Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Things I Wish My AppleWatch Could Do

Fabienne

Fabienne

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2009
1,247
7
Some super-sexy place in the Midwest
I am very pleased with my AppleWatch, I love the convenience of it and the wow of its futuristic features (taking phonecalls on your wrist, voice recognition for text messages, instant notifications of weather events, etc.). However, there are things I wish it had or could improve, and I am sure you can think of a few, too. Here are mine:
  • Activity tracker for cardio classes. Lots of people take Zumba, Bootcamp, etc. Now I am using "Other" for my fitness tracker when I am taking class.
  • The Health App shows every time there is a measurement taken, so there is so much information there it is virtually useless. No one is going to add up all the instances and come up with the amount of movement you did on Thursday. It would be great if it would just show you what the totals were for the day (or useful time frame) and if you wanted to see every instance where a measurement was taken, you could if you open up the day's totals.
  • Siri, one day they will get her right, until then I just ignore her.
  • Please stop telling me to stand up, I AM standing up!
  • The watch is VERY heavily tethered to the phone, get away from the phone and many of the apps don't work.
  • Battery life, the eternal complaint. Just glad mine lasts all day.
  • Many of the apps for AppleWatch are pretty lame. Example: Skywalk, it's amazing on the iPhone and incredibly lame on the watch. I know that is a tall order but I have taken a lot of apps off my watch because they just don't do anything on the watch.
 
I agree with the Health and Activity app. Both of them need A LOT of work. They're half-way decent as a baseline app for recording and display current information, but they aren't anywhere near a replacement for a real fitness app (MapMyRun, Runtastic, RunKeeper, etc.). They already have the data to compete with those pretty well, they just don't surface it for us to see.
 
Fabienne said:
  • The watch is VERY heavily tethered to the phone
Click to expand...

This is valuable in certain situations like videography.

It occurred to me that simply having zoom control of a video recording in progress would be very valuable. I currently use FilmIC pro and Movie Pro and the only feature that I use, once the app has been calibrated for lighting and focus, is the zoom feature.

Consider the periscope app on the iPhone as a stand alone device and remotely controlled by an AW for zooming in for effect.

As I now have various iPhones from past use, I may have more than one AW in the future which would be paired to a unique phone for remote control.

Yes, I have stepped into the Apple ecosystem and it works nicely.

➰
 
"Please stop telling me to stand up, I AM standing up!" Turn it off? It stop bothering me after that turn it off and I am happy now. Agree with Siri! Really slow to launch and respond.
 
zmunkz said:
I disagree about Siri, I am very impressed with her on the watch. Otherwise, good list
Click to expand...

I've had siri fail on me when I say Hey Siri, but it is usually once every 10 times. It has worked great for creating reminders, appointments and timers. I have NEVER had the watch tell me to stand when I am already standing but I don't stand up and just stand there for the only time I was up for the hour.
 
Siri seems to be very sensitive to background noise. She does not respond when there is much interference at all. I do need the stand up notifications for specific health reasons BUT it is a bit annoying to have them haptic you to get up when you are up.
 
I would like my Apple Watch to have gps so I don't need the phone. I would like to use pictures for my background and be able to add complications. I would like to join wi-fi networks without it already being on the phone. Way more watch faces. I don't care if Apple makes them and charges 99 cents. Maybe let us customize completely.

Just a few off the top of my head.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kdarling
I know this is not likely to happen in the near future, but I want the watch to have its own cellular connection. I hate taking my phone with me when I just go walking in the neighborhood.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ipaddaro
It would be nice as long as the size stayed the same and I didn't have to pay $9.99 more for an additional line. Someone should do a poll. Would you want GSM Radio if it meant the watch would be 25% bigger and/or charge $9.99 more. I couldn't imagine talking to my wrist for longer then 30 seconds but with blue-tooth headphones definitely.
 
Fabienne said:
I am very pleased with my AppleWatch, I love the convenience of it and the wow of its futuristic features (taking phonecalls on your wrist, voice recognition for text messages, instant notifications of weather events, etc.). However, there are things I wish it had or could improve, and I am sure you can think of a few, too. Here are mine:
  • Activity tracker for cardio classes. Lots of people take Zumba, Bootcamp, etc. Now I am using "Other" for my fitness tracker when I am taking class.
  • The Health App shows every time there is a measurement taken, so there is so much information there it is virtually useless. No one is going to add up all the instances and come up with the amount of movement you did on Thursday. It would be great if it would just show you what the totals were for the day (or useful time frame) and if you wanted to see every instance where a measurement was taken, you could if you open up the day's totals.
  • Siri, one day they will get her right, until then I just ignore her.
  • Please stop telling me to stand up, I AM standing up!
  • The watch is VERY heavily tethered to the phone, get away from the phone and many of the apps don't work.
  • Battery life, the eternal complaint. Just glad mine lasts all day.
  • Many of the apps for AppleWatch are pretty lame. Example: Skywalk, it's amazing on the iPhone and incredibly lame on the watch. I know that is a tall order but I have taken a lot of apps off my watch because they just don't do anything on the watch.
Click to expand...
Ditto enhancing Activity. I would like to see manual entry or a way to sync from other data sources..
Ditto the Health App detail. What were they thinking-- it is completely useless. It is like they are showing data in minutia to prove they can.
Ditto battery - I think Apple has some things to learn in this area.

Control my Logitech Home Hub remote.
Get GPS some day in a true sport watch.

I wish they had named the aluminum the Apple Watch Ultralight-- that is what it is. It is not a sport.
 
exxxviii said:
Ditto enhancing Activity. I would like to see manual entry or a way to sync from other data sources..
Ditto the Health App detail. What were they thinking-- it is completely useless. It is like they are showing data in minutia to prove they can.
Ditto battery - I think Apple has some things to learn in this area.

Control my Logitech Home Hub remote.
Get GPS some day in a true sport watch.

I wish they had named the aluminum the Apple Watch Ultralight-- that is what it is. It is not a sport.
Click to expand...
I would add that the health app on the phone shows all active calories in a graph if you choose one day. It will show all of your movements in a graph that looks nice and I assume that is why they have all the increments which I think is wasteful.

GPS would be great. I'm not sure what they can do for a Workout Choice for Zumba or BootCamp or any of the P90x, etc. Using other is pretty much what to expect - right? Not familiar with FitBit if it tracks more than Heart Rate? There isn't much (if anything) to track weight-lifting other than heart rate, so other is what I choose. Same for golf.
 
FireWaterEarthAir said:
I wish the speaker was louder.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind at all if the speaker was a little louder. Not too loud, I don't want to be the one annoying people in the street, looking like a looney as I shout at my wrist asking it where the nearest bank is.

I'd also like it to make my coffe, cook dinner and lots of other things that are impossible and I'll just have to wait for the Apple Robot (not iRobot due to not wanting to be associated with that film.) I seem to have wandered off topic slightly. Bloody medication :D
 
TrueBlou said:
I'd also like it to make my coffe, cook dinner and lots of other things that are impossible and I'll just have to wait for the Apple Robot (not iRobot due to not wanting to be associated with that film.) I seem to have wandered off topic slightly. Bloody medication :D
Click to expand...

Now we're talking
 
TrueBlou said:
I wouldn't mind at all if the speaker was a little louder. Not too loud, I don't want to be the one annoying people in the street, looking like a looney as I shout at my wrist asking it where the nearest bank is.
Click to expand...

The microphone is just fine, so there wouldn't be any need to shout at the AW. Me talking louder wouldn't make the speaker any louder or easier to hear.

What I want is to be able to actually hear the other person I'm talking to without having to hold my wrist close to my ear. This issue usually happens when I'm out at a store, for example - the background noise is just too much for the AW's speaker. And yes, the volume on my AW is at max.

If I was using the speakerphone on my iPhone 6 (not that I do that often in public), I would have no problem hearing the person I'm talking to.
 
Siri only works well if you're currently receiving LTE or wifi signal strength.

I live in a big city, and even some parts have limited coverage with my phone provider. Siri didn't work in those parts..other parts where the signal is good, she works well.

So it's likely not Siri, but your phone service provider who is to blame..
 
Things I wish it did:
  • Siri that was useful. The voice recognition is about 75% and most things Siri gets wrong "Ok Google" on android wear gets right. I've tried correcting Siri and still Siri gets it wrong. Even things Siri understand she frequently doesn't have an answer for where "Ok Google" on android wear will happily give me an answer.
  • A built in calculator
  • A built in flash light
  • Mail notifications that actually work. For some reason I get less than 10% of mail notifications yet notifications for all other apps work fine. I found a work around through IFTTT to get my mail notifications through IFTTT.
  • Accurately calculate standing. I can be stand for 15 minutes cooking and moving all around my kitchen and then I'll get a notification that says "Time to stand" What do you think I've been doing for the last 15 minute?
Things I wish it didn't do:

Phantom notifications. Frequently I get the red dot and then when I go to notifications it say "No notifications" and then the red dot disappears. Grrrr.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mantan
Night Spring said:
I know this is not likely to happen in the near future, but I want the watch to have its own cellular connection. I hate taking my phone with me when I just go walking in the neighborhood.
Click to expand...

this would be the real deal breaker for me... if i could use the watch in situations where i can't/don't want to bring the iphone with me, it would be a very useful device to me.

for the moment, according to my usage and habits, i don't really feel the need of it.

hope they will implement this possibility on apple watch 2, but i'm not very confident they will do it...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back