sitting and reading (or watching TV) for an hour or so. Doing that at some point during the day has worked perfectly for me, and I think I’ve run out of battery maybe twice in the almost two years I’ve had the Series 4.

I’ve also had the public beta since it was released, and been fine keeping to my routine.

I have a friend who keeps her charger at her desk, and charges her series 4 when she starts checking work e-mail first thing in the morning. Connecting it to a work routine makes her less likely to forget to charge it.

 

[m3coolpix]

Having never owned a Apple Watch, please forgive me if this is a dumb question.

If one uses their watch during the day, and charge at night (as is the norm from what I've read). Then how is it going to track your sleep, if its charging?

I have an AW Series 4 w/cellular. Gonna give a lot of detail, as I started with the same questions....I bought specifically for the options of notifications on wrist (weather, calls, messages mainly), and but equally for sleep/exercise tracking. Self employed workaholic.

Sleep tracking has definitely helped my world, it's like a little character on my shoulder saying 'get to bed'....and a very gentle way to wake up (no blaring alarm) when you use only the vibration feature to wake you up. While I don't obsess over the sleep tracking info, it does help just as a reminder that extra sleep really helps feeling better the next day. An added benefit is the control features for music playing. Did have a couple smart watches before, battery life always the concern. Previous to the AW 4 was a Garmin Fenix 5 series, it had 5-7 days of battery life, but was e-ink technology display.....knew the AW would be less than the Garmin...just some background.

For the past almost 2 years....I'll get ~36 hour battery life pretty easily, just about 30 hours on the Apple Watch beta 7 software. Not bad for the added features over the Garmin. I do turn off a lot of notifications that don't need to go to my wrist, don't need to interrupt me ever, it can get pretty granular with what you want to mirror from your iPhone. Added apps are very minimal too, just Deezer, Dark Sky, Autosleep and Autowake. My routine is charging in the morning while showering and getting ready, goes from ~30% or higher to full.

Lots of other great responses about others charging routines as well.

 

[Tranel]

Unfortunately the Adidas Runtastic Running app still does not work on my Watch since PB2 in Watch only mode.

 

[windywalks]

Good to know, thanks. Probably going wait for the Series 6 to drop, before making a decision. Hopefully the 6 will have great battery life like the 4.

The 4 has the same battery life as the 5 if you turn off the always on display feature.
Since 3D Touch has been killed off I'm sure they'll go for a bigger battery for the Series 6.

 

[ZacksWorld]

Having never owned a Apple Watch, please forgive me if this is a dumb question.

If one uses their watch during the day, and charge at night (as is the norm from what I've read). Then how is it going to track your sleep, if its charging?

In addition to what other people said here about this, it can be worth the $20-$30 to pick up a couple of third-party watch chargers and put them in your house where you can grab a quick 10-15 minutes of charging a couple times a day. For example, you can put one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen, so when you jump in the shower you get some charge, and if you're cooking / eating / doing the dishes you can grab some more charge – this should keep the watch charged for a virtually infinite time, with pretty low friction in your life...