watchOS 7 public beta: The ultimate guide

The next generation of software for your Apple Watch, watchOS 7, won't officially hit until sometime in the fall. But for the very first time, Apple released watchOS 7 early in the form of a public beta, alongside the developer beta. So if you're really itching to give watchOS 7 a test drive right now, but don't have a developer account, you can do so with the public beta!

But the real question is should you? What if you end up not liking it because of bugs or glitches and want to go back to watchOS 6? And what's new in watchOS 7, anyways? Don't worry, we're here to help!

• How to download and install the watchOS 7 public beta
• watchOS 7 FAQ: Everything you need to know!
• How to prepare your Apple Watch for the watchOS 7 public beta
• How to downgrade your Apple Watch (surprise — you still can't)
• How to update from a watchOS beta to the official release
• How to report bugs and submit feedback on the watchOS 7 public beta
• watchOS 7 help and discussion forums

How to download and install the watchOS 7 public beta

This is the first time that Apple has released watchOS as a public beta. With watchOS 7, you're getting some cool new features, like sleep tracking, watch face sharing, and so much more. If you want to take the leap and install watchOS 7 on your Apple Watch, make sure that you're enrolled in the public beta program, have iOS 14 installed on your iPhone, and then download and install watchOS 7.

You won't be able to download watchOS 7 without an iPhone on the iOS 14 beta, so please keep that in mind.

How to download and install the watchOS 7 public beta

watchOS 7 FAQ: Everything you need to know!

watchOS 7 was unveiled during Apple's virtual WWDC 2020 keynote, and it is bringing a whole bunch of goodies to our Apple Watches. Native sleep tracking has arrived, which allows you to record sleep data and see how well you slept during the night. This also means that watchOS 7 can help you sleep better with a sleep schedule, which is something that many of us wanted for years. You'll also find new workout types, an easy process for sharing watch faces with friends, hand washing detection, and so much more.

watchOS 7: Everything you need to know!

How to prepare your Apple Watch for the watchOS 7 public beta

Before you download the watchOS 7 public beta, you should make sure that you have a secondary device to test it on (watchOS 7 runs on Series 3, 4, and 5 Watches), if possible. It's also important to make sure that you have a backup of your current Apple Watch. Unlike other software releases from Apple, watchOS is irreversible — there's no way to downgrade, so make sure that you are 100% sure you want to dive into the public beta.

How to prepare your Apple Watch for the watchOS public beta

How to downgrade your Apple Watch (surprise — you still can't)

It's of utmost importance that you are 100% sure that you want to install the watchOS 7 public beta on your Apple Watch. This is because you can't downgrade watchOS to a previous version. So even though watchOS is available as a public beta for the first time ever, you won't be able to go back once you install it, so you're going to have to be 100% committed. If you're having problems, make sure to troubleshoot with our tips.

You can't downgrade your Apple Watch, but here are our troubleshooting tips

How to update from a watchOS beta to the official release

If you have been using a developer or public beta, and want to go from the beta to the official release, it's pretty easy to do. You simply need to delete the beta profile from your Apple Watch, and then download and install the official version whenever it's available. We walk you through the process.

How to update from a watchOS beta to the official release

How to report bugs and submit feedback on the watchOS 7 public beta

The point of a beta is to test the software and report any bugs and glitches that you encounter to Apple, so that the problems can be fixed in time for the official release. If you are committing yourself to the beta, you should definitely be helping Apple out by making it the best version of watchOS that it can be. Thankfully, Apple has made it super easy to submit any beta feedback you may have to improve watchOS in the future.

How to send feedback to Apple about iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS betas

Other questions about the watchOS 7 public beta?

If you have any questions about the watchOS 7 public beta, post them below in the comments. Or you can hop into our watchOS 7 forums and get help from our moderators and community!