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Why can't we play music through the Apple Watch Speaker?

Drwrnld said:
Ugh. I really hate responses like this on forums and the like. The original post wasn’t asking how to listen to any media through their Apple Watch, I’m sure they’re not stupid and are perfectly aware you can pair listening devices with it. They specifically asked about listening through the Apple Watch speaker.

And yes, I do realize how ridiculous it is to take the time to post such long thoughts about your 3yo response. But I see this sh*t all the time all over social media and forums, people that just want to pop off some smart*ss reply without taking time to actually consider what the original question was asking. Straw that broke the camels back ya know?

Thaaaanks have a nice day 🙃
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Thanks :) I agree!

I have a pair of AirPods but I want to use my watch speaker. Why? I can set a podcast and listen (say, turn off after 20-30 mins) and I don't have to worry about AirPods missing, or falling out of my ear, or worst, waking up then standing on one when i get out of bed.

The watch has a decent speaker, the battery is fine for 20-30 mins.
 
honglong1976 said:
Thanks :) I agree!

I have a pair of AirPods but I want to use my watch speaker. Why? I can set a podcast and listen (say, turn off after 20-30 mins) and I don't have to worry about AirPods missing, or falling out of my ear, or worst, waking up then standing on one when i get out of bed.

The watch has a decent speaker, the battery is fine for 20-30 mins.
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Don’t you have a homepod? Or cant you use your iphone? I just cant see myself using my watch for bedtime listening. I’d either use the HomePod beside my bed or if I don’t want to disturb others around be I’d use a pair of wired lightning headphones with my iPhone. Then I don’t have to worry about loosing an airpod if I fall asleep with the headphones in.
 
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Shanghaichica said:
Don’t you have a homepod? Or cant you use your iphone? I just cant see myself using my watch for bedtime listening. I’d either use the HomePod beside my bed or if I don’t want to disturb others around be I’d use a pair of wired lightning headphones with my iPhone. Then I don’t have to worry about loosing an airpod if I fall asleep with the headphones in.
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Again, you are missing the point. Why do I need a speaker, EarPods, AirPods, iPad, iPhone when I have a watch on me (tracking sleep) with a speaker built in.
 
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Because of all the complaints that Apple will get about the sound quality. Apple has a history of simply not providing a product or feature if they do not think it provides a quality experience. There have been several products developed by Apple which have been canceled for this reason. They refuse to provide a feature simply because it is requested, if they think it does not work well enough.
 
It is interesting though that when I select my AirPods to listen to an audiobook, that "Apple Watch" is selected by default. Yet it won't play it through the speaker.

Why have it listed as a device then?
 
The reasons include battery life, volume, etc. And Apple's way is to dictate how you experience your device instead of allowing you to make your own decisions. There are scenarios where the issues that Apple might imagine that I will experience will not apply. For example, what if I don't want to bring my phone with me to my car or hotel, and just want to listen to a podcast while the Watch is on a charger? There will be no problem with battery life or volume. But Apple will not allow me to make this decision for myself.
 
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OP I have a solution for you. You can listen to music via YouTube on the Apple Watch. The app to use is watchtube.
 
rmw49 said:
And annoy the heck out of anyone in listening range next to you.
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And playing audio out of the AW wouldn't be just as annoying? I submit that it would be more annoying as the quality of the AW speakers are likely to be worse than any BT speaker that you could have gotten back in 2019, let alone today.
 
gary77 said:
You would kill the battery and damage the speaker not ideal
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  1. Damaging the speaker is a lie.

    This is pure opinion and not rooted in fact. People have jailbroken the  Watch and listened to music for years -- as many have pointed out, even the apps available in the App Store that are able to play music sound fine. The device controller can easily throttle power and volume through the external speaker to safe levels if that was even a concern. It's not.

  2. Claims about the speaker quality are also ridiculous.

    It sounds much better than an AM radio, though I doubt many here even remember what a radio sounds like or have ever listened to music on AM. No one is expecting Harman audio quality. It's nice to use in a pinch, especially if you want to play something on your wrist for someone else.

  3. Battery life could be an issue.

    Not the battery life between charges, but the longterm battery life. Prolonged use of the battery could drastically reduce the lifespan of the watches battery. In a matter of months it might not be able to hold a full charge. I doubt this is a serious consideration. Instead, it seems more like a profit-motive to encourage (read: force) people to buy other devices to pair with.
 
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People who listen to music from their phone speakers are the worst. It would be no different with a Watch. Just get some headphones and keep it to yourself, don't bother other people.
 
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honglong1976 said:
I doubt it. You can make a call using the speaker and the watch isn't dead after a few mins.

Apple has done it by design. Maybe because they want to sell AirPods.
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A call doesn’t drive the speaker constantly nor at the rate music would; resulting in less of a battery drain.
 
matrix07 said:
Guys.. if you really need it just bought a cheap 2nd hand 1st gen AirPods and the problem solved. You can even use it with your iPhone as well.
Using watch speaker will take a heavy toll on watch battery.
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not everyone can wear airpods - people with hearing aids have a hard time with things going in their ears
 
Well this thread got resurrected from the dead. I had a cellular Samsung Gear S3 in 2018 that could play music from Spotify. Was perfect when I didn't want anything in my ears. Cooking/doing dishes, working on the car, gardening, etc. Sound quality was fine and battery drain was very minimal. People are making excuses for a feature they've probably never experienced.

Having options are fine whether you'd use them or not.
 
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Shirasaki said:
If you ever use Apple Watch to answer the phone call for a while, you should be able to understand why Apple does not want people listen to music through Apple Watch speaker: its volume is still fairly low, compared with iPhone or iPad. Any reasonable level of noise will cover up the sound from Apple Watch. The experience is simply not good.
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Darth.Titan said:
Listening to music through the Apple Watch would be very much like listening to an old AM radio.
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waw74 said:
because it would sound like (smiley poo emoji)

(sad face emoji) for not being able to use emoji here
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Apple_Robert said:
I wouldn’t want to listen to music through the watch as the sound would not be good and the chances of blowing the speaker are very high.
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But, there ARE use cases for it. There are times I want a quiet, low volume song playing in the background, not worried about quality. For example, in bed, dosing off into sleep... It would be awesome to have it playing soothing songs until I fall asleep. Just ONE of the several use cases. ;-) R. (PS. Blowing the speaker? Nonsense. 🤣)
 
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If you can’t do things that are technically possible with your Apple products, because Apple doesn’t want you to, do you really own the products?
 
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