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Apple Watch Can Use Known Wi-Fi Networks for Limited Functions Even When iPhone Is Off

Daalseth said:
This is the kind of stuff they should have been talking about months ago. For a lot of the doubters, myself included, one of the biggest weaknesses was that it only could do most functions tethered to the phone. Only NOW are we finding out, and not from Apple, that it has independent abilities. The Apple Watch has a lot of capabilities without the phone and that is huge. Marketing was so fixated on style and appearance, and getting on the cover of Vogue and what it could do through the iPhone, that they have been not mentioning huge features like this. This is a huge screw up by marketing.
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We could assume that it was something not ready at the time. Maybe some functionality they did not intend to be ready at launch, but were surprised by the engineering team. Just my speculation.
 
I find it amusingly odd how people keep saying "you don't need it" about Apple Watch. Who needed Xbox, Playstation or Wii??
 
newdeal said:
Nope it wasn't an iMessage it was green, and I know the recipient has a Blackberry and it worked even though my phone was at home and I was at the office on a different network about 20 minute drive away. I know it worked because he responded to the SMS while I was still at the office. My phone was on 8.1.2 and computer on 10.10.2 at the time
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Ahhh so it showed the text on all devices you had iMessage open on no matter whenever it was SMS or an iMessage.

That's awesome.
 
Runt888 said:
I'll be the first to admit I was wrong once it's actually been determined to work that way.
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I want to see it on big letters and front page :D

Just kidding. On the issue, I have said since beginning that Apple Watch has Wi-Fi which has potential capabilities to connect to any network, but Apple would choose to restrict those. Looks like I am right. ;)

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ShinyShiny said:
I find it amusingly odd how people keep saying "you don't need it" about Apple Watch. Who needed Xbox, Playstation or Wii??
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No one knows you need it until you use it.

Isn't that what Steve Job used to say? I just chuckle when someone told me what I need or not, LOL. :p
 
newdeal said:
It was like 2 days ago, I was surprised at the time that it worked also but it certainly did work, I just confirmed that I was correct which I am. My phone was at home, on my home network, which also has other Macs on it, and I sent the message, which went as SMS from my mac at work
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You're mistaken.

Your Mac cannot send SMS messages without using your iPhone.

iMessages yes, but SMS (to non iOS phones)? Not possible.
 
sualpine said:
Remember Macrumors before Apple Watch?
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Question is do you remember MacRumors before iPhone?

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ShinyShiny said:
I find it amusingly odd how people keep saying "you don't need it" about Apple Watch. Who needed Xbox, Playstation or Wii??
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You really don't need a car either for that matter, in fact some people do just fine without cars but most people seem to think they need a car. That being said this watch is not needed and we've all done just fine without it. I'm afraid in a year I will hate to be without it.
 
newdeal said:
Nope it wasn't an iMessage it was green, and I know the recipient has a Blackberry and it worked even though my phone was at home and I was at the office on a different network about 20 minute drive away. I know it worked because he responded to the SMS while I was still at the office. My phone was on 8.1.2 and computer on 10.10.2 at the time
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Had you enabled Continuity and SMS forwarding on your phone?

As I noted today in another thread, people have noticed for months now that the supposed "must be same WiFi network" rule doesn't seem to apply with SMS Relay.

I.e. yes your phone can be miles away on another WiFi network or even using only 3G/4G, and still act as a SMS relay for your other devices registered with iCloud.

Kissaragi said:
Seems pretty complex to know what it can do with or without a phone.
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As I mentioned the other day, the WiFi capabilities seem to be the services that use an Apple server connection.

So it appears that if the watch doesn't find its phone master, but is on a known WiFi network, that it will divert to talking directly to Apple servers for Siri, iMessage and those new little drawing/heartbeat messages.
 
kdarling said:
Had you enabled Continuity and SMS forwarding on your phone?

As I noted today in another thread, people have noticed for months now that the supposed "must be same WiFi network" rule doesn't seem to apply with SMS Relay.

I.e. yes your phone can be miles away on another WiFi network or even using only 3G/4G, and still act as a SMS relay for your other devices registered with iCloud.



As I mentioned the other day, the WiFi capabilities seem to be the services that use an Apple server connection.

So it appears that if the watch doesn't find its phone master, but is on a known WiFi network, that it will divert to talking directly to Apple servers for Siri, iMessage and those new little drawing/heartbeat messages.
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This exactly. I was at work, remote connected to my Macbook at home and SMS were coming up in Messages on my Macbook, even though my iPhone was 20 miles away and not even on wifi, let alone the home wifi.
 
damir00 said:
How can it send/receive SMS if the phone is dead?
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It probably works with SMS Relay. I noticed that if an iPhone isn't even withing Bluetooth range or on the same wi-fi network, it still works.

I figured as much when I noticed SMS Relay was listed on Apple's system status page.
 
Xultar said:
Did you send the SMS to another iphone? if so it was iMessage which a Mac can send over wifi without an iphone. Try sending to an Android device to verify it was real SMS.
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Actually I sent it to a google voice account from my Mac and it received it. Then i sent from the google voice account back and my mac Messages received it. Again this is while I was at work with the iPhone, and my Mac is at home.
 
blackcrayon said:
Actually I sent it to a google voice account from my Mac and it received it. Then i sent from the google voice account back and my mac Messages received it. Again this is while I was at work with the iPhone, and my Mac is at home.
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I just shutoff my phone and sent a message from my rMBP to a co-worker who uses a Blackberry and he got it and replied and I got it. FYI
 
BlueMoon63 said:
I just shutoff my phone and sent a message from my rMBP to a co-worker who uses a Blackberry and he got it and replied and I got it. FYI
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Definitely stops working for me if I turn my iPhone off :)

Though it did seem to get sent once it finished booting back up.
 
blackcrayon said:
Definitely stops working for me if I turn my iPhone off :)

Though it did seem to get sent once it finished booting back up.
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To be honest, I don't think it would work so I don't know if it picked up another device on my wi-fi or not? I don't really know why it worked but it was green and the reply was green.
 
BlueMoon63 said:
To be honest, I don't think it would work so I don't know if it picked up another device on my wi-fi or not? I don't really know why it worked but it was green and the reply was green.
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Interesting. I'm going to play around with this on Friday!
 
Hm, now this is changing my mind a bit. I wish you could set it up with and use it with an iPad for those who don't have an iPhone. My biggest gripe this whole time was that you needed the phone around or it wouldn't function.
 
KazuSnow said:
What about the most obvious...can it utilise find my iphone and report it as lost? Be handy since it's right there...
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Hi Kazu, this feature has been confirmed. So, yes, it can report and also find the location of your iPhone. Source? Apple website.
 
Azzin said:
You're mistaken.

Your Mac cannot send SMS messages without using your iPhone.

iMessages yes, but SMS (to non iOS phones)? Not possible.
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I am not...it did just as I described I promise you

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kdarling said:
Had you enabled Continuity and SMS forwarding on your phone?

As I noted today in another thread, people have noticed for months now that the supposed "must be same WiFi network" rule doesn't seem to apply with SMS Relay.

I.e. yes your phone can be miles away on another WiFi network or even using only 3G/4G, and still act as a SMS relay for your other devices registered with iCloud.


SMS relay yes, continuity no.
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magicapp gives free WiFi calls on iphone/ipad/ipod touch

magicApp gives free calls over WiFi on iphone/ipad/ipod touch so it might work on the watch too.
 
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