Apple has made a low-key but notable change in the first developer beta of watchOS 27: the Walkie-Talkie app is gone.
Introduced back in 2018 with watchOS 5, Walkie-Talkie offered a push-to-talk experience that let Apple Watch owners send instant voice messages to contacts over Wi-Fi or cellular. It leveraged FaceTime’s infrastructure for long-distance communication without needing to pull out an iPhone — essentially turning your wrist into a modern walkie-talkie. At launch, it felt like one of those fun, forward-looking features that could become a daily staple for families, outdoor enthusiasts, or quick team check-ins.
But reality never quite matched the hype. After a major security vulnerability shortly after release forced Apple to disable the feature entirely (a bug that potentially allowed unauthorized eavesdropping), the app returned in watchOS 5.3. Yet Apple never gave it meaningful updates or improvements over the next eight years. It lingered in the background, occasionally useful, but often plagued by connectivity issues, and rarely if ever highlighted in keynotes or marketing.
In watchOS 27 beta 1, the app has vanished completely from both the app list and Control Center, with no option for users to reinstall it. Apple hasn’t issued an official statement, leaving the removal open to interpretation. Given the feature’s minimal maintenance history, this looks more like a deliberate retirement than a beta glitch. There’s still a slim chance it could return before the final release, but the trend points toward a quiet sunset.
Why This Matters
• For users: Families who relied on it for home communication (e.g., calling kids upstairs) or anyone who enjoyed the hands-free, instant voice connection will need to find alternatives like standard calls, Messages voice notes, or third-party apps.
• For Apple: This reflects a broader strategy of pruning underused or hard-to-maintain features to focus engineering resources on higher-priority areas like health monitoring, smarter Siri, and new Apple Intelligence capabilities.
• The bigger picture: watchOS 27, expected to launch publicly in the fall alongside new Apple Watch models, continues Apple’s pattern of evolving the platform—sometimes by adding exciting features and sometimes by letting older ones fade away.
MacDailyNews Take: Public beta testing for watchOS 27 is slated for July, so more clarity could emerge then. In the meantime, if you’re on the developer beta and miss Walkie-Talkie, you can contact Apple here: apple.com/feedback/
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It rarely worked. It was fun for a bit but because the contacts weren’t able to connect for some reason it was cumbersome. I would often have issues with it.
For awhile there I identified as Dick Tracy. Transitioning ahead.
Question, do some Watch models still require you to view your blood-oxygen results on a connected iPhone (i.e. Masimo), or has that issue been resolved?
I use it at work
It wouldn’t set up on our kid’s watch… Yet another feature we paid for that Apple did not deliver. Unethical.
Back in the day there were something called Nextel phones that had a push to talk feature. I would see workers in New York using it as a walkie-talkie. Quite cool.
Now I guess messaging replaced all the shouting.
Nothing has changed. Incivil asshats everywhere turn on the speaker to take calls and watch idiotic videos in public places like restaurants and public transport.
Respect is truly lacking in simple phone etiquette.