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Apple Seeds watchOS 27 Beta 4 to Developers

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Apple today seeded the fourth beta of watchOS 27 to developers, with the update coming two weeks after the launch of the third 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 gains 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 4 to Developers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/20/apple-seeds-watchos-27-beta-4/
MacRumors said:
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.
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And here I was hoping to get a toggle for the Smart Stack so I can finally turn it off, I do not use it and do not find it helpful in my use case, others do, and that's fine, just now it seems it gets more shoved down my throat and I really do not need Siri to suggest apps for me ...
 
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I really hope this fixes the step count issue I’m seeing. Multiple times I’ll look at my step count and it will display one number (always a lower number than what Pedometer++ says), let’s say 8,560 and then an hour or more later I’ll go back and it will change to 6,500. Driving me nuts.
 
Got series 9 on beta 3 if I ask it to set a timer with Siri it tells me that app isn’t installed , Siri has been mostly useless on my watch here’s hoping for an improvement and Siri responses still seem super loud .
 
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Been stuck trying to check for the update for my AW series 11 and also iPhone 16

Anyone else?

I get that the servers may be bogged down, but come on, it's been 2 hours now since the update has been out
 
Downloading now, my UW2 battery has been pitiful since watchOS27. I am getting maybe 24-30 hours a charge since updating and my battery health is 85%.
 
Beta 3 was really bad for me on my AW11. Siri was super slow and even when it worked (which was rare) it would hang and wouldn't work with a second request.
 
Scotty_Trees said:
Anyone else on the iOS 27 Public Beta and getting quite massive battery drain on your phone and watch?
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Yes, to both.

In my case, I suspect one of the culprits on my s11 was that Siri AI upload. Took a solid week to get past the Siri Upload in Progress screen. 15-minutes ago, I tapped the Siri icon and was met with a Conversations header for the first time. Interested to see if my s11 battery drain returns to something more "normal." And here's hoping that process can be a bit smoother quicker come GM.
 
ryanmp said:
Such a shame, was an amazing feature I use almost every day!
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Sadly I suspect Apple’s usage metrics probably put you into a very small minority where it has been decided that it is more trouble than it is worth to maintain it.

Personally I’ve never used it and had completely forgotten it existed until the news of its demise in watchOS 27, which may be part of the wider problem.
 
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DaveMcM76 said:
Sadly I suspect Apple’s usage metrics probably put you into a very small minority where it has been decided that it is more trouble than it is worth to maintain it.

Personally I’ve never used it and had completely forgotten it existed until the news of its demise in watchOS 27, which may be part of the wider problem.
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Yea I suspect you are right! I live in a 4 story house, and walkie talkie has been the go to for intra-house communications.
 
Still trying to update my watch, takes forever to even get the update to show on my Watch App, really wish apple would address the issue, same with the Airpod Updates
 
The Clear All button for notifications still intermittently fails to respond to being tapped on until you dismiss the notifications by swiping up and swipe them down again. I think this has been happening since beta 1, definitely since beta 2.
 
watchOS 27b4 does not fix a bug introduced in 27b3 that affects some Apple Watch users (including me) where Siri requests that require "device knowledge" (setting a timer, opening an app, interacting with HomeKit devices, music playback, etc) all fail.

I guess it's another week of waiting for them to hopefully fix this in the next beta.
 
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