watchOS 27 Beta 4 Release Notes

Update your apps to use new features, and test your apps against API changes.

Overview

The watchOS 27 SDK provides support to develop watchOS apps for Apple Watch devices running watchOS 27 beta 4. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 27, available from the Mac App Store. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 27, see Xcode 27 Release Notes.

App Intents

Known Issues

AppEntity instances have a cumulative size limit of 10MB, including all child properties and their values. Your app might crash if an entity exceeds this limit, and the exception is logged. (181763422)

AV Conference Telephony

Resolved Issues

Fixed: Outgoing FaceTime Audio calls from Apple Watches set up for family members to iOS devices running beta releases (27.0) might fail. Incoming FaceTime calls and cellular calls work correctly, as do calls to devices running iOS 26.0 or later. (178187431)

Cellular

Resolved Issues

Fixed: Cellular incoming and outgoing calls might fail on Verizon network if the user upgrades from previous watchOS release to watchOS 27.0 beta 2 or performs an erase/clean install of watchOS 27.0 beta 2. Text-to-911 might also fail on Verizon network. (180062521)

Complications

Resolved Issues

Fixed: Some complications might be missing in the Watch app’s Face Gallery. (177840928)

Foundation

Resolved Issues

Fixed: +[NSURL URLWithString:] no longer double-encodes the % of valid percent-escape sequences when encoding other invalid characters. (161588649) (FB20439045)

Foundation Models

Resolved Issues

Fixed: Private Cloud Compute might not work when you use simulators. (177684296)
Fixed: Truncating transcript history in the onPrompt modifier might cause an unexpected runtime error. (177901494)
Fixed: onPrompt might not be called when applied to a Profile without instructions. (177902488)
Fixed: PrivateCloudComputeLanguageModel always uses greedy decoding. (178181782)
Fixed: Using @Generable on an enum fails to compile for watchOS. (178244470)
Fixed: Foundation Models framework cannot be imported when building for watchOS in Xcode 27 beta 2. (179949809)

Health

Resolved Issues

When a third-party heart rate monitor is active, Apple Watch pauses background heart rate measurements and heart rate notifications (irregular rhythm, high heart rate, and low heart rate) for the duration of the session. (162788761)

HealthKit

New Features

HealthKit now supports heart rate and cycling power zones. (135746152)

Network Security

New Features

Starting in 27.0 operating systems, select system processes now enforce stricter network security (TLS) requirements. These new requirements might cause connections to fail if the server does not meet them. The affected processes are those involved in MDM, DDM, Automated Device Enrollment, configuration profile installation, app installation, and software updates. Servers must support TLS 1.2 at minimum, using cipher suites and certificates that meet App Transport Security (ATS) requirements.
For additional details on affected processes, requirements, and how to audit and diagnose failures in managed environments, please reference Prepare your network environment for stricter security requirements. For additional details on ATS and the new requirements, please reference Preventing Insecure Network Connections and NSRequiresNIAPTLSPackageVersion. (176055825)

Siri

Resolved Issues

Fixed: Siri might not resolve some entity types when your app has provided only an EntityStringQuery for the entity type. (177464215)
Fixed: Siri AI might be unable to complete certain actions on Apple Watch for English users in locales outside the United States. (180303086)

Known Issues

Siri might appear to be listening when it is not after extended periods of silence while the Siri interface remains on screen. (180434572)

Sleep Focus

Resolved Issues

Fixed: Sleep Focus may not automatically toggle on/off after a reboot or update until the user unlocks the device. (179960164)

Smart Stack

Resolved Issues

Fixed: Tapping the Now Playing “Suggestions” widget in Smart Stack does not start playback. (178464737)

Status Bar

Resolved Issues

Fixed: When Apple Watch is in the Always On state, the time in the status bar may not update. (178633015)

StoreKit

New Features

StoreKit now includes the Transaction.OwnershipType.assigned and Transaction.RevocationType.assignmentRevoked enum values to support volume purchases. Transaction query methods now additionally return transactions assigned to the Managed Apple Account. (156749517)
New Product.ProductType APIs represent subscription Bundles and subscription Suites. New APIs in Product.SubscriptionInfo.BundledSubscription let you fetch merchandising data about subscriptions contained in a Bundle. Transaction and RenewalInfo contain new fields that provide information about purchases and customer status regarding Bundles and Suites. (160501742)
partnerName and partnerId properties for Advanced Commerce API are available in Transaction.AdvancedCommerceInfo and RenewalInfo.AdvancedCommerceInfo. (167808780)

Known Issues

Purchases of non-subscription In-App Purchases made using the SKTestSession.buyProduct() method might fail with an invalid product error. The billingPlanType(_:) PurchaseOption isn’t respected for subscription purchases. (181842500)

StoreKit Testing in Xcode

Resolved Issues

Fixed: The unified app receipt is not updated after forcing a subscription expiration with SKTestSession. (102093015) (FB11767567)
Fixed: The SKTestSession disableDialogs setting is not always respected for all system dialogs. (154390284) (FB18403150)
Fixed: Subscription upgrades performed with the Xcode Transaction Manager are not reported in Transaction.updates. (160698598) (FB20269723)
Fixed: The renewal behavior preference is not respected when using the purchaseDate(_:renewalBehavior:) purchase option to make purchases using SKTestSession. (162014134) (FB20537538)
Fixed: Re-purchasing a previously refunded non-consumable fails with an already owned error when using StoreKit Testing in Xcode. (174560379) (FB22475017)
Fixed: Using pricingTerms.commitmentInfo.price in StoreKit Testing in Xcode returns an incorrect price for monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment. (177942756)
Fixed: Transactions for upgraded subscriptions are immediately marked as expired when using StoreKit Testing in Xcode. (178441109)
Fixed: Purchases made with the original StoreKit API fail with an unknown error on watchOS. (178760994)

Swift Charts

Resolved Issues

Fixed: When your project has a minimum deployment target lower than 27.0, using conditionals inside a Chart closure produces the warning “Conformance of _ConditionalContent<TrueContent, FalseContent> to ChartContent is only available in ‘’ 27.0 or newer,” and the app might crash at runtime when that content is loaded. (174168981)

SwiftUI

New Features

AsyncImage now automatically caches downloaded images using HTTP caching protocols, allowing servers to control caching behavior via standard headers. You can customize caching for specific images using the new AsyncImage initializers that accept URLRequest with custom cachePolicy settings. Additionally, you can set a custom URLSession using the new View.asyncImageURLSession(_:) API to control how all child AsyncImage views perform data tasks. (78212597)
A @State declared with an expression as its initial value used to evaluate the expression each time the view struct re-instantiates. In the case of @State private var model = Model(), this means Model.init() gets called many times throughout the view’s lifetime. Xcode 27 introduces a new @State implementation that avoids this repeated evaluation. This new behavior back-deploys to iOS 17 aligned OSes. The new @State is implemented with a Swift macro. It is largely source compatible with the property wrapper version, with a few exceptions.
If you provide an initial value at @State declaration, and also try to assign a value to it in an initializer, the initializer value is discarded. This behavior has not changed because of the macro, but some such cases no longer compile:
```
 struct StickerPageView: View {
     @State private var page = StickerPage()
     let title: String
 
     init(title: String) {
         // `title` won't have any effect
         // this also won't compile with @State macro
         self.page = StickerPage(title: title)
         self.title = title
     }
 }
```
When assigning initial value via an initializer, do not provide an initial value at the @State declaration.
```
 struct StickerPageView: View {
     @State private var page: StickerPage // no initial value expression
     let title: String
 
     init(title: String) {
         self.page = StickerPage(title: title) // works!
         self.title = title
     }
 }
```
When all stored members of a struct are private, the compiler synthesizes a private init that can be used in an extension of the same type:
```
 struct StickerPageView: View {
     @State private var page: StickerPage
     private let title: String
     ...
 }
 
 extension StickerPageView {
     init(title: String, _ page: StickerPage) {
         self.init(page: page, title: title) // using the synthesized init
     }
 }
```
The state macro disables this synthesized initializer. So the code above no longer compiles. To mitigate, assign value to members explicitly:
```
 extension StickerPageView {
     init(title: String, _ page: StickerPage) {
         self.title = title
         self.page = page
     }
 }
```
In rare situations, the automatic inference of generic arguments of @State is less flexible with the macro implementation. Write the type with more specificity.
Composing @State with other property wrappers or macros is not supported. (105893279)
You can now use the TextInputBorderShape type to customize the border shape of text input controls like TextField with the textInputBorderShape(_:) view modifier. The .squareBorder and .roundedBorder text field styles are soft deprecated — use the new .bordered text field style instead. (173362083)
In apps built with the 27.0 SDKs, a LabeledContent view used inside a Menu maps its value to the platform menu item’s subtitle. (175594929)
The @Entry macro now warns of potential issues if you store default class instances or closures in the environment. The SwiftUI Specialist skill in Xcode provides guidance for resolving these issues. (175902616)
You can now access concentricCornerRadii and concentricCornerRadii(in:) on GeometryProxy. These APIs return the corner radii that are concentric with the view’s container shape as a RectangleCornerRadii?. You can use these values to drive custom drawing or layout that responds to the container’s corners without rendering a ConcentricRectangle directly. (177185166)
@ContentBuilder type checking performance is further improved for valid code compared to Beta 1. (177526032)
The new data item or error object based alert and confirmationDialog modifiers can now be used by projects targeting iOS 15.0, macOS 12.0, tvOS 15.0, watchOS 8.0, and visionOS 1.0. (179388848)

Resolved Issues

Fixed: When you apply both .fileExporter(_:...) and .fileMover(_:...) modifiers to a view, some dialogs might not present correctly. (154080867)
Fixed: In apps built with the watchOS 27.0 SDK, TabView.selection updates only after the user has scrolled or rotated the Digital Crown past the 50% threshold between two pages, rather than as soon as the offset begins to change. (163517317)
Fixed: In apps built with the 27.0 SDKs, containerRelativeFrame(_:alignment:) incorrectly accounts for safe-area insets on a ScrollView’s non-scrollable axis, causing the calculated scrollable content size to be too small. For example, a view using containerRelativeFrame(.vertical) inside a horizontal ScrollView extends into vertical safe-area regions, such as the navigation bar and home indicator, because only the scrollable axis insets are applied. (165913417)
Fixed: Certain control-related view modifiers unexpectedly affect sheet and popover content. In apps built with the 27.0 SDKs, the controlSize, buttonSizing, buttonRepeatBehavior, menuIndicatorVisibility, and ButtonBorderShape environment values are now reset to their default values in sheets and popovers. (167448274)
Fixed: A Button containing both an icon and a title placed inside a List Section header or footer has incorrect spacing between its icon and title. (175681345)
Fixed: @State variable named using a raw identifier fails to compile. (179149051) (FB23015259)

System

New Features

System now provides Swift APIs for the C stat, lstat, fstat, and fstatat system calls. This includes a new Stat type with initializers from FilePath, FileDescriptor, or a C string; FilePath.stat() and FileDescriptor.stat() instance methods; and supporting types (FileType, FileMode, FileFlags, UserID, GroupID, DeviceID, and Inode). See SYS-0006 for more details. (160612181)

Resolved Issues

Fixed: Custom FilePath or FileDescriptor extensions that make unqualified calls to stat() or stat(_) (without the Darwin. qualification) might conflict with the new Swift stat() instance methods introduced in SYS-0006, causing build errors. See SYS-0008 for more details. (177911316)

TextKit

New Features

NSTextTable and its related objects and types are available to UIKit clients starting with OS 27 releases. (159870239)

Watch Connectivity

Resolved Issues

Fixed: The WCSession.transferCurrentComplicationUserInfo method does not work with complications built using WidgetKit on watchOS. (113202790) (FB12819178)

WatchKit

Deprecations

WKExtension and WKExtensionDelegate are deprecated for apps with a minimum deployment target of watchOS 9.2 or later. (70031637)

Workout Alerts and Workout Buddy

Resolved Issues

Fixed: When Siri AI is enabled on the paired iPhone and Apple Watch is operating in standalone, watch-only mode, Workout Alerts including Workout Buddy might fail to deliver audio announcements during an active workout. (181296052)

Workout Playback

Resolved Issues

Fixed: Mirrored Playback might not start on iPhone when started on Apple Watch. (176497682)