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Apple Removes Walkie‑Talkie From Apple Watch in watchOS 27 Beta

The omission suggests Apple may be quietly retiring the watch‑only FaceTime push‑to‑talk feature with a slim chance it will be restored before watchOS 27's public release.

Overview

  • Reporters and beta testers discovered the Walkie‑Talkie app missing from the first developer beta of watchOS 27 on Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
  • Apple has not publicly confirmed the removal and testers running the beta say the app and its Control Center tile cannot be reinstalled.
  • Walkie‑Talkie first arrived in 2018 as a FaceTime‑based push‑to‑talk tool that let Apple Watch users start live voice chats without making a phone call.
  • Shortly after launch the feature was temporarily disabled to fix a bug that allowed potential eavesdropping and was patched in watchOS 5.3.
  • watchOS 27 is still in early testing with a public beta due next month and a final release in the fall, so Apple could restore the app, repurpose its functionality, or quietly retire it and users who rely on the feature could lose a unique watch‑only communication option.