Apple Watch limitations we did not know off.

vintagekeys

vintagekeys

macrumors regular
Hi All,

I am gathering a list of all the currently known Apple Watch Experience limiting things that we as users found out ourselves.

I currently gather a list with your help for the AW S0 to S3 and see if we hopefully can scrap some of those experience limiting items, with the S4 when its out. This is a list for new upcoming buyers of the AW like myself.

This list is to show as truthfully without bashing the experience limiting items, of the AW device based on opinions, so future buyers know better what to expect of their AW`s capabilities beside the obvious advertised ones, and what features in particular are NOT present/working, compared to our smartphones, as that is what our starting ground is to compare the usefulness of the AW.

Where does the AW smartphone extension ends, that is what is being listed here.

So its about items not mentioned in the manual/ features list on the apple website.
(Basically anything we as users found out ourselves limited by apple or third-party in correlation to the Iphone it`s capabilities.)

1: By default cannot listen to video/music from the AW speaker (headset listening only)
(Contiguous design by apple, only calls work via the speaker or small video clips received via Imessenger only)
2: No dedicated apple watch Whatsapp, facebook chat apps available since 2015.
3: No third-party AW face watches available since 2015.
4: Photos/videos stored in Icloud cannot be access from the AW. (Only sync from Iphone)
5: Saphire Glass is scratch resistant, but not it`s coating that`s on top of it.
6: 2FA apps are absent on the AW, you still need your iphone for these actions.
7: The AW does not do continuous HR monitoring, when not using in excersize mode it only monitors heartbeat every 5 minutes to preserve battery. unlike the Fitbit who always active monitor heartbeat.
8:Only Apple Music (10 USD per month costs) can be used to store music on the AW and play it offline. Spotify or Pandora cannot do this, they only can stream from the iphone.
9: 3th party apps tend to be slower then native apple AW apps.
10: No web browser (limited view mode for Imessages containing parts of a website)


Yes you may have a Opinion "why it`s not on the apple watch" but the list only contains Factual information thus opinions do not matter for this list.

Etc ETc.. Please contribute with the limitations you have found, which were unexpected to your believe.

Please contribute to the list and stay on topic, if you wish to discuss other matters, please refrain from posting in this post, and create another one.
 
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vintagekeys said:
Why is 1 logical? if you can use the speaker to have a call, surely you can use it to listen music from as well.
That blue tooth headsets are better, i agree. the fact you can`t listen to music when you forgot them is weird, the hardware is there but deliberately not working, and still plenty of people initially thought they could use this feature.

Please elaborate why you think its a logical design?
Click to expand...

Because the speaker is low volume, low quality?

You can’t seriously compare phone conversation to music, can you? Is there anyone ever build hi-end speakers on a phone? No. That will tell you all you need to know, that it’s not needed.
If you don’t care about quality just listen from your phone speaker.
 
matrix07 said:
Because the speaker is low volume, low quality?

You can’t seriously compare phone conversation to music, can you? Is there anyone ever build hi-end speakers on a phone? No. That will tell you all you need to know, that it’s not needed.
If you don’t care about quality just listen from your phone speaker.
Click to expand...

Again you miss the point, and this topic is probably not for you, perhaps some other topics are more of your interest.

The FACT is and remains that it natively does not work, everything else regarding quality is true but also subjective, still lots of people listen to a few songs via their phone, THAT YOU dont do it because the quality is not matching your needs THAT IS your choice.

You are confusing FACTS with personal opinions. You also miss the point that i stated that the speakers can be used for audio conversations but not for listening to music, i never said something about the quality.

But i do agree with you that the quality is low, but if that is accordingly to you Apple`s logic, then none of the iphones should have a speaker to listen music from as well, which they have, but that is guessing work. I should not have asked for your explanation because the "logica" you mentioned is based on opinion. My fault.

Again, perhaps this topic is not for you.
 
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What really annoys me is, that the watch still is not considered a 'secure device' by Apple and whenever I log into Apple services with 2fa i have either to pick up my phone, tablet or reach to my personal mac to receive the 2fa-pin number.

Not understandable from my perspective, as the Apple Watch is the only device I have with me all the time and could serve as the most convenient secure token display ever, always at hand.

Thinking a step further, Apple should bake support for 2fa-services directly into watchOS/iOS, like they did with Apple Pay or the iCloud keychain / password management, rendering 3rd party apps like the RSA Token app, Authy, Google Authenticator or all these banking pin/tan-generators or short messages obsolete.
 
FatalFallacy said:
Not understandable from my perspective, as the Apple Watch is the only device I have with me all the time and could serve as the most convenient secure token display ever, always at hand.
Click to expand...
Wonder if they haven't found way that they liked to display the first part of the two-factor process on the watch screen?

Screen Shot 2018-09-06 at 8.10.23 AM.png
 
That not listening to music through the speaker is a conscious design choice doesn’t mean it isn’t also a limitation. The earlier iPhones’ tiny screens even after other manufacturers went larger was defended as a design choice... until it wasn’t.

Does this same limitation also apply to podcasts on the 4?
 
vintagekeys said:
2: Yes major used applications that is litterly on almost every smartphone these days, those applications are completely lacking on the AW.

Lots of people like me expected that logically wise there would be a dedicated app for Whatsapp at least.
Click to expand...

That’s a pretty big assumption to say that “literally almost everyone” uses what’s app. I don’t know a single person who uses it. I’ve never even heard of signal.

If you personally were expecting an app to do something that it doesn’t, it sounds like you failed to fully research the product before you bought it. You can view which apps have Watch apps, and how they function, in the App Store whether you have a watch or not. I looked at the details for all my commonly used apps and knew exactly what to expect.
 
I had an app - “Watch Player”. I could load podcasts to my watch with this and listen to my podcasts through the watch speaker. Apple told developers to remove this feature. Hence it used to be possible, but was removed by Apple.
 
seinman said:
That’s a pretty big assumption to say that “literally almost everyone” uses what’s app. I don’t know a single person who uses it. I’ve never even heard of signal.

If you personally were expecting an app to do something that it doesn’t, it sounds like you failed to fully research the product before you bought it. You can view which apps have Watch apps, and how they function, in the App Store whether you have a watch or not. I looked at the details for all my commonly used apps and knew exactly what to expect.
Click to expand...

I know plenty that use it, but I point blank refuse as it's owned by Facebook!
 
Deguello said:
That not listening to music through the speaker is a conscious design choice doesn’t mean it isn’t also a limitation. The earlier iPhones’ tiny screens even after other manufacturers went larger was defended as a design choice... until it wasn’t.
Click to expand...

Your comparison is miles off. The better one is using stylus with iPhone, and to these days even when iPhone getting bigger and bigger Apple still won’t allow stylus with iPhone .. and for good reason. I had used stylus with Palm and Windows Phones all those years ago and I’m not in a rush to get back to that .. um.. functionality but who knows.. sometimes human is very strange as proved by this thread. They know full well the ‘limitation’ of the watch but doesn’t seem to know at all about the limitation of tiny speaker for listening to music. With this lack of insight, I’m just surprised no one lists the lack of headphone jack on the watch as limitation yet.
 
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matrix07 said:
Your comparison is miles off. The better one is using stylus with iPhone, and to these days even when iPhone getting bigger and bigger Apple still won’t allow stylus with iPhone .. and for good reason. I had used stylus with Palm and Windows Phones all those years ago and I’m not in a rush to get back to that .. um.. functionality but who knows.. sometimes human is very strange as proved by this thread. They know full well the ‘limitation’ of the watch but doesn’t seem to know at all about the limitation of tiny speaker for listening to music. I’m just surprised no one lists the lack of headphone jack on the watch as limitation yet.
Click to expand...
No, my point is that Apple fans will defend just about anything Apple does as a design choice and then act like they never did.

So... do we know whether the 4 will be able to play podcasts on the speaker, since they are mostly voice like a phone call?
 
Deguello said:
No, my point is that Apple fans will defend just about anything Apple does as a design choice and then act like they never did.
Click to expand...

You lost me at “Apple fans” and “defend” really.
To not use tiny speaker for music is a design choice. To not use stylus on tiny phone screen is a design choice. To not have bigger screen is a manufacturing choice. A whole different scenario. If you ever design something you’ll know, and it has nothing to do with any “fans” or “defend”.
 
matrix07 said:
You lost me at “Apple fans” and “defend” really.
To not use tiny speaker for music is a design choice. To not use stylus on tiny phone screen is a design choice. To not have bigger screen is a manufacturing choice. A whole different scenario. If you ever design something you’ll know, and it has nothing to do with any “fans” or “defend”.
Click to expand...
I guess you weren't around to see all the defenses of the "thumb reachable" smaller phones defended as a design choice. Nothing I can do about that. Again, I'm not talking about Apple, the company. I'm talking about the rationalizations of users.

I've designed plenty of things, fwiw.

Again, I'm asking about podcasts. Can they be played on the watch's speaker?
 
what is lacking on whatscrap? last time i checked i can receive and reply to messages on the AW
 
If someone next to me started listening to music through their watch speaker I’d actually be pretty miffed so I’m glad of this “limitation “

And I don’t understand why Apple should put it on their website trying to sell a product that “X developers haven’t yet developed an app for this product. Just thought you should know”
 
b0fh666 said:
well, i guess whatscrap could invest on that, but I doubt it. barely useful.
Click to expand...

I agree, but honestly not bothered personally, so a non-issue lol
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martint235 said:
If someone next to me started listening to music through their watch speaker I’d actually be pretty miffed so I’m glad of this “limitation “

And I don’t understand why Apple should put it on their website trying to sell a product that “X developers haven’t yet developed an app for this product. Just thought you should know”
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd punch them in the side of the head!
 
vintagekeys said:
You are confusing FACTS with personal opinions.
Click to expand...
Am I the only one that smells the hypocrisy here? You listed a bunch of things that YOU find to be limitations, then insist that that considering them limitations is FACT despite others disagreeing with you. True, it is fact that the Apple Watch doesn't do these things. But considering this limiting, that is an OPINION.
vintagekeys said:
Because plenty of people would do if it worked, there are people watching movies from the apple watch.
Click to expand...
There are people watching movies on the Apple Watch?! I have not once, ever, had a desire to do this nor do I know anyone else who has.

Look, don't beat around the bush here. You previously posted a thread about using the watch as an entirely standalone device, with no need to even OWN an iPhone. You've learned that there are really just too many hoops to jump through to make that a realistic proposition, and THAT'S what you really find to be limiting. I don't see how having everyone else help you curate this meaningless list of things that you personally find to be limiting is going to help in that regard.
 
parseckadet said:
Am I the only one that smells the hypocrisy here? You listed a bunch of things that YOU find to be limitations, then insist that that considering them limitations is FACT despite others disagreeing with you. True, it is fact that the Apple Watch doesn't do these things. But considering this limiting, that is an OPINION.

There are people watching movies on the Apple Watch?! I have not once, ever, had a desire to do this nor do I know anyone else who has.

Look, don't beat around the bush here. You previously posted a thread about using the watch as an entirely standalone device, with no need to even OWN an iPhone. You've learned that there are really just too many hoops to jump through to make that a realistic proposition, and THAT'S what you really find to be limiting. I don't see how having everyone else help you curate this meaningless list of things that you personally find to be limiting is going to help in that regard.
Click to expand...

What do you mean? I watched The Lord of the Rings from start to finish on my Apple Watch...
 
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