Hands On With Apple's WatchOS 9 Beta: New Fitness Features Stand Out
WatchOS 9 will deliver several new features to the Apple Watch when it is released to the public later this year, including wrist-based running power measurements, heart rate zone data, a Medications app to help you manage your prescriptions, sleep stage tracking, and more.
The next-generation smartwatch operating system won't officially launch until the fall (likely September or October) but, if you're brave, you can try it out right now. Developers have had access to the software since June, but Apple recently released the first public beta for watchOS 9; I was eager to check it out.
The beta software is free to download on the Apple Watch Series 4 and later. Yes, that means Series 3 users are left out of the watchOS 9 party. To get the upgrade, you need to pair your Apple Watch with an iPhone 8 or newer or a second-generation iPhone SE running the iOS 16 public beta.
Before you go for it, just know that you can't restore your Apple Watch software to an older version once you install the public beta. As a result, you might encounter bugs until Apple irons them out for the public release. The good news is that I haven't encountered any major performance issues—so far.
Getting the public beta up and running on my Apple Watch Series 7 took more than two hours. Though that might seem long, the download and installation process is easy and I didn't encounter any snags. You first need to enroll your iPhone in the iOS 16 beta program and install it on your handset. On my iPhone 12 Pro Max, this step alone took around 70 minutes. Once that's complete, you can enroll your Apple Watch in the beta software program, then download and install watchOS 9(Opens in a new window) through your iOS 16-enabled iPhone.
When the software
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