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One year later, I've come to the conclusion that apps are useless
- Thread starter Aluminum213
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Pre-ordered Apple watch
First month in - these notifications are amazing on my watch love it!
Second month in - these notifications are a bit much going to turn a few of these off.
Third month in - (all notifications are off) I don't need this many apps on the watch (delete delete delete)
Now I'm just using it for replying to text messages when I'm moving around, or change the song when I'm driving. It's also good for screening calls so I don't have to waste time pulling my phone out of my pocket.
I'll be honest, it's also pretty good for when I'm sitting on the porcelain throne and forget my phone, now I can answer that important call I was waiting on.
First month in - these notifications are amazing on my watch love it!
Second month in - these notifications are a bit much going to turn a few of these off.
Third month in - (all notifications are off) I don't need this many apps on the watch (delete delete delete)
Now I'm just using it for replying to text messages when I'm moving around, or change the song when I'm driving. It's also good for screening calls so I don't have to waste time pulling my phone out of my pocket.
I'll be honest, it's also pretty good for when I'm sitting on the porcelain throne and forget my phone, now I can answer that important call I was waiting on.
My wife and I use an app called Bring for grocery shopping. It lets us share lists for different grocery stores so we can both add items from our own iPhones. The watch app doesn't allow you to add items… just view and check them off. I've been pretty happy with it, but there have been a couple of times when I needed to remove it and re-install it on the watch because it stopped syncing to the watch (I think both instances happened after a Watch OS update). Outside of those two instances I have probably used it twice a week or more since last July without any problems. The watch updates right away when I modify a list on the iPhone. The watch app displays items you need to buy, and as you tap them to check them off they change color and drop to the bottom of the list. It's nice and easy to read on the watch compared to some lists I have tried.
When I need to create a list that isn't grocery oriented (like a trip to the hardware store for some kind of household project) I will sometimes use a note-taking app like Cloud Outliner or Evernote. These are helpful when I need to include specs like measurements, and I can easily access these notes from the watch as I shop.
I have a bunch of recipes stored in Evernote, so I do sometimes refer to those recipes while grocery shopping as well. I used to really like the Evernote Food app for recipes, but Evernote killed that app last year.
Sean
I mentioned using PCalc a few posts back and had occasion to use the app today on my watch. It just works immediately, no spinning wheels. Really impressed. And I forgot to mention that when you enter the digits into the app, you get a tap on your wrist. I liked that.
Thanks for mentioning Bring sean000. I'll check it out. That would be another useful app that I could see taking advantage of on my wrist. BTW if you are cooking and need to do a recipe conversion PCalc with the cooking measurement conversions is handy.
Thanks for mentioning Bring sean000. I'll check it out. That would be another useful app that I could see taking advantage of on my wrist. BTW if you are cooking and need to do a recipe conversion PCalc with the cooking measurement conversions is handy.
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For my grocery lists, I use Clear, which can sort, add to, or Complete All via Force Touch once you're viewing a list. Although I can add items by voice, I don't know if I can do voice commands directly when the app isn't up front.
Pretty simple interface, but it seems to sync fine, and hasn't crapped out yet. Not AW native, though (I checked just now).
Pretty simple interface, but it seems to sync fine, and hasn't crapped out yet. Not AW native, though (I checked just now).
I'm the opposite. I don't tinker with it all. In fact, got it so I don't tinker with my phone as much. It tells me the time, tells me the weather, sets timers for me, lets me read emails, and tells me when someone calls or texts. Thats about it. That's why I bought it in the first place, and that's how I still use it.
I see tinkering as an advantage for those who have the time and engage in it.
Apple is brilliant, they know their customers well, tinkering is bonding for many enthusiasts. Just like the lure of it as a gadget. Entire markets target gadget lovers.
That's fine by me. I'm just saying I see it as a bit of the anti-tinkering device, especially compared to most Apple products. I think some of those who've been disappointed with the Watch went into it thinking it was meant to capture their attention all day, when, in reality, it's a minimal use device.
It's a wristwatch with benefits, not a micro-iPad.
There are those who obsess over gadgets/technology and there are those who obsess over productivity and efficiency. There is a good deal of crossover between these two groups, and the Apple Watch seems designed to appeal to that crossover group. People who are just into the gadget appeal of the watch seem to grow bored with it. Those who are into using it to improve their productivity and communication get excited over features or tricks that others may not care so much about. Not that others are not productive or efficient. They just might have processes and workflows that are not as dependent on frequent but quick updates and notifications, or they may not be as obsessive about how those updates and notifications happen. If you do depend on those brief but frequent interactions, and you like to tinker with your own prductivity, the watch changes how you use your other technology... Especially your iPhone. You don't just tinker with the watch itself. You tinker with processes and apps that span the watch, iPhone, and sometimes your other technology as well.
For me the watch opened up all kinds of possibilities that have led to many improvements in how I use technology at home and at work. Some improvements are quite significant, but most are small improvements that add up. When I read about someone using the watch in a way I had not considered, I get excited... even if it's just a little thing. I still stumble onto new ideas as well through my own tinkering. I've had my watch for nine months and I am far from bored. I think it's one of the best technology purchases I have made, and I have owned a lot of gadgets going back to the early 90's.
Sean
I get real benefit out of the watch every day, as do a lot of people who have posted in detail how and why they benefit on these forums. But if you want to ignore that and make generalizations like this, be my guest. You know, I heard exactly the same things said about the iPhone ("it's not a serious smartphone - it's just a toy") when it was new and different and everyone was walking around with Blackberries and Treos. Just about all of these people are now dedicated iPhone users.
Great reply. I use the Aplle Watch all day every day from my silent alarm to sleep tracking to workouts to timers to reminders to notification to note taking to calendar to to do items.
If you don't like the little screen, you won't like a Fitbit or Microsoft band or any competitor either.
I think that's a good way to characterize it. I simply meant that, compared to lots of other Apple products that can take up chunks of time with each use, the Watch stays relatively out of my way during the day, despite completely changing my productivity. I've attempted to break out my nice analog watches from time to time over the last 8 months, but I quickly realize how the Watch has become ingrained in my daily life. I'm stuck with the Watch, for better or worse.
AW is one of those things where you don't really need it, but once you get it you don't want to go without it.
You're assuming.
I kept my SS Apple watch two weeks before returning it. More of a time sink, requiring nightly charging.
The very reason I kept and enjoy my fitbit is its highly useful functionality. The tiny display is well thought out, displays only what I want to see and doesn't pretend to do anything more.
I sold mine and bought the MS Band. The band provides far more useful and interesting health related data to me, as well as displaying notifications, calls, messages, calendar appointments and music controls. It does everything I ever needed the watch to do, plus has usable fitness tracking.
The watch was pretty useless as a health device other than 'filling the circles'. You can't really do any analysis on your data other than the most rudimentary.
I do miss the form factor of the watch over the band, but at least I feel like I have a reason to wear the MS band. I felt like the apple watch was just a mini less useful version of the iPhone strapped to my wrist.
Also I tried using third party apps and only ended up sticking with a couple of them - fantastical and heartwatch. I found that I was going out of my way to use the watch apps rather than it be easy to use them over just using my phone. Clear and Things on my watch woohoo! but they were next to useless.
They are too slow, too limited, even in 'glance' form. I found glances in general to be useless because the data didn't refresh often enough. By the time the glance data updates, I could've looked at my phone and put it away.
I don't doubt one day the Apple Watch or devices of it's kind will be indispensible. But personally, i think devices like the MS band are closer to that vision. They provide data that improves my life. If Apple can find more uses for the Apple Watch other than notifications, they might win more business. These devices are in contact with your skin all day, THAT is the killer app. Your body. Make these devices know your body, and give you actionable insights on it.
The Apple Watch can't even track sleep without using a third party app, and even then it doesn't work as well as a basic $50 fitness tracker.
The watch was pretty useless as a health device other than 'filling the circles'. You can't really do any analysis on your data other than the most rudimentary.
I do miss the form factor of the watch over the band, but at least I feel like I have a reason to wear the MS band. I felt like the apple watch was just a mini less useful version of the iPhone strapped to my wrist.
Also I tried using third party apps and only ended up sticking with a couple of them - fantastical and heartwatch. I found that I was going out of my way to use the watch apps rather than it be easy to use them over just using my phone. Clear and Things on my watch woohoo! but they were next to useless.
They are too slow, too limited, even in 'glance' form. I found glances in general to be useless because the data didn't refresh often enough. By the time the glance data updates, I could've looked at my phone and put it away.
I don't doubt one day the Apple Watch or devices of it's kind will be indispensible. But personally, i think devices like the MS band are closer to that vision. They provide data that improves my life. If Apple can find more uses for the Apple Watch other than notifications, they might win more business. These devices are in contact with your skin all day, THAT is the killer app. Your body. Make these devices know your body, and give you actionable insights on it.
The Apple Watch can't even track sleep without using a third party app, and even then it doesn't work as well as a basic $50 fitness tracker.
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Okay it might be me, but is the setting removed to change the raise on wrist action?
It's down below on that screen for wake screen on wrist raise on the watches settings. You will see the previous activity and 15-70 seconds.
Found it. Sorry I looked for ages and completely overlooked it. Going to try it out - especially the messages part of carrying on a conversation sounds like a winner
Same here, I got all excited until I saw the Watch classification. Thought it was going to be a funnier thread, but instead it's just full of good advice and tips. Oh well.
A few weeks ago when Apple lowered the price on the Apple watch, I figured I might just finally buy the cheapest one just to have. Then I read an article that same week titled something like the secret that Apple doesn't want you to know about the Apple watch and that was this very thing. The watch sucks at doing apps and many of the complaints that it brought up were what I read here in this thread. I have not bought an Apple to date because of this.
I do own a Gear S watch that I still wear after owning it for over a year. Just the Apple watch, the watch kind of sucks at apps and unlike the Apple watch, the selection of apps is just not there but that is because it runs Tizen.
$300 for an Apple watch is nothing compared to the two iPhones and three Android phones that I've bought in the last five months so it's not the price of the watch keeping me from buying it. The Apple watch just does not seem so exciting to me after all this time and the more I read, the more I want to wait to see what the next version brings.
I do own a Gear S watch that I still wear after owning it for over a year. Just the Apple watch, the watch kind of sucks at apps and unlike the Apple watch, the selection of apps is just not there but that is because it runs Tizen.
$300 for an Apple watch is nothing compared to the two iPhones and three Android phones that I've bought in the last five months so it's not the price of the watch keeping me from buying it. The Apple watch just does not seem so exciting to me after all this time and the more I read, the more I want to wait to see what the next version brings.
In my experience the slowness of apps is greatly exaggerated... especially since the release of Watch OS2 and the ability of apps to run on the watch natively. There are definitely some that are terrible, but I have a half dozen apps I use daily (or almost daily) and a half dozen more I used weekly. They all run reliably and quickly. I even have a couple that don't run natively that run quickly. Of course "quick" is subjective. It usually takes the apps I use 2 or 3 seconds to open and refresh, but quite often they just display updated info on the watch face in a complication, so I'm not even opening the app. When I do open the app for more detailed information, it's definitely faster than getting out my iPhone. I only get the iPhone out when I want an extended interaction. The most recent Watch OS update made overall watch performance even snappier, but of course I will welcome the day when everything is just instantaneous.
Sean
"Time sink requiring nightly charging?" I put mine on my charging stand at night and go to bed. How can that be taking up your time? Can't imagine you stand there all the time while it's charging. Must be missing something in your comment? Most people with AWs don't see nightly charging, like brushing your teeth before going to bed, an issue.
I personally don't care about the fitness aspects of the AW so much and bought it for the other uses I get from it and am sure the Fitbit wouldn't do anything for me. I think the slim band one is sometimes attractive and the Blaze is just a copycat styling of the AW so find that sad they couldn't come up with something original. Makes me think less of them as a company. If one wants just a fitness tracker then sure go cheap and just get that function.
I think the AW screen is great BTW. Was impressed with the screen color and the resolution of text. I customize the faces with just the info I need using the complications and glances, the rest of the apps I might use on my wrist like timer, stopwatch, etc. are right there and easy to get to. I do think that many companies/developers out there didn't get what a watch app should be, rushed to develop for it, and they failed in creating something useful at a glance. I seldom download other watch apps, tried a few out, deleted most because they weren't all that well conceived and implemented for the Watch. Some were better as a phone app. As mentioned above recently added PCalc and the Bring! Shopping apps and so far find them useful and nicely done. PCalc for sure is a keeper and still deciding on Bring! Both Watch OS2. The developers behind them stuck with what the saw as a useful app and have gone through several updates fixing bugs and working on features and it shows with ease of use.
AW is very versatile in so many ways without being cluttered and given the wide range of users on the forum, seems to make the vast majority of them happy. Sounds like Fitbit was the way for you to go so don't get why you still post on the Watch forums. Are you thinking of buying another AW at some point?
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