![]() I suspect it would be the same for most users. Put it this way – if Apple removed third-party watchOS apps tomorrow, it wouldn’t have any bearing on my daily experience or interaction with the Apple Watch Ultra. It’s no wonder so few developers or users have bothered with them. A recent EU filing by Apple reveals that the watchOS App Store has less than a million monthly users in Europe, compared to more than 100 million on iOS.Īpple Watch apps take too long to locate, suffer from extremely limited screen estate, and, in my experience, are incredibly unreliable. It’s no secret that Apple Watch apps haven’t caught on. I know what you’re thinking – I thought the same. Apple allegedly wants its users to stop using Apple Watch apps and instead scroll through a series of widgets that reveal activity tracking, calendar appointments, weather information, and more. This move was apparently inspired by the widget system added to the iPhone as part of the iOS 14 update. watchOS 10: death of the Apple Watch App?Īccording to Gurman, Apple is planning on adding widgets to watchOS10 to offer functionality that harks back to the days of Glances. The removal of Glances was, presumably, part of a much wider strategy Apple seems to have adopted since watchOS 3 to tighten the purpose of the Apple Watch which is now, arguably, more of a fitness device than anything else. The brilliance of complications and the increased number available on rapidly expanding Apple Watch displays makes any other form of ‘glance’ pretty much redundant. This made far more sense the Apple Watch should be a largely passive device, where the user is encouraged to interact with it when their attention is required. With Glances gone, Apple decided to place more focus on notifications and watch-face complications. Glances were removed as part of the watchOS 3 update in 2016 and I’m confident that if my hazy recollection of the feature is anything to go by, very few people will have missed them. Third-party apps could add their own Glances, too. These widgets featured, as the name suggests, glances at information such as your heart rate, activity, calendar, and currently playing music. Even the screenshots I’ve found from reviews and guides published at the time don’t jog any memories.Īpparently, we used to swipe up from the watch face to reveal Glances, which could then be browsed by swiping left and right. I’m still struggling to remember what Glances were like on those early versions of watchOS. Gurman’s latest rummaging has unearthed further possible details about watchOS 10 and suggests that Apple might resurrect the widget-like Glances functionality as part of “the biggest” update to Apple’s wearable software since the original version.ĭoes this signal the death of Apple Watch apps? Me neither – I had to look it up following a new report from the Chief Operating Officer of the Back Alley Tip-Off Collective, Mark Gurman. ![]() Do you remember the Glances feature on the first version of watchOS?
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