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Aluminum213

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 16, 2012
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When the Apple Watch launched every developer rushed out a trash Apple Watch, now that 2.0 is out and they can make it native, hardly anyone developer has taken advantage of this
 
When the Apple Watch launched every developer rushed out a trash Apple Watch, now that 2.0 is out and they can make it native, hardly anyone developer has taken advantage of this
According to Tim, there are over 1,000 native apps already available. Most probably stink or are worthless but I do use about 8 that work great and nothing is faster than Carrot and Drafts 4. Carrot loads in half a second and Drafts is instant. Fantastical is also solid. I have a few only in the glance that are always current - including my checking balance.

So there are naive apps, but with a new OS out for the iPhone who would work on something small scale when there are millions upon millions more to be made developing faster for the phone. :)
 
I asked the waterlogged guys some time ago and they said 'next year'. Whilst I appreciate it is a task, I was a little disappointed in this. Agree drafts is excellent, as is Omnifocus.
 
Unfortunately, it's a lot of work to make a good watch app (either native or OS1 based.) I think the push to make OS1 apps and then the difference in how native apps work now has reduced the number of developers that want to put that time in to the watch.
 
You'll find the smaller / more independent developers catch up the quickest. The larger the company the slower they are to adopt / adapt to new technologies.

WhatsApp is a good example of widely used, huge application and it doesn't even have a Watch app at all yet. Then look at Carrot / MacID developers that are usually guys working solo and they're ready to go on release or shortly after.
 
Is there a list of native apps anywhere? At least for some of the better/more popular apps?
 
According to Tim, there are over 1,000 native apps already available. Most probably stink or are worthless but I do use about 8 that work great and nothing is faster than Carrot and Drafts 4. Carrot loads in half a second and Drafts is instant. Fantastical is also solid. I have a few only in the glance that are always current - including my checking balance.

So there are naive apps, but with a new OS out for the iPhone who would work on something small scale when there are millions upon millions more to be made developing faster for the phone. :)
It's kinda silly that they don't list these some how as searchable on the App Store. Hell there's not even really a section for watch apps in general
 
It's kinda silly that they don't list these some how as searchable on the App Store. Hell there's not even really a section for watch apps in general

There kind of is if you go to the "Featured" tab in the Apple Watch app.
 
I've seen that but didn't assume that "apps updated for watchOS 2.0" meant native.

Yeah, it looks like that's what the thread means, in this case though... From a app standpoint, there's really nothing to do to 'update a watch app to OS 2' unless you make it native. A Watch OS 1 app will still run on the new OS, just not be a 'native app'.
 
Things by Cultured Code just updated to a native app and built a new complication. It's incredible the difference it makes. It used to take way too long to load and updates to the glance were often inaccurate. Now, it loads instantly, the glance is always up to date and having a complication showing your progress really helps with getting things done.

I think that building a native app means pretty much starting over and many developers, having just built their Watch apps half a year ago, can't be bothered to build yet another app all over again. Hopefully, going forward, all new apps will be native and second versions of existing apps will move to native.
 
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