Time to figure out just what the Watch can do on Wifi, by itself, with watchOS 2... Here's what I've found so far:
I took my dog for a walk and when I was a half-mile away from my house and my phone showed it was out of wifi range... I turned off my phone. My Watch showed that it was completely disconnected (of course). Then I walked around outside for about another 15 minutes before returning to my house.
When I got back to my house it only took ~30 seconds before my Watch reconnected itself to my home wifi (which is secured with WPA2 and is NOT using an Apple router) and showed the green cloud in the Settings glance. Remember, my phone is still completely off.
Stuff that works (phone completely off, Watch authenticated to the network by itself):
1. Native 3rd Party Apps! (Dark Sky - it even updated the forecast!)
2. Messages (sending and receiving, including using Siri)
3. Lots of the built-in apps
Stuff that doesn't work:
1. Email (odd! It shows a little "phone disconnected" icon in the corner and doesn't load new emails!)
2. FaceTime Audio. Trying to make a call says "Call Failed". Trying to receive a call - it just never comes in. (bummer!)
3. Using "Remote" to control an AppleTV (bummer!). It just puts up a message saying that it can't find your iPhone on the same network.
4. Maps. It loads but then says it can't connect to my iPhone and doesn't actually load any maps. (bummer!)
5. Non-native 3rd party apps (duh!)
Calendar Weirdness:
- Calendar "kind of" works. It will open - but like Mail it shows a red phone icon in the upper right.
- The Calendar will NOT update. I added appointments to my google calendar (using my laptop)... and they DONT show on the Watch!
- You _can_ add a new appointment using Siri (I said: "Hey Siri, add a dentist appointment to my calendar for 4:00 this afternoon")
- BUT: That appointment actually does NOT get sent to my Google Calendar!!!!! It shows on the Watch ONLY
- However: once I turned my phone back on (and unlocked it!) that Dentist appointment was then synced to my Gmail calendar!
- At that point, my Watch also synced down the other test appointments I had made using Google Calendar.
Verdict:
watchOS2 does bring more wifi functionality to the Watch. The biggest one is that 3rd party, native Apps CAN run and use the internet without an iPhone. That's HUGE. It was also very reliable about reconnecting to a known network... even one secured with a password.
But: there is still a long way to go toward Watch autonomy. Email and Calendar are pretty big disappointments.... but even worse is Facetime Audio. I had hoped that Facetime Audio would be useable without an iPhone for those times when you go to the gym and want to leave your phone behind. Major bummer.
Please add anything you have found!
I took my dog for a walk and when I was a half-mile away from my house and my phone showed it was out of wifi range... I turned off my phone. My Watch showed that it was completely disconnected (of course). Then I walked around outside for about another 15 minutes before returning to my house.
When I got back to my house it only took ~30 seconds before my Watch reconnected itself to my home wifi (which is secured with WPA2 and is NOT using an Apple router) and showed the green cloud in the Settings glance. Remember, my phone is still completely off.
Stuff that works (phone completely off, Watch authenticated to the network by itself):
1. Native 3rd Party Apps! (Dark Sky - it even updated the forecast!)
2. Messages (sending and receiving, including using Siri)
3. Lots of the built-in apps
Stuff that doesn't work:
1. Email (odd! It shows a little "phone disconnected" icon in the corner and doesn't load new emails!)
2. FaceTime Audio. Trying to make a call says "Call Failed". Trying to receive a call - it just never comes in. (bummer!)
3. Using "Remote" to control an AppleTV (bummer!). It just puts up a message saying that it can't find your iPhone on the same network.
4. Maps. It loads but then says it can't connect to my iPhone and doesn't actually load any maps. (bummer!)
5. Non-native 3rd party apps (duh!)
Calendar Weirdness:
- Calendar "kind of" works. It will open - but like Mail it shows a red phone icon in the upper right.
- The Calendar will NOT update. I added appointments to my google calendar (using my laptop)... and they DONT show on the Watch!
- You _can_ add a new appointment using Siri (I said: "Hey Siri, add a dentist appointment to my calendar for 4:00 this afternoon")
- BUT: That appointment actually does NOT get sent to my Google Calendar!!!!! It shows on the Watch ONLY
- However: once I turned my phone back on (and unlocked it!) that Dentist appointment was then synced to my Gmail calendar!
- At that point, my Watch also synced down the other test appointments I had made using Google Calendar.
Verdict:
watchOS2 does bring more wifi functionality to the Watch. The biggest one is that 3rd party, native Apps CAN run and use the internet without an iPhone. That's HUGE. It was also very reliable about reconnecting to a known network... even one secured with a password.
But: there is still a long way to go toward Watch autonomy. Email and Calendar are pretty big disappointments.... but even worse is Facetime Audio. I had hoped that Facetime Audio would be useable without an iPhone for those times when you go to the gym and want to leave your phone behind. Major bummer.
Please add anything you have found!
