Apple seeds watchOS 3 GM for the Apple Watch to developers

Greg Barbosa | Sep 7 2016 - 12:06 pm PT

Following this year’s September iPhone event, Apple has begun seeding out the final builds for watchOS 3. This golden master release can be downloaded as an update from the Watch app on an iPhone, or its appropriate configuration file can be downloaded from Apple’s Developer Center. watchOS 3 GM should be the final release we see before an official release of watchOS 3 is made public. watchOS 3’s public release date is set for next week, September 13th.

With the previous update, watchOS 3 beta 3 brought in new fixes in areas like Activity Sharing and the Clock face layouts. In an earlier release, watchOS 3 beta 2 saw the introduction of Auto Unlock alongside the macOS Sierra beta 2, Emergency SOS for contacting emergency services in the local area, locking workouts without using Force Touch, and Activity Sharing began working for some. Our previous coverage of watchOS 3 beta 2 with a list of discovered changes can be found here. For more information about Auto Unlock on the Apple Watch, be sure to catch Jeff Benjamin’s video and FAQ posts as well.

The upcoming watchOS, expected to be released later this fall, brings major speed improvements and new user experiences to the Apple Watch. We’ve spent the past few weeks diving into watchOS 3’s features; take a look at the links below to get caught up:

To stay up to date with all of our watchOS 3 coverage, be sure to follow up on our watchOS 3 guide.

Developers looking to install the watchOS 3 GM for the first time on their devices can grab the appropriate Configuration Profiles for watchOS 3 on Apple’s developer center. Current testers and developers looking to grab the latest watchOS 3 update can navigate to the Watch app on their iPhone and check under the Software Update section.

Once updated, the latest watchOS 3 GM release notes will be found here.

As always, any changes we find will be added here. If you find anything new, feel free to send it to via Twitter @9to5mac or to me personally @gregbarbosa. Our email is also open to any tips.

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