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watchOS 10.2 beta 2 available to developers with privacy improvements

Published Nov 9th, 2023 1:08PM EST
watchOS 10.2 with on-device Siri requests / Apple Watch Ultra 2
Image: José Adorno for BGR

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Apple is now releasing watchOS 10.2 beta 2 to developers as the testing cycle follows. Although we still don’t know much about changes with the Apple Watch operating system, Cupertino is finally adding one of the promised features exclusive to Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users.

With watchOS 10.2 beta 2, users can ask Siri to read and long on-device Health requests. This change not only makes requests faster but more private and secure to users, as Siri can be used to access the Health app for health and fitness-related queries on-device.

There are over 20 health data types that are supported through Siri to help you access and log health data quickly and easily.

Users can try queries like:

  • Siri, how does my Move ring look today?
  • Siri, did I close my Exercise Ring?
  • Siri, what’s my step count?
  • Siri, I took my 9 AM medications.
  • Siri, log that I took my multivitamin.
  • Siri, I weigh 183 pounds.

Despite this watchOS 10.2 beta change, Apple added a few other changes with watchOS 10.1, recently released to all Apple Watch users:

NameDrop from iPhone to Apple Watch lets you easily share your contact information from one iPhone to Apple Watch by approaching them. While this function is available for iPhone to iPhone with iOS 17, Apple says that nearing an iPhone to Apple Watch to perform the same action is possible with Apple Watch Series 6 and later, Apple Watch SE (1st and 2nd generation), and Apple Watch Ultra.

With the double-tap gesture, users can easily control the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 using just one hand and without touching the display by tapping the index finger and thumb of their watch hand together twice to quickly and conveniently perform many of the most common actions on the Watch. The faster Neural Engine enables this new double tap gesture, which processes data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart sensor with a new machine learning algorithm.

BGR will let you know once we learn more about the features available with the watchOS 10.2 beta for the Apple Watch. The company is also seeding the second beta of iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, macOS 14.2, and tvOS 17.2.

José Adorno Tech News Reporter

José is a Tech News Reporter at BGR. He has previously covered Apple and iPhone news for 9to5Mac, and was a producer and web editor for Latin America broadcaster TV Globo. He is based out of Brazil.