Pet peeves of the Apple Watch.

[maflynn]

No product is perfect and while I do really like my apple watch, there is a handful of items that I find annoying.

So I'd like to hear back from what you rubs you the wrong with the watch.

For instance, for me, the activity app is what annoys me. At times, the watch will tell me that its time to stand up, that's all well and good, except I was already standing up. Not just standing up but moving around. Similarly, I get up, get a cup of coffee, and feed the dog. I then sit down and after a period of time look at the activity app. It says I hadn't gotten up for a couple of hours???

Is this a huge issue, no, does it occur all the time, no. Does it bug me, yes

 

[Julien]

Want Auto Pause on Outdoor Running. Obsess over lap times and run in the city so I have to stop at lights and cross streets. Tried manually pausing but that is a huge PIA (remembering, rain, distracted running,...) so I just let it run.

HR monitor was dead on accurate all summer/fall. However it is now all over the map when running (still dead on accurate when doing indoor cardio). I wear compression long sleeve shirts and I think this is the culprit.

I do (and will continue to) use a Garmin 620 and consider this my 'official' record of running/cardio activities.

 

[Night Spring]

At times, the watch will tell me that its time to stand up, that's all well and good, except I was already standing up. Not just standing up but moving around. Similarly, I get up, get a cup of coffee, and feed the dog. I then sit down and after a period of time look at the activity app. It says I hadn't gotten up for a couple of hours???

This happens to me all the time, too. I've found that the only way to reliably get it to give me stand credit is to walk around swinging my arms until it does give me credit. Also, there's no reliable way to tell if it already gave me a stand credit for this particular hour without counting the little stand bars. Which I can't do because I have double vision, so the bars blend together.

But the real problem I'm having right now is that since it's winter, and I wear my heavy overcoat when I go out, the watch gets buried under several layers of sleeves. Digging out the watch from under all my sleeves takes longer than getting my phone out of my pocket! Quite annoying, and makes the watch useless other than for activity tracking.

 

[Newtons Apple]

If you only have a few peeves you are doing good. I would love to,count on my AW for my fitness needs but I gave that up long ago. It is still a darn nice piece of hardware and still worn occasionally.

 

[zhenya]

Yeah, I don't really understand how the stand credit is calculated. I stand at my desk at work most of the day and yet it gives me all sorts of stand notifications while I'm standing. I take these to really be more like 'move' notifications, but still, often it will only credit me for a few hours of standing after an entire day.

All told though, this is one of my more minor irritations with the watch...

 

[mikzn]

I really like the watch and use it a lot for hiking, biking and running - very versatile and I expect it is just the beginning as apps will be developed further.

Presently, heart rate monitor for the fitness apps is not up to speed with my Garmin watch, so I use both ( but have to use a chest strap with the Garmin).

Am expecting the apps to improve and soon match the software of Garmin and others for tracking and analysis, currently using Runmeter app on the apple watch which I like but lacks the heart rate stats and tracking ( supposedly coming soon).

My biggest pet peeve is probably the shape - would like a round version - not a fan of the square / rectangle look.

 

[BarracksSi]

Yeah, I don't really understand how the stand credit is calculated.

I think it figures "horizontal arm" equals "sitting". I've gained standing credit while riding in the car by raising my elbow and dangling my forearm downwards. I'd feel more guilty if it wasn't the only sitting hour out of fifteen standing hours that day. ;p

I think I had a few peeves of my own, but I can't remember them now. I'll need to look back at some old posts.

 

[HRoland]

The one pet peeve I have about the Apple Watch is that I don't have one.

 

[Goaliegeek]

Apple Watch has been pretty darn good. My complaint is it's too slow. Saving workouts takes a long time. Loading things like Twitter and stuff take awhile too. Activating Siri takes forever.

 

[Slix]

My biggest pet peeve is that I can't use it - the 6th gen iPod touch does not support the Apple Watch.

You're losing money from me, Apple.

 

[themongooseman]

I'm hugely underwhelmed by the device overall, I have to say. I will caveat that by stating that work paid for my Watch, so I don't have my own money invested in it...which I'm very glad of. I don't want to have to charge my watch up every night. I don't want to have to very deliberately raise my wrist several times (sometimes) to be able to see the time. The contact handling is wildly rudimentary, and that huge button being dedicated just to access that very basic functionality is a bizarre choice.

I train anywhere between 13 and 20 hours a week for ironman, and while Watch was never intended to replace the likes of the Garmin 920XT I use for triathlon, I'd like to consider Watch at least a semi-capable sports watch. It isn't. The requirement to dodge in and out of the running/cycling tools coupled with the requirement to have a phone with you really kills it on that score.

I have a number of other moans about the device, but overall it smells very strongly to me like something that Marc Newson was allowed dominion over - to the detriment of the final result. It is not a cohesive, personal experience (yet), and it is absolutely not something I feel a sense of loss over leaving the house without. I suspect that's the case for most owners. There's a very long way to go before I'd even consider buying one with my own money.

 

[H4rold]

my biggest pet peeves isnt the watch itself, its the accessories. i hate that the apple bands are so expensive, which bubbles out to the over third party band makers.

i can't justify spending more on a watch band than i would a case for my iphone.

i also hate the expensive stands, i ended up making a stand out of a wire coat hanger because i refused to buy a piece of plastic to hold my watch in place while it charges for 40 bucks.

 

[Gralls]

1. Speed. Takes too long for apps to load
2. Make watch face complications functional. Don't take me out of the watch face and wait for an app to load in order to start a timer, check weather details, or see my activity info.
3. Let me hear Siri. This would be especially helpful now, in wintertime, when the watch is often under layers of clothes and I'm wearing gloves.

 

[farewelwilliams]

too slow. it's always faster to take out your phone to launch an app than it is to launch a third party app on the watch (even those that were updated to run natively)

 

[PolarOne]

I love the Apple Watch, however regarding pet peeves there is one: I wear gloves at the gym, which slide under the watch; this mimicks removing the watch from your wrist & needs code again.

 

[singletary]

I initially held off on getting an Apple Watch because I did not feel that there was anything super compelling about it. I was traveling for Christmas and got a desire to use it as my mobile boarding pass at airports for security and the gate, so I decided to pick one up and am very happy that I did. The fact that it was $100 off nearly everywhere but from Apple was also a huge motivation.

The Apple Watch is far from perfect, but it is good enough to be something that I wear daily immediately after purchase. My biggest complaints are:

1. Battery life. I had really low expectations going into the purchase, and was mostly surprised that it seems "good enough." It always gets me through the day, but wish I did not have to charge it every night.
2. Speed. Apps are slow. There's just no getting around it. Feels like they were just tacked on, which they were.
3. Vibration. The vibration is often not strong enough and sometimes just does not happen. I notice the notification ding, but sometimes the watch just does not vibrate.
4. Activity app. Mostly good. Happy with its features after switching from a Fitbit after many years of use. Needs a friends list and a leaderboard, though.
5. Find My Friends. Why is this not available?!

I am mostly super happy with it, however, and replaced my Fitbit Charge HR with the Apple Watch to handle all of my fitness tracking needs. It's far from perfect, but detailed enough to do what my Fitbit did. Having two fitness apps on my iPhone (Activity and Apple Health) is a bummer, but it looks like iOS 9.3 is going to fix this, so I'm looking forward to that.

I am glad that I waited until apps hit the Apple Watch before buying it, and I am almost completely happy with my purchase. I don't have any plans to upgrade to the next model this year and bought my Watch knowing that it would be outdated in a few months. It's a great device to wear on my wrist all day, but not yet compelling enough to justify even a bi-yearly upgrade.

 

[afd]

The number of taps it takes to send a text. And not being able to correct a mistake.

 

[SpamJunkie]

The whole UI. I'd love Apple to give the same hardware to an entirely new UI design team.

Two handed operation: Nearly everything requires two hand to accomplish. Doesn't feel very much like the future when I'm rubbing my watch with my nose.

The sport band's peg: constantly hitting my desk and MacBook as I type. A plastic version of the leather loop should be the watch's default, not the sport band.

 

[Night Spring]

Yeah, I don't really understand how the stand credit is calculated. I stand at my desk at work most of the day and yet it gives me all sorts of stand notifications while I'm standing. I take these to really be more like 'move' notifications, but still, often it will only credit me for a few hours of standing after an entire day..

"Stand" is not a very good name for it. It's more like "move." If you are standing in one sot, you won't get any credit, no matter how many hours you stay standing. On the other hand, I've found that I can get "stand" credit by waving my arms around while staying seated.

and it is absolutely not something I feel a sense of loss over leaving the house without. I suspect that's the case for most owners.

Just because you feel one way about the watch, doesn't mean that most owners would feel the same way. I do agree that the watch has a lot of shortcomings, but I, for one, miss it horribly if I don't have it on me.

I also hate the expensive stands, i ended up making a stand out of a wire coat hanger because i refused to buy a piece of plastic to hold my watch in place while it charges for 40 bucks.

I got one on Amazon for around $10-15, don't remember the exact price right now, but you can definitely get one for much less than $40.

 

[BarracksSi]

I think I had a few peeves of my own, but I can't remember them now. I'll need to look back at some old posts.

Ah --

I've got one hardware-related peeve: it's glued together. My other watches are screwed together with o-ring gaskets (although some are too old to fully trust around water), and although my six-month-old AW hasn't leaked yet, I wish there was a way for it to be constructed more robustly. A screw-in back would be impossible to align correctly with the sensors, however.

That's my only substantive complaint, and it's probably just for my peace of mind.

My peeves now don't really have anything to do with the AW.

I think people still don't know what it's good for. To clarify, I think people don't know what any smartwatch from any brand is good for.

It's not going to be a phone replacement, so don't try to make it one. Your phone isn't going to replace your laptop (if it can, you're not fully exploiting your laptop's abilities), and the much smaller watch shouldn't be tasked with the same things.

It's not going to run GPS and LTE, either, not at this size and with available battery chemistry. You'd need five to ten times the power capacity to remain useful when you add the necessary radios. So I'm not lamenting about how it's not as good at tracking hundred-mile bike rides as my much fatter, less comfortable, uglier Garmin.

Once you stop to think about what a smartwatch should do, I'm sure you'll complain a lot less.

 

[BarracksSi]

I love the Apple Watch, however regarding pet peeves there is one: I wear gloves at the gym, which slide under the watch; this mimicks removing the watch from your wrist & needs code again.

Do you tighten the watch band for workouts, or are the gloves still thin enough to slide underneath? I guess I don't know what kind of gloves you use.

 

[BarracksSi]

The number of taps it takes to send a text. And not being able to correct a mistake.

Can't argue about correcting mistakes, but you don't need any taps to send a text:

Raise wrist,
"Hey Siri, tell my wife 'I'm on my way home now.'"
…lower wrist.

Well, that's it. But it's the simplest scenario, too, so it might not be a fair example.

 

[dwfaust]

My biggest peeve is with the unnecessarily long, drawn out process to delete older text messages from the phone. It's at least a 3 step process, and the steps seem to take forever. Give me a way to set a threshold, and then a way to remove all text messages older than that threshold.

 

[Night Spring]

It's not going to run GPS and LTE, either, not at this size and with available battery chemistry. You'd need five to ten times the power capacity to remain useful when you add the necessary radios. So I'm not lamenting about how it's not as good at tracking hundred-mile bike rides as my much fatter, less comfortable, uglier Garmin.

Once you stop to think about what a smartwatch should do, I'm sure you'll complain a lot less.

Just because it's not technologically feasible yet for smartwatches to replace our phones, doesn't mean that that isn't a goal worth aiming for. I'd love for my watch to be my phone, drop the phone and just use a small tablet when I want one.

 

[macguy90]

Call me crazy (or indecisive) if you wish, but I have owned and returned/sold two Apple Watches. My two biggest pet peeves are the design and the price tag! I understand Jony Ive gave some weird reason for making the device rectangular, but I would so love to see it become round in the 2nd gen. I know it's likely not going to happen but you never know. I just know the sleek factor will increase so much when it becomes round. As for my other pet peeve- the price tag just seems too steep for what the device does, or specifically it's value in my tech lifestyle. I'd really like to see the 42mm Sport drop down to $299, but once again this probably isn't likely to happen anytime soon. I'll be interested to see if something about AW2 convinces me to try it yet again! Maybe 3rd time will be the charm??