Today's was very targeted, basically for the new AirTags. watchOS 26.3 should drop in the very near future, maybe two weeks? We'll see about that one. (But I'm not holding my breath.)
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
watchOS 26 — Dismissing a message does not mark it "read"
- Thread starter PotentPeas
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Agreed. There were unspecified "bug fixes" supposedly also included in this update. I'm not expecting Apple to ever fix it at this point, but I'll always be checking now after every update.
Sad. Once I get it installed I’ll file another feedback. It’s taking forever. Because Wi-Fi connectivity seems to be broken with watchOS 26.2.1.
Doing this one more time. I'm installing the watchOS 26.4 RC to check the status of this issue. ...It requires installing the iOS 26.4 RC first, so, it'll take a little bit of time to get everything settled.
This I think is the last chance for Apple to address this. For the past few years, the mid-year X.4 RCs tend to carry more changes than the others. And after this time, they move pretty much to "maintenance mode" for the OS as attention shifts to the next one ahead of WWDC. So, if they haven't fixed this in 26.4, I am not hopeful for a fix before watchOS 27 (if it even happens then). And I'm not riding the watchOS 27 beta train (nor probably even updating to it right at launch), so someone else will have to check!
This I think is the last chance for Apple to address this. For the past few years, the mid-year X.4 RCs tend to carry more changes than the others. And after this time, they move pretty much to "maintenance mode" for the OS as attention shifts to the next one ahead of WWDC. So, if they haven't fixed this in 26.4, I am not hopeful for a fix before watchOS 27 (if it even happens then). And I'm not riding the watchOS 27 beta train (nor probably even updating to it right at launch), so someone else will have to check!
Fingers crossed.
I continue to submit feedback, knowing that it almost certainly gets ignored because Apple chose to make this unintuitive UX change that nobody asked for, and there's no acknowledgement or sign that they intend to do what their customers want despite numerous threads online here and elsewhere want it reverted.
I have a feeling that at this point, our next best chance that they'll reconsider and implement a reversal of this will be with watchOS 27.0.
No go. Same behavior on 26.4; "pull down to dismiss" doesn't mark a message as read.
I'm really used to scrolling down to hit the "Dismiss" button at this point. :-\
I'm really used to scrolling down to hit the "Dismiss" button at this point. :-\
I've lurked on this page for some time hoping to see this change back. But as I've thought about it, this parallels a change that happened to the iPhone some years back (I would not even be sure what iOS we're talking about). It used to be you could swipe a text message off your Lock Screen and it would mark it as read. They took that away and made you deep press for the preview to get the same behaviour.
Mostly Apple wants us to work harder to read texts...
Mostly Apple wants us to work harder to read texts...
I thought about that change a few years ago. It also annoyed me to no end, but long-pressing to mark read isn't as onerous as losing the swipe gesture on Apple Watch. Especially since most messages were coming to my Apple Watch first.
Now that they've ruined convenience for some unknown reason that nobody asked for, I'm more adamant about trying to do whatever limited efforts I can to make Apple fix it. I raise a feedback item with every watchOS release now outlining the issue, pointing out that it is an unexpected and undesired behavior, and was previously working correctly prior to watchOS 26.
Well. watchOS 27 drops support for Apple Watch Series 6, 7, 8, and 9. Guess I can't try the watchOS 27 beta even if I wanted to.
OK, looks like this might be an error. All watchOS 26 supported models are still supported with watchOS 27. The list that has been running around is the list of watches that support the new Siri AI.
Also, it looks like someone got it to install on Series 9. And in the Reddit thread, a user reports seeing the update available on Series 8 after switching to beta channel.
Also, it looks like someone got it to install on Series 9. And in the Reddit thread, a user reports seeing the update available on Series 8 after switching to beta channel.
I'm getting caught up on the MR article comments now, too. This is a little bit of a relief, but I'll feel better if/when Apple makes it official.
I'm already looking at quite a few Apple TVs that will need replaced this fall on top of likely seeing my 1st gen HomePods go out of support, too. I know they're older hardware than a 2.5 year old watch, but it makes what was looking to be a very expensive September slightly less nauseating.
Now I'm curious if the S8 gets the watchOS 27 beta, too. I have an S8 that I only use for sleep tracking. I could reasonably see them drawing the line at the S8 because it runs the 32-bit CPU architecture.
I'm also hoping somebody who has access to the beta can check on the "dismiss" issue and report back if there's any hope that this is getting fixed in watchOS 27.0. Fixing this bug in watchOS 27 would seriously make me reconsider getting a new Apple Watch this fall to get the update, if that's what it takes.
I edited the post after. A Reddit user reported seeing the watchOS 27 update available on a Series 8 after switching to beta channel.
Going off topic, did you find a tvOS 27 support list somewhere? The one article I can find indicates that there has been no devices dropped, but I don't necessarily trust that.
I found this screenshot on a reddit post. The person said in a comment that the screenshot came from the beta profiles site, so it may be legit.
I also read elsewhere that at least a few people with the 4th gen (1080p) model and the 1st gen 4K model have gotten the tvOS 27 beta to show up on their devices. So it looks promising that there may still be support for those models.
Things still shaking out on the watch. It's now looking like Series 9 is supported but Series 8 and older are not, so I still might be in the market for a new watch.