watchOS 27 Removed Features: Digital Crown & Walkie-Talkie

Apple Watch owners testing the watchOS 27 beta have found two features missing outright: a Digital Crown double-click shortcut and the Walkie-Talkie app. A third change reshuffles rather than removes, merging three separate Find My apps into one. These are the watchOS 27 changes reported so far in beta testing, and each one comes with a different level of certainty depending on which build was checked and when.

The Digital Crown regression has been reconfirmed as recently as this week, according to 9to5Mac. Walkie-Talkie's disappearance hasn't been independently rechecked since early beta reporting over the summer. Apple hasn't announced a public release date for watchOS 27; based on prior release patterns, MacRumors expects the software to arrive this fall alongside new iPhone models, and a separate MacRumors report pegs the public beta for the following month after developer beta 1.

watchOS 27 Digital Crown double-click removed, still missing in the latest beta

For years, double-clicking the Digital Crown has worked as a kind of recent-apps switcher on Apple Watch, jumping between two recent apps, or between the last-used app and the watch face, according to 9to5Mac. Apple never marketed it under that name, but the gesture functioned as one. In watchOS 27, double-clicking no longer does anything special.

A 9to5Mac reporter tracked the change across three separate builds. Double-clicking the Crown now performs the same action as a single click, a behavior first flagged in the June developer beta, again when the public beta arrived in July, and still present in the beta released this month, according to 9to5Mac. That's three check-ins over roughly three months landing on the same result, though it reflects one tester's device rather than a survey across every supported Apple Watch model.

There's no obvious hardware substitute. Only the Apple Watch Ultra has an extra Action button, and the side button's double-click is already assigned to opening cards in Apple Wallet, according to 9to5Mac. The dynamic app grid on the home screen surfaces recently used and suggested apps, which the same reporter describes as a decent stand-in when the app you need happens to appear there, but it doesn't reproduce the old two-app toggle on demand.

The 9to5Mac author, who says they flagged the issue to Apple back in June and again in July, floats the possibility that a point release like watchOS 27.1 could bring the gesture back, though that's the reporter's own hope rather than anything Apple has confirmed. Anyone who regularly bounces between two specific apps, a timer and a workout app, say, should test the app grid against their own routine before deciding whether the beta's absence of this shortcut is a dealbreaker.

Walkie-Talkie missing since the first watchOS 27 beta

Walkie-Talkie vanished from both the app list and Control Center in the first developer beta of watchOS 27, released in June, and testers found no way to reinstall it, according to MacRumors. A report published in July described the same finding in that developer beta rather than a fresh check against a later public build, according to Tom's Guide.

That distinction matters for anyone deciding whether to install now. The cited reports on Walkie-Talkie's disappearance are all describing that same early-summer build. Nothing in the available reporting confirms whether the app is still missing, or has quietly returned, in the beta running this month. Apple hasn't explained or officially confirmed the removal, according to MacRumors.

Walkie-Talkie let two Apple Watch users trade short push-to-talk voice clips over Wi-Fi or cellular using Apple's FaceTime infrastructure, with no distance limit between users, though it still needed an active connection to work, according to MacRumors. It launched with watchOS 5 in 2018, was briefly disabled that same year after a bug let someone listen through another user's microphone without permission, and received essentially no meaningful updates across eight subsequent major watchOS releases, according to MacRumors. Tom's Guide reads that long stretch of neglect as a sign Apple may be quietly retiring the app rather than planning to patch it back in, though Tom's Guide frames that as its own interpretation, not something Apple has confirmed.

Betas are still betas, and watchOS 27 remains in early testing. MacRumors notes there's a slim chance Apple reintroduces the app before the software reaches a stable release, according to MacRumors. Anyone who uses Walkie-Talkie regularly with specific contacts shouldn't treat its current absence as settled either way. Check the beta on your own device rather than assuming the app is gone for good, or that it's still there.

Find My's three apps merge into one under watchOS 27

The third change is a redesign rather than a removal. MacRumors reported that developer beta 1 replaced the separate Find Devices, Find People, and Find Items apps with a single map-centric Find My app across supported Apple Watch models, according to MacRumors.

The unified app keeps the quick actions MacRumors names specifically: getting directions, finding nearby items, and Precision Finding for locating a paired iPhone, AirPods Pro 3, or AirTag 2, according to MacRumors. That confirms those particular workflows carried over; it doesn't confirm that every prior Find My task in the three separate apps maps cleanly onto the new layout. Apple says the redesign makes it easier to locate people, devices, and items from a single view and adds more flexible sharing controls, according to MacRumors, but that's Apple's own characterization, not an independent comparison of tap counts or speed against the old three-app setup.

For most people, this will be a relearning task rather than a lost capability. After updating, open the new Find My app and locate your most common tasks, sharing your location with a specific person, finding an AirTag, pinging a paired device, rather than assuming the layout mirrors your old habits.

What to know about watchOS 27 removed features before updating

Here's where each change stands, based on the most recent reporting available:

If you depend on Walkie-Talkie or the Crown's app-switching gesture, avoid relying on watchOS 27 as it currently stands until a newer beta or Apple's release notes clarify whether either returns. The Digital Crown change was still present in the latest reported beta, while Walkie-Talkie's current status remains unverified rather than reversed either way. Everyone testing the beta should expect Find My's layout to look different after updating, since that change is confirmed but not a functionality loss.

Apple's release notes when watchOS 27 ships this fall are the source that will ultimately confirm whether the Crown gesture or Walkie-Talkie return, since neither loss has been explained or reversed in any beta build reported so far. Until then, checking the current beta on your own device, rather than relying on any single report, is the only way to know what's actually on your Watch right now.