Take a hands-on look at the Walkie-Talkie app with watchOS 5 beta 2

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watchOS 5
One of the Apple Watch's new compelling features.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

One of the big features of Apple’s watchOS 5 is the Apple Watch’s Talkie-Talkie app feature, which makes it easier to communicate with your friends from the comfort of your wrist.

While the feature won’t officially launched until later this year, it is fully operational in Apple’s newly launched watchOS 5 beta. Want to see how it works? Check out the video below.

To use the feature, you’ll need to be running the second beta watchOS 5. (In the first version, there was simply a splash screen saying that the feature was coming soon.)

If you scroll down on your Watch, you’ll be able to see a list of all the people in your contacts. Annoyingly, there’s no easy way of checking whether or not they have an Apple Watch, so you’ll have to do a bit of research yourself.

Tap their contact and you can then add them to your Walkie-Talkie list, complete with yellow card. Then just tap on the person, and hit and hold the giant “TALK” button to record your message. When you release it, it is automatically sent to the intended person. (Thanks to Cult of Mac viewer Josh who helped me to test this feature.)

It’s a quick and easy feature, but one I can imagine will really appeal to many Apple Watch wearers. Are you excited about watchOS 5, and this feature in particular? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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