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Apple Seeds watchOS 27 Beta 3 to Developers

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Apple today seeded the third beta of watchOS 27 to developers, with the update coming two weeks after the launch of the second beta.

watchos-27.jpg

The beta can be downloaded through the Watch app on the iPhone with a free developer account. The Apple Watch will need to be on the charger, connected to Wi-Fi, and have a battery level of 50 percent or above for new software to be installed. The beta is available for all Apple Watch models compatible with watchOS 27 except for the Apple Watch Ultra 3.

watchOS 27 will include Siri AI, the smarter, more capable version of Siri. Siri can hold back-and-forth conversations, plus it has access to general world knowledge and your personal data to answer questions and find information. Siri AI on Apple Watch requires an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, including the iPhone 15 Pro and later.

There's a new Dynamic app grid that highlights Siri suggested apps, and more intuitive Smart Stack Suggestions. You can find your parked car, see pinned messages, get noise alerts, and view identity and transit cards.

Liquid Glass has been updated to improve legibility, and Workout Buddy works on the Apple Watch even when an iPhone isn't nearby. Workout Buddy also gains new metrics like progressive increases to distance, pace, or duration. Apple added a new all-in-one Find My app with support for Precision Finding, and there are performance optimizations that improve battery life.

More on what's new in watchOS 27 is available in our watchOS 27 roundup.


Article Link: Apple Seeds watchOS 27 Beta 3 to Developers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/06/apple-seeds-watchos-27-beta-3/
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Beta 1 had some serious battery drain issues that were solved in Beta 2, but Beta 2 had some issues for me where gestures just stopped working after a while, hope that's solved with this one.
 
Does it have Siri AI? I bet its insanely slow on the watch and is bad at sending text messages. This is one device I'm not excited to update as sending text with Siri AI has been bad. Everything else is neat though, but I need my watch to send messages effectively with the old Siri.
 
I've found the MacOS and iOS DB to be pretty reliable (there was a weird appstore bug in the DB, but nothing too extreme). But I will not put anything on my watch until it is PB1 at least.
 
If your AWU can run watchOS 27 and thus get Siri AI, but your iPhone 14 Pro can't get Siri AI, will Siri AI work on the Watch?
 
DribbleCastle said:
Does it have Siri AI? I bet its insanely slow on the watch and is bad at sending text messages. This is one device I'm not excited to update as sending text with Siri AI has been bad. Everything else is neat though, but I need my watch to send messages effectively with the old Siri.
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For those asking, which i know many are.

9to5mac.com

watchOS 27 beta 3 includes upgraded Siri AI experience and dedicated Siri app - 9to5Mac

Apple’s upgraded Siri AI experience and the standalone Siri app have arrived on the Apple Watch with today’s watchOS 27...
9to5mac.com 9to5mac.com
 
ItsASpider said:
but Beta 2 had some issues for me where gestures just stopped working after a while, hope that's solved with this one.
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Me too - wrist flick gesture is the main one I use for dismissing notifications and on beta 2 it seemed to give up the ghost within a few hours of a restart and needed another restart to get it working again on my series 10
 
Hopefully, B3 is better than B2 this time because B2 was a disaster on the Ultra 3 because I encountered more bugs than B1. Worst being the flick to dismiss being broken in B2 (flawless in B1) being the most annoying, as I use that a lot.
 
Downloaded beta 3 (850 MB) on my Series 9. There are still a couple of Siri setup screens to go through first before I can use it, just like with the phone.
update.png.PNG
setup.png.PNG
 
While Siri is still setting up, I asked it a world knowledge question: When is the soccer match today?

Siri replied that there are many matches and noted that both the World Cup and Sweden's first league are in action today. I chose the World Cup, for which Siri gave the USA-BEL match. I then asked what would happen to the winner, and Siri responded with this (exchange captured on the phone's app despite me asking on the watch).
schedule.png.JPEG

As a pretty good bar trivia player, I am pleased by this result. Direct and to the point, significantly better than the prior versions.
 
DribbleCastle said:
Does it have Siri AI? I bet its insanely slow on the watch and is bad at sending text messages. This is one device I'm not excited to update as sending text with Siri AI has been bad. Everything else is neat though, but I need my watch to send messages effectively with the old Siri.
Click to expand...
And drains the battery in less than half a day
 
Still supremely disappointed that WatchOS 27 won't be available on the Ultra 1. Ridiculously short support. Less than 4 years.
 
DribbleCastle said:
Does it have Siri AI? I bet its insanely slow on the watch and is bad at sending text messages. This is one device I'm not excited to update as sending text with Siri AI has been bad. Everything else is neat though, but I need my watch to send messages effectively with the old Siri.
Click to expand...
It does, but from my experience, it is borderline unusable right now

I've tried it for the simplest of things like doing home controls, setting a timer, etc etc, and it'll just sit there for about a minute and then come back with either "Something went wrong. Please try again." or something saying that it couldn't reach my local device

Just submitted feedback mentioning that, and I suggest you do the same if you haven't yet

Then again, Siri AI in iOS 27 developer beta 1 was just as bad too, but ever since beta 2 now it's been so much better; so by that logic, perhaps a week from today when they unveil beta 4, it'll be some kind of usable again
 
Joe Mac User said:
If your AWU can run watchOS 27 and thus get Siri AI, but your iPhone 14 Pro can't get Siri AI, will Siri AI work on the Watch?
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Nope, in order to get Siri AI to work, it needs to be connected to an Apple Intelligence supported iPhone (15 Pro and up), so your 14 Pro won't allow Siri AI to work on the watch
 
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Pug72 said:
Siri won't set a timer.
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Yeah, I'm finding mine to be doing the same now too

It's so unusable right now that I'm not even bothering

Hopefully beta 4 next week makes it some kind of usuable because the fact that you can't even use it right now to do simple things like setting a timer is kind of annoying
 
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