Leaked release notes for the watchOS 4.1 golden master reveal big changes coming to Apple Watch. Alongside fixes for a whole bunch of bugs, Apple will finally add Apple Music streaming, the ability to listen to live radio on Beats 1, and GymKit.
Apple has already seeded watchOS 4.1 to registered developers for testing. Many of these features were made available in previous releases, but there are changes coming in the GM release that aren’t available in earlier builds.
Those have now been revealed by release notes published by developer Guilherme Rambo.
watchOS 4.1 GM release notes
Here’s the complete change log:
- Stream music on Apple Watch Series 3 with Apple Music or iCloud Music Library
- Listen to live radio on Beats 1, custom stations, and expert-curated stations with the new Radio app on Apple Watch Series 3
- Use Siri to find, discover, and play songs, playlists, or albums
- Sync fitness data with GymKit-enabled treadmills, ellipticals, stair steppers, and indoor bikes for more accurate distance, pace, and energy burn metrics
- Ability to disconnect from a WiFi network in Control Center for Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular)
- Fixes an issue for Apple Watch Series 1 and later where Heart Rate notifications were delivered when the feature was not enabled
- Fixes an issue where some users did not receive Stand Reminders
- Resolves an issue where the current stand hour indicator did not appear for some users
- Resolves an issue that caused haptics to not be delivered for silent alarms
- Addresses an issue that prevented Apple Watch (1st generation) from charging for some users
- Resolves an issue where the Sunrise and Sunset complication would sometimes not appear
- Restores Mandarin as the default dictation language for China
watchOS 4.1 will arrive soon
These release notes aren’t final yet, so Apple could still be planning changes that aren’t already listed. There is no mention of some promised features, such as Apple Pay Cash, the new peer-to-peer payments service. It is available in the iOS 11.1 beta, however.
Apple is likely to make the watchOS 4.1 GM available to developers very soon. Its public rollout could come alongside iOS 11.1 next week, if that is released to coincide with the launch of iPhone X.
