WatchOS 11 Beta Thread

[LarryJoe33]

Alright Guinea Pigs, time to move off my 10 beta thread and dive into 11 Beta if you are adventurous. Post up anything and everything. Downloading now, my only worry - please don't mess up my perfect handoff to Airpod's!

As Tom Brady would say LFG!!!! Let's consolidate here.

 

[honglong1976]

I have a series 6. I wonder if the new fitness apps are supported (training loads and vitals).

 

[trollkatt]

Any brave soul willing to test Oceanic+? That's really the only thing I truly care about 😂

 

[john991]

I have Apple Watch 8 and my wrist temperature didn’t register since running watchOS 17…

Anyone else notice this?

 

[aberrero]

Any brave soul willing to test Oceanic+? That's really the only thing I truly care about 😂

I’m going diving in a month lol. I’ll let you know. Actually it’s making me wonder if I should test it before getting in the water.

 

[aberrero]

Pretty sure this is new. The Apple Watch icon on my phone now shows the outline of my AW Ultra.

Edit: or am I just dumb? I swear it looked like an Ultra. Now I’m not sure anymore.

 

[rwilliams]

I have an Ultra 2 and a Series 6. For the first time that I can remember, the Series 6 is now doing optimized battery charging. I've had it for years and it would always charge to 100%.

 

[zach471]

Subscribing to see how the mapping navigation on hikes will work. I live fairly close to Shenandoah NP and hike there with some regularity. As it stands, you have to zoom WAY in on Maps to see the trails, which is going to make tracing routes very difficult. So, just want to see the first person to try it!

 

[dallison13]

Navigation and maps is super clunky.
Basically, you can download offline maps to your watch through maps now. But, there is no current integration with the workouts app that I have found yet. They work as two different independent silo'd apps. You can create your own routes and save them in a folder in maps called "Routes". Once you click on them, it goes into the typical Apple Maps navigation experience as if you were walking to a location, any time before. It's fine, but nothing new, and certainly not integrated.
Apple Maps team doesn't seem to be talking to Apple Workouts team.
There is lots of room for improvement at this point.

But, we do have offline maps. So that is a start! Some details are just plain wrong, like elevations of routes, but I am sure those things will be fixed in time.

 

[rwilliams]

Subscribing to see how the mapping navigation on hikes will work. I live fairly close to Shenandoah NP and hike there with some regularity. As it stands, you have to zoom WAY in on Maps to see the trails, which is going to make tracing routes very difficult. So, just want to see the first person to try it!

I tried playing with it last night and it was frustrating. As you said, you have to zoom way in just to see the trails, and creating your own route works fine, but the overall experience is not good right now. If I search for a hiking trail, the result should show you the park with the trail already zoomed in on and highlighted.

For now, I'd rather continue exporting trails from AllTrails into other apps like Footpath or WorkOutdoors. Hopefully Apple improves this in later betas.

 

[honglong1976]

I have an Ultra 2 and a Series 6. For the first time that I can remember, the Series 6 is now doing optimized battery charging. I've had it for years and it would always charge to 100%.

You have WatchOS 11 installed on Series 6? How is it? Are the training apps there? Thanka

 

[gwscoll]

running pretty smooth, did notice a new option for automatically opening audio apps where it will just show them in the Smart Stack instead of actually opening the app. Also updated notification animation and ability to scroll down from watch face with Digital Crown to access Notification Center. Live activities are nice, and it mirrors live activities from iPhone even with third party apps

 

[Broken Hope]

There's actually selectable ring and text tones, finally.

 

[Broken Hope]

Pretty sure this is new. The Apple Watch icon on my phone now shows the outline of my AW Ultra.

Edit: or am I just dumb? I swear it looked like an Ultra. Now I’m not sure anymore.

The icon is definitely different from iOS 17.

 

[rwilliams]

You have WatchOS 11 installed on Series 6? How is it? Are the training apps there? Thanka

It runs well and yes, the training apps are there

 

[kevigrif]

Not strictly WatchOS related, but I'm very interested to see the updated Workout app/Fitness+, Vitals, Training Load, and Health updates, etc.

 

[xDKP]

Navigation and maps is super clunky.
Basically, you can download offline maps to your watch through maps now. But, there is no current integration with the workouts app that I have found yet. They work as two different independent silo'd apps. You can create your own routes and save them in a folder in maps called "Routes". Once you click on them, it goes into the typical Apple Maps navigation experience as if you were walking to a location, any time before. It's fine, but nothing new, and certainly not integrated.
Apple Maps team doesn't seem to be talking to Apple Workouts team.
There is lots of room for improvement at this point.

But, we do have offline maps. So that is a start! Some details are just plain wrong, like elevations of routes, but I am sure those things will be fixed in time.

Damn this seems to be a massive missed opportunity! Besides smaller things like editing custom runs on my iPhone and pushing it to the watch, mapping was one of my biggest requests!

Visiting new cities and areas on holiday would be amazing with some running navigation

 

[NME42]

Visiting new cities and areas on holiday would be amazing with some running navigation

Footpath does an excellent job already. Their subscription model is very fair, you can subscribe for one month, 3€ or so.
Was very happy with it.

 

[rwilliams]

Footpath does an excellent job already. Their subscription model is very fair, you can subscribe for one month, 3€ or so.
Was very happy with it.

That's what I use.

 

[stockcerts]

I've got my developer beta selected for Watch OS 11, but the software update is not available to me. I've restarted my iPhone and watch, but no luck. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thank you!

 

[Howard2k]

Any feedback on battery implications?

 

[eboychik]

Watch on charger not charging. just offers me low power mode. Anyone know how to fix this?

 

[as4life]

How is it running for everyone so far?

 

[LarryJoe33]

Happy to see the brave ones dive in on Beata 1 to share the misery of early adopters.

I loaded up both iOS 18 and watchOS 11 on my 15 Pro Max and Ultra. I did first thing this morning and then hit the golf course. I fully expected both devices to be dead from battery drain at the end of the day. Pleasantly surprised to see no drain beyond normal and was also pleasantly surprised to see no Maps issues getting to the course. Jumping in on beta 1 usually drains the battery and cripple me with maps. Car Play worked well too.

We will see. So far both look and feel the same as the previous versions.

 

[trollkatt]

I’m going diving in a month lol. I’ll let you know. Actually it’s making me wonder if I should test it before getting in the water.

Thanks! Yes, do test it beforehand. Don't risk DCS.
Certainly carry an extra dive computer around if you plan on running the beta. For now I don't dare update the Watch because I've had so, so, so many issues with Oceanic+ without running beta software. I'm in Indonesia which means no official Apple Store to contact in case I need a downgrade, and I paid for the yearly Oceanic+ subscription 😅