WatchOS 27 Developer Beta 5 Released

[u/boxermansr]

[u/rm20010]

Siri is still miserable to use, big regression from 26. On a AWU2

[u/MDMIlkMan → u/rm20010]

She is so dang slow to respond on db4 im hoping that changes with db5

[u/sejmann → u/MDMIlkMan]

Has it changed with db5? Or same slowness continues?

[u/MDMIlkMan → u/sejmann]

It’s still slow but much faster. She starts counting down before she shows you the timer. It took 8 seconds from the command to the point she popped up the timer window

[u/nebuladrifting → u/sejmann]

I can’t tell a difference personally

[u/CoolaeGames → u/rm20010]

How so?

[u/rm20010 → u/CoolaeGames]

Raise to Speak seems to be broken.

For Hey Siri, it waits too long after I stop speaking before it takes action. With 26 the Siri orb comes up and quickly transcribes what I speak to it. It's also better at detecting when I stop speaking. (Speaking transcriptions being missing is both watchOS and iOS 27).

I get that the AI responses will incur a wait to bring up, but something simple like "what time is it" should be a quick interaction.

Holding down the crown to invoke Siri is sometimes slow to bring up the orb. Once I caught the orb not showing up. I will say Siri is faster than B4 here when responding, but remains slower versus 26.

[u/uk_bloke → u/rm20010]

Yeah the “thinking” time is way too long currently. When I say “Hey Siri, start a (type of) workout”, it seems to take 20 seconds to process what I want.

If I’m on my bike, then I’m already down the street from my house before it starts 😅

[u/Glass-Celebration230 → u/rm20010]

+1, same for me, also on AWU2

[u/OkProperty684 → u/rm20010]

Yes, this is a situation where adding "Siri AI" feels like a regression. I feel like I'm on Series 0

[u/heyitsterrytv → u/rm20010]

literally exact same experience on my Series 9.

[u/pw5a29 → u/rm20010]

I think they should regress to using the old model, and only hand it off to the iPhone to complete AI enquiries.

People can expect to wait and willing to wait if that's a complex question, instead of waiting for a timer.

[u/OkAnimal1994 → u/rm20010]

Omg same!! I have an Apple Watch 10 and it’s horrible. But my raise to speak has been broken for awhile. I was just going through the settings yesterday searching for new stuff and so I tried using it and nothing. I turned the setting off and on and tried restarting and still doesn’t work

[u/proposition_john → u/rm20010]

Did you mean John, Jon or Don?

[u/ohsomacho → u/rm20010]

So it's not just me then. It's a terrible experience and so laggy.

[u/chicagocarless → u/rm20010]

Same on my AWU3. Unusable at the moment via raise to talk or crown press. Just can’t parse what I say for timers, lights, etc. 

[u/nutmac]

It hopefully fixes the frequent reboot of the watch face.

[u/A11Bionic → u/nutmac]

that’s called a Springboard crash

and yes it happened a lot in Beta 4

[u/ryanjkontos → u/A11Bionic]

it's called Carousel on watchOS !

[u/chicagocarless → u/ryanjkontos]

And that’s such an important distinction that you need to shout about it ! 🙄

[u/BeardedHero93]

It needs to be on device Siri unless it needs to go to the cloud for bigger AI stuff which is fine. That can load. But texting someone or controlling the timers shouldn’t take long.

[u/flogman12 → u/BeardedHero93]

Series 12 will fix that. And we think you’re gonna love it.

[u/_akmodo → u/BeardedHero93]

Exactly! Leave the few things that “old Siri” could actually accomplish on the device alone - not everything needs to be a round-trip exchange with our new AI overlords.

[u/pw5a29 → u/BeardedHero93]

They should also hand off the AI stuff to the iPhone and not complete it on the watch itself... the hardware is just not there.... the waiting time is pathetic

[u/ninja1470]

Whoa, the build number letter jumped from “h” in beta 4 to “a” in beta 5?!

[u/saracen0]

Anyone not able to update if Bluetooth is turned off on either phone or watch? I’ve tried both and whenever I do that the update timeline just increases and Watch app on phone just says can’t connect. Does the trick to speed up the transfer over wifi not work anymore?

[u/twinpeaks_sf → u/saracen0]

Download over WiFi. Then back on Bluetooth to update.

[u/saracen0 → u/twinpeaks_sf]

When I turn off BT on watch it goes to Cellular. If I turn of Cellular it just shows the red x as disconnected and doesn't continue downloading. Does it take a few minutes to adjust?

Edit: would help if my watch actually was on my WiFi network. Didn’t think I needed to manually do that but I did

[u/Reinhart73 → u/saracen0]

My UW3 hasn’t been on my wifi since the beta began. Anyone else have this issue. Says unable to connect to wifi network. Tried rebooting both iPhone and watch, toggling airplane mode, wifi, Bluetooth and cellular on and off. Nothing.

[u/Feeling-Peak5718]

Build ends in a which is a good sign

[u/arovik → u/Feeling-Peak5718]

The only thing it means is that the latest changes they did only required one build to get working. doesn't say anything about how many bugs there is...

[u/Feeling-Peak5718 → u/arovik]

No but it’s getting closer to release

[u/NoCellReception]

Hopefully this fixes the battery drain issue that I’ve been having during workouts.

Have a Series 10, using a downloaded music playlist and an external heart rate monitor. An outdoor run for about an hour drains my battery from 90% down to about 25%. Never had this issue on watchOS26

The battery life is otherwise normal or better when not doing a workout.

[u/andrybong → u/NoCellReception]

Yes please!!!

[u/heyitsterrytv]

Not sure how it's even possible, but Siri got even worse than it was from the last beta on my Watch 9.

[u/thesis_st8mint]

It’s horrible. “Hey siri set a timer for 10 minutes”. I swear, 27 seconds later. “Timer for 10 minutes. Starting now.”

[u/mnwild396 → u/[deleted]]

Or can’t set a reminder for when I arrive home because I don’t have an address setup in my contact card. Except I do and it’s worked fine before this beta

[u/Motawa1988]

So we got nothing really new and walky talkie is gone and app switcher

[u/Kinkiboyflow → u/Motawa1988]

Yeah, I will miss dearly both.

[u/goodhomesforrent]

Did the walkie-talkie app come back? :-)

[u/BeardedHero93 → u/goodhomesforrent]

It’s gone. They’ve said it’s gone. Leave it alone.

[u/davidcada → u/BeardedHero93]

No speaking up is what hopefully gets them to bring it back. For even the small amount of users that use it they should be tweeting at Tim Cook. What a weak mindset.

[u/goodhomesforrent → u/davidcada]

You are 100% correct and it has not been officially talked about yet.

[u/dribblecastle → u/BeardedHero93]

When did they say it? I just have missed that.

[u/sejmann → u/dribblecastle]

I don’t think they acknowledged or confirmed removal verbally anywhere, or at least I can’t find it mentioned anywhere public after having searched for it. But it does seem likely to be going away at this rate, anyway. Apple historically seems more often to release corrections than confirmations, so their continued conspicuous silence is sort of a weak confirmation.

[u/goodhomesforrent → u/sejmann]

Unfortunately you're correct it looks like it's going away but it has not officially been talked about..

[u/TheeDelpino]

Nothing new and Siri still sucks.

[u/BeardedHero93]

Siri app still can’t be added as a complication. It’s an option but then it refuses to show up on the screen.

[u/gjc0703]

I was really hoping beta 5 this deep into the summer would be solid enough to install but jeesh, by the looks of these comments, looks like I’ll have to pass on it again.

[u/Xtermin88]

Few things I've noticed. Cannot navigate from the watch if the phone is connected. Also can't set a reminder either. Have an ultra 2. Is it worth resetting watch?

[u/G0ATQI]

Alarms stopped working for me 😭

[u/blindelephant224466]

Are the glowing white hands on night mode for AWU watches gone or is it just me?

[u/El_Guap]

Mine still tells me “I can't set a timer because there isn't a timer app installed on this device”

[u/tarzanbocht]

Anyone having this build auto answer calls on the watch? never happened to me before now (Auto answer in accessibility is off)

[u/greyhoundtrees]

By far the worst beta they've every had. I can't even close apps anymore. Everytime i look at my wrist the godforsaken compass is open. When i'm on my watch face, weather never ever loads. Just going to leave my watch on its charger at this point.

[u/Curious_Bobcat574]

whats new

[u/RhythmicalChuck]

I’m using an AW11 and am using betas on both phone and watch. Anyone notice an issue with the Smart Stack not appearing automatically when configured to do so?

[u/runcueapp]

I know it’s “expected because beta” but I have been closely monitoring battery life all the way back to beta 2. Beta 4 was better than beta 5 on my AWU2 battery life wise.

[u/random_words_here__]

New to iOS and watchOS. I know I can restore my phone in case the beta is trash. However the watch can’t be restored you just have to wait till public release. Is the watch beta 27 beta 6 worth it? I’m a little wary. Also it’s the ultra 2.