Apple today released watchOS 10.4, the fourth update to the watchOS 10 operating system that was released in September. watchOS 10.4 comes over a month after watchOS 10.3, a minor update that brought a new watch face.
watchOS 10.4 can be downloaded for free through the Apple Watch app on an iPhone running iOS 17 or later by opening it up and going to General & Software Update. To install the new software, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery and it needs to be placed on a charger.
watchOS 10.4 adds support for new emoji characters that were also added to the iPhone, including lime, edible brown mushroom, phoenix, broken chain, shaking head vertically (as in a "yes" nod), and shaking head horizontally (a "no" head shake).
There is also a Setting to disable the Double Tap feature on Apple Watch when using Vision Pro, and an option to double tap to show an expanded notification. Apple also included a fix for a bug that could cause some users to experience "ghost touches" on the display, a problem that was affecting the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2.
Apple's release notes for the update are below:
watchOS 10.4 includes new features, improvements, and bug fixes, including:
- Tap to Show Full Notification setting now allows you to double tap to expand the notification
- Using Apple Pay with Confirm with AssistiveTouch will require a passcode for additional security and will not support double clicking the side button
- Resolves an issue that causes some users to experience false touches on the display
- Fixes an issue that prevents contacts from syncing to Apple Watch for some usersFor information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
More on the features that have been added in watchOS 10 to date can be found in our dedicated roundup.
