Apple seeds watchOS 3 beta 3 for Apple Watch to developers

Greg Barbosa | Jul 18 2016 - 9:52 am PT

Apple has begun rolling out the third watchOS 3 beta to developers today. Those looking to update can head to the Watch app on their iPhones, select General and Software Update. watchOS 3 beta 3 is available to download as a Configuration Profile from the Apple developer center for newer users looking to test out the upcoming system. Release notes are not yet available, but should be up soon.

In the previous release, watchOS 3 beta 2 saw the introduction of Auto Unlock with macOS Sierra beta 2, Emergency SOS for contacting emergency services in the local area, locking workouts without using Force Touch, and Activity Sharing began working for some. Our previous coverage of watchOS 3 beta 2 with a list of discovered changes can be found here. For more information about Auto Unlock on the Apple Watch, be sure to catch Jeff Benjamin’s video and FAQ posts as well.

watchOS 3 brings major speed improvements and new user experiences to the Apple Watch. We’ve spent the past few weeks diving into watchOS 3’s features; take a look at the links below to get caught up:

To stay up to date with all of our watchOS 3 coverage, be sure to read on our watchOS 3 guide.

Developers looking to install the watchOS 3 beta for the first time on their devices can grab the appropriate Configuration Profiles for watchOS 3 on Apple’s developer center. Current testers and developers looking to grab the latest watchOS 3 beta can navigate to the Watch app on their iPhone and check under the Software Update section.

Once updated, the latest watchOS 3 beta 3 release notes will be found here.

As always, any changes we find will be added here. If you find anything new, feel free to send it to via Twitter @9to5mac or to me personally @gregbarbosa. Our email is also open to any tips.

From the watchOS 3 beta 3 release notes:

Fixed in this release

Activity

• Replying to an Activity Sharing notification from a friend sometimes fails to send.

• Replies to an Activity Sharing notification with a message may fail. • The contextual text above the reply to an Activity Sharing notification is incorrect.

Apple Pay

• When adding a new payment card to Apple Pay, if an incorrect expiration or CVV is entered, upon entry of a new value and hitting “Next” the running process will crash.

• In-app Apple Pay purchases that require PIN entry may cause a crash.

Calendar

Calendar may show “No Events” in Calendar after updating.

Clock

Clock face layout resets after reboot.

Connectivity

Currently there is no TCC prompt on the watchOS side

Emergency SOS

Haptic alert may not trigger during Emergency SOS countdown.

Notifications

If a media attachment is too large, the notification fires on iPhone and not Apple Watch.

Phone

• When attempting to hand off a relay call from Apple Watch to iPhone while on the lock screen, the call may be dropped.

• When iPhone is on CS/VoLTE, relay calls answered on alternate devices do not have DL audio and the call may drop after 30 seconds.

Workout

Auto-pause and auto-resume sometimes fail in Workout. Third-party apps are not affected.