Lyft Removes its Apple Watch App From the App Store [Updated]

[MacRumors]

Lyft is the latest company to ditch support for the Apple Watch, eliminating its Apple Watch app in an update that was released this morning.

Lyft did not announce the removal of the Apple Watch app in the update's notes, but the Lyft Apple Watch app is no longer listed in the App Store nor is it available as an app to install through the Watch app on the iPhone. There's also no longer a mention of the Apple Watch in the App Store description.

It is not clear why the Lyft app was removed from the App Store, and we've asked Lyft for comment, but this continues a trend where major companies are removing their Apple Watch apps due to low usage or Apple's requirement that all apps adopt the watchOS 4 SDK.

As of April, all Apple Watch app updates submitted to the App Store must use the watchOS 2 SDK or later. Apple Watch apps that use the watchOS 1 SDK are no longer able to be updated. Lyft has been updated several times since April, though, so it's not clear if the requirement is the reason why the app was removed. Lyft first introduced support for the Apple Watch in September of 2016.

Lyft joins several other major companies that have abandoned development for the Apple Watch and eliminated their watchOS apps, including Twitter, Google Maps, Amazon, Instagram, and eBay.

Update: Lyft provided the following statement to MacRumors on the removal of the Apple Watch app: "The latest Lyft update on iOS will no longer support a standalone Lyft app for Apple Watch. Lyft users will continue to have a great experience receiving notifications on their Apple Watch to easily follow their ride."


Article Link: Lyft Removes its Apple Watch App From the App Store [Updated]

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Never really worked well anyways. All you need is the normal push notifications.

 

[chelsel]

Just two weeks ago I used my Apple Watch w/ LTE to order an Uber after my phone died... it worked great.

 

[itsmilo]

And more will follow. It’s just not worth spending precious development on this. You are even better off selling „lyft stickers“

 

[subjonas]

That’s too bad. I don’t have an Apple Watch but it seems like a ride hailing app would be one of the more useful watch apps. I’d think it would be convenient to be able to monitor your ride’s distance from you with a glance at your wrist.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Apple really needs to make WatchOS development more attractive. Opening up watch-faces to developers, and making complications more robust, would go a long way I think.

 

[midkay]

Just two weeks ago I used my Apple Watch w/ LTE to order an Uber after my phone died... it worked great.

I think the watch now having LTE is making an important use case for these apps. When watch apps were dependent on a phone's presence, I could see the argument that they were essentially pointless. Now that the watch works as a standalone device, these kind of apps are actually very important.

I'm hoping WatchOS 5 brings many new APIs and enhancements that entice devs to continue developing for the Watch.

 

[martyjmclean]

Good thing I use Uber then.

 

[alecc131]

Good thing I use Uber then.

It would be nice if Uber can fix its blank complication!
[doublepost=1527626443][/doublepost]Apple can also remove this from the Dev site!

 

[ikir]

Still missing eBay, I was using it sigh

 

[JRobinsonJr]

PERSONAL USE CASE ONLY:

While the trend to remove watch apps is potentially disturbing, there is - in my opinion - a greater reality to the situation. A small screen on your wrist can be useful for many things, but the Watch just hasn't decided what to do when it grows up. Exercise apps? Yes! Music? Sure. Tracking time? Of course! But... shopping? Ordering a pizza? Tracking a package? Reading social posts? No... No... No... and No! This is just a market correction. That said, Lyft and Uber (and other ride-hailing services) do seem like a much better fit. Not sure if it's a great fit, but definitely in the grey area.
[doublepost=1527626669][/doublepost]

Still missing eBay, I was using it sigh

Just curious. I never tried the eBay watch app. What, specifically, did it offer beyond notifications? Alternatively, what can you not do now that you could before?

 

[User 6502]

Apple really needs to fix watchOS.

 

[pdaholic]

Apple screwed itself right off the bat when they tried to allow third party apps on a watch that was so slow. Not a single app for the watch was useful because of the data transfer delay, and it was faster to just pull the phone out and interact with the iOS version. I deleted every watchOS app and still haven’t installed a third party app since. Maybe the apps and watchOS have improved/matured since, maybe they haven’t, I wouldn’t know.

And Lyft sucks. I had to use Lyft a couple of weeks ago, and wow what a sketchy experience it was with that driver. Uber has had its media troubles, but I’ve not had an issue once with that company.

 

[ikir]

Just curious. I never tried the eBay watch app. What, specifically, did it offer beyond notifications? Alternatively, what can you not do now that you could before?

Fast check of favorite auctions, personal auction (how many favs or offers). Sorry for bad English I'm quite ko tonight. Anyway I was using it when I was working or going out with friends to check favorites and end time or to see how my auctions were going, without bringing out iPhone from pocket.

 

[GermanSuplex]

I pretty much never use third-party apps on my 2nd gen Apple Watch. They are slow to load, low-functioning.... Sometimes I'll use Siri, and I enjoy using it as a way to view notifications/messages etc. when I don't want to bother using my phone (working on something and hands are dirty/phone several feet away, etc.)

It's also nice to use when I get up before my morning alarm. I can shower, brush my teeth, etc. and stop my phone's alarm remotely.

I have used Apple Pay on it as well.

If I were into fitness, I'd imagine it would be a great fitness tracker, and there are positive stories about its use to measure heart rate. The music app and its ability to stream to bluetooth is great.

As an extension of the iPhone, its great, but its just too limited to make most apps practical enough for me to use it over my phone.

 

[tliede20]

Lyft's great, but by the sounds of it the app needed an overhaul. You could only select a "Classic" ride. So now it sounds like they are releasing an updated version that will allow you to select anything from a "Line" to a "LUX SUV" ride... probably going to be much more fluid and much more standalone. Probably won't see it announced till next week at WWDC, that's my bet.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Good. The more apps and companies that pull support from Apple's platforms, the more Apple is going to feel the pain and start realizing that they need to treat customers and developers better if they want continued growth.

I'll be selling my AAPL stock in a few weeks once I've held them for a year. I don't think there's going to be any major blowback resulting in a major drop in their stock in that short of a timeframe, but I do believe that day is coming within the next few months - 2 years, and I won't be the one caught holding their stock at that time.

 

[ipedro]

Apple really needs to make WatchOS development more attractive. Opening up watch-faces to developers, and making complications more robust, would go a long way I think.

The focus of the next version of watchOS should be to rethink the way apps work on the Watch. Complex apps don't make a lot of sense on the wrist. Watch apps should work as one or more of these three categories:

1. An interactive Notification
2. A Complication
3. A Siri command.

...That's it. You either receive a notification from an app and can interact with it by replying to a WhatsApp message for example or scrolling through a summary of breaking news, or an app gives you information in a complication (tap it to go more in depth), or you tell Siri to do something in an app (Hey Siri, get me a Lyft home) and Siri responds with the app’s information in a notification.

The Watch face with its complications should be the equivalent to the iOS Home screen. There shouldn't be a honeycomb app screen.

Complications should be given new prominence to go with their new role as the principal gateways to apps.

Allow third party complications to dominate a watch face, taking up as much as 80% of the screen like the Activity Watch Face:

This would effectively give us third party watch faces. Imagine a Watch face for Spotify or for Nike Run Club or for Things to do app or for Twitter.

You’d swipe between watch faces that you could custom build for different aspects of your life.

 

[oneMadRssn]

The focus of the next version of watchOS should be to rethink the way apps work on the Watch. Complex apps don't make a lot of sense on the wrist. Watch apps should work as one or more of these three categories:

1. An interactive Notification
2. A Complication
3. A Siri command.

...That's it. You either receive a notification from an app and can interact with it by replying to a WhatsApp message for example or scrolling through a summary of breaking news, or an app gives you information in a complication (tap it to go more in depth), or you tell Siri to do something in an app (Hey Siri, get me a Lyft home) and Siri responds with the app’s information in a notification.

The Watch face with its complications should be the equivalent to the iOS Home screen. There shouldn't be a honeycomb app screen.

Complications should be given new prominence to go with their new role as the principal gateways to apps.

Allow third party complications to dominate a watch face, taking up as much as 80% of the screen like the Activity Watch Face:

View attachment 763558

This would effectively give us third party watch faces. Imagine a Watch face for Spotify or for Nike Run Club or for Things to do app or for Twitter.

You’d swipe between watch faces that you could custom build for different aspects of your life.

Agreed, 100%

 

[machumors90]

so... remove an app because your company may possibly release an alternate app?
That doesn't make any sense.
I would think it's only logical to keep your app available until you have the other ready.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Apple really needs to make WatchOS development more attractive. Opening up watch-faces to developers, and making complications more robust, would go a long way I think.

That'll do nothing to make WatchOS more attractive to 99.9% of developers. That's like saying Stickers Packs made it more attractive. Not to more than a very few. Some silly watch faces and compilations aren't going to add one bit of appeal to developers like Lyft, eBay, and others that have stopped developing for WatchOS.

The truth is few use apps on their Apple Watch outside the standard workout apps and couple others. Developers can see how much people use their watch apps and they're finding people just don't use them enough to make it worth investing the time in them. Not much will make WatchOS more attractive to developers short of getting people to use 3rd party apps more.

 

[rwilliams]

It would be nice if Uber can fix its blank complication!
[doublepost=1527626443][/doublepost]Apple can also remove this from the Dev site!

It's still blank?? I thought they would have fixed it by now. I want to use it on my watch face when I travel, but a blank complication is no good.

 

[oldMacGenius]

so... remove an app because your company may possibly release an alternate app?
That doesn't make any sense.
I would think it's only logical to keep your app available until you have the other ready.

If “merging“ a feature branch with lots of API changes and other surprises for a new watch app might conflict with existing published code, to which ultimately a refactor is required; they may want to do everything in stages to mitigate risk—-they would most certainly not want to compromise the experience of most.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

18hour/single day battery life sucks. For tracking sleep and health.

Yea my Garmin doesn't have a pretty LCD for looking at full color photos on a teensy weensy display (WTF why would I want this), but it actually works for health and athletics and has a 7-9day battery life.

I have over 70% free at the end of the day. I've never once looked at a photo on mine. I do use it to track my health and exercise. I get emails and texts. I can use Apple Pay. I can control my music when doing my workout. The list goes on. Why would I want a wearable that only does one thing?

 

[convergent]

The focus of the next version of watchOS should be to rethink the way apps work on the Watch. Complex apps don't make a lot of sense on the wrist. Watch apps should work as one or more of these three categories:

1. An interactive Notification
2. A Complication
3. A Siri command.

Agree!

I used an AW for two years daily, and about a year ago switched to a Gear S3. While the AW had many more apps available, what I found in the end was that most of that apps didn't really change my life since I had my phone with me anyway and the phone was a better experience. Like in the case of this one... if you are hailing a Lyft or Uber, you want to see the map, and monitor the arrival Often you also need to possibly determine where the best place is to be picked up if you are at an airport. None of this is going to be easy on a watch. So even though the AW works with Uber, I never once tried to call an Uber from my watch.

In fact, most of what I used my AW for, that was really having an impact on my daily life, was the apps that came on it. And when I moved to the Gear S3, I found those apps gave me a better experience than AW. So though I miss the bigger inventory of apps for the cool factor, I don't miss them for any impact on my daily life. I don't really see the value in an AW app for Lyft or Uber personally.