Apple on Thursday seeded the release candidate of watchOS 8.6 to developers for testing purposes. The new RC comes one week after the fourth beta seed of the Apple Watch operating system.
The watchOS 8.6 RC 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 within the range of the iPhone.
The watchOS 8.6 update expands ECG functionality and irregular heart rhythm detection to Mexico, according to Apple’s release notes.
As usual, MacTrast and Apple both warn users to not install any betas (or release candidates) 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.
