Apple Seeds Second Beta of watchOS 8.6 to Developers

Tuesday April 19, 2022 10:03 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 8.6 beta to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming two weeks after the release of the first beta.

watchOS 8 on Apple Watch feature
To install ‌‌‌watchOS 8‌‌‌.6, developers will need to download the configuration profile from the Apple Developer Center. Once installed, ‌‌‌watchOS 8.6 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General > Software update.

To update to new software, an Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery life, it must be placed on the charger, and it needs to be in range of the ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌.

We don't yet know what's included in the watchOS 8.6 update, and no new features have been discovered in the beta so far.

Related Roundups: watchOS 26, watchOS 27

Related Forum: Apple Watch

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Top Rated Comments

twocents

59 months ago

Apparently the first watchOS version shipped with the original Apple Watch was based on iOS 8.2 or something so they didn’t reuse that version number to avoid confusion. I forget exactly, but yeah I just looked it up and watchOS 1.0 was indeed based on iOS 8.2 so it’s probably something along those lines.

Kind of a fun, random, and interesting Apple fact. ;):apple:

Nice catch! Watch has really matured since those days..

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

sorgo †

59 months ago

Whatever happened to watchOS 8.2?

Apparently the first watchOS version shipped with the original Apple Watch was based on iOS 8.2 or something so they didn’t reuse that version number to avoid confusion. I forget exactly, but yeah I just looked it up and watchOS 1.0 was indeed based on iOS 8.2 so it’s probably something along those lines.

Kind of a fun, random, and interesting Apple fact. ;):apple:

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

tridley68

59 months ago

This is the most updates for an iOS that I have ever seen.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Davelfc

59 months ago

Rather than this ridiculous rush to bring out a new version of the operating system, just provide updates and improvements each month. What we end up with is an ok operating system that has taken almost a year to iron out issues, then being replaced with a new one with a load more bugs.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)