How to download watchOS 11 on Apple Watch right now

While iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence were the biggest news at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2024) this year, the company also showed off some pretty significant updates for its other devices, including watchOS 11 for its popular wearables.

This year, Apple is leaving some Apple Watch models behind; watchOS 11 will only be available for the 2020 Apple Watch Series 6 and later models, including the Apple Watch Ultra, but for those it brings a new Training Load feature to optimize your training, the Vitals app to help track important health metrics, and the ability to finally take a day time off from closing rings.

Apple won’t release watchOS 11 to the public until later this year, likely around the same time it announces the Apple Watch Series X. The good news for people who want to play with the new features early, however, is that before that time comes, several beta versions will arrive. That starts with the first developer beta of watchOS 11, which was made available shortly after Apple’s WWDC Keynote.

With Apple now making its developer betas available to anyone willing to sign up for a free developer account and agree to the terms, eager beavers can jump into watchOS 11 right now. However, if you really don’t know what you’re getting into, we recommend waiting a few weeks. Apple usually sends out its public betas of major watchOS releases in early July, which you can count on to be significantly more stable than these early developer betas.

After all, these developer betas are not for the faint of heart. Their purpose is to allow developers to prepare their apps for the final release in September, and Apple intends for developers to only install them on test devices that don’t have anything important on them. This is true for any Apple developer beta, but you should be careful when it comes to the Apple Watch, as there is no way to revert the wearable to a previous version of watchOS. If something doesn’t work the way you’d expect in the watchOS 11 beta, you’ll be stuck waiting for the next beta to arrive for a possible fix.

Finally, it’s important to point out that Apple’s warranty does not apply to devices with beta software. If you run into problems with your Apple Watch with watchOS 11 beta installed, you won’t get any help from your local Genius Bar or Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP). Also, unlike an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you won’t be able to roll back to the latest public version.

With all that in mind, you can get access to the watchOS 11 developer betas right now if you’re willing to take the risk.

Note that you must be running iOS 18 beta on your iPhone before installing the watchOS 11 beta on your Apple Watch.

Back up your Apple Watch

The first thing you should do before installing any new watchOS update is to make sure you have a good backup of your Apple Watch. This is even more true when you’re dealing with an early developer beta. Note that Apple only expects these betas to be installed on test devices that don’t have anything important on them, so there’s no guarantee that the data on your Apple Watch will make it through the update process unscathed.

You can find instructions on how to do this in our article on how to back up your Apple Watch.

While you won’t be able to roll your Apple Watch back to watchOS 10, this backup can still be restored to the watchOS 11 developer beta if something goes wrong. It’s also worth keeping an extra copy of this backup on your computer in case your Apple Watch completely fails and you need to go back to a new Apple Watch with watchOS 10. Since your Apple Watch backup is stored on your iPhone , you can do this by backing up your iPhone to a Mac or PC.

Install the iOS 18 developer beta on your iPhone

Since your Apple Watch is essentially inseparable from your iPhone, each major version of watchOS requires a corresponding version of iOS on the iPhone. This means you won’t be able to install the watchOS 11 developer beta until your iPhone is running the iOS 18 developer beta.

Check out our guide on how to download iOS 18 to your iPhone for instructions on how to sign up for a free Apple developer account and install iOS 18 beta on your iPhone. Once you’ve done that, go back and continue to the next section.

Install watchOS 11 beta on Apple Watch

All of Apple’s developer betas are now freely available, although you must opt-in to the developer beta program by signing up for a free developer account. It’s the same process whether you’re installing the iOS 18 developer beta or the watchOS 11 developer beta, so once you’re signed up, you’re ready to download any and all. You only need to enable the beta versions on the devices you want to install them on. Here’s how to enable watchOS beta downloads on Apple Watch:

Step 1: Open up Tracking application on your iPhone.

Step 2: Choose General.

Step 3: Choose Software update.

Step 4: Choose Beta update. Note that this will only appear if your iPhone and Apple Watch recognize that your Apple ID is part of the beta program. The next screen will show you a list of beta versions that your Apple ID can download.

Step 5: Choose watchOS 11 Developer Beta.

Step 6: Choose Rear from the upper left corner. You’ll be taken back to the main software update screen and after a second or two the watchOS 11 development beta should appear (ignore the watchOS 10 icon as it looks like Apple just forgot to update that part).

Step 7: Place your Apple Watch on the charger and make sure it’s within range of your iPhone and connected to Wi-Fi.

Step 8: Choose Download and install you will start installing watchOS 11 beta.

Downloading the beta version, preparing it and then installing it on the Apple Watch can take several minutes to an hour. If you want, you can wear and use your Apple Watch while you’re downloading the watchOS 11 beta, but you’ll need to charge it to at least 50% and place it on the charger and stay on it before the update starts.

The watchOS 11 developer beta settings will remain active and future beta updates can be installed by returning to this screen.

You can also turn off the Beta Update setting if you want to stop receiving future watchOS 11 betas. This will not roll your Apple Watch back to watchOS 10; you’ll simply keep whatever beta you’re currently running and won’t see any future updates until the final version arrives in the fall. This is probably not what you want to do unless there is a new future beta that presents a major problem; in which case you can use that release to skip and re-enable when another more stable one comes along. You can also use this setup to jump to the public beta once it’s available, probably in July. AND watchOS 11 Public Beta Once this happens, an option should appear in the same menu.

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