Apple on Wednesday seeded the watchOS 8.1 release candidate to developers for testing purposes. The release candidate came one week after the release of watchOS 8.1 beta four.
The watchOS 8.1 release candidate can be installed on an Apple Watch with the proper configuration profile installed, via the Watch app on the device’s attached iPhone. Go to “General” -> “Software Update” to install the new software. The Watch should have at least 50% battery life, be connected to a charger, and be in the range of the iPhone.
As usual, MacTrast and Apple both warn users to not install any betas on their daily driver Apple Watch, especially early versions of new operating systems. Instead, only install betas on a device set aside for testing purposes.
There’s no word yet on what is new in watchOS 8.1, and there were no discoveries of new features in the beta releases. However, we’ll update this article if we learn anything more.