14 DAY TRIAL // Apple demoed a lot of neat apps for its watch, both at the September 9 keynote and in its Apple Watch video. However, people were left clueless as to how those apps would actually hop onto the phone in the first place.
According to someone who’s had an early hands-on with the thing, it will all be done through a central hub on your iPhone. That’s right. To use the Apple Watch properly, you need to be in the ecosystem.
It requires an iPhone for app installation
That’s not a joke. To actually get apps onto the thing, you’ll first need to download a management app – which Apple will probably supply in the coming months – and with that app you’ll be able to access the App Store, grab your apps, and then beam them over to your watch.
“Apple Watch users will install an Apple Watch app on their iPhone, which will be used to download apps onto the watch as well as likely manage Apple Watch settings,” according to Ariel Adams.
Sounds like a fuss, right? Maybe it won’t be. Apple tends to make these things really airtight and seamless, so we wouldn’t worry about not being able to use your watch without constantly fiddling with your iPhone as well. In fact, we don’t expect people to download watch apps half as often as they do with their iPhones or iPads. Speaking of iPads, the same watch management app should also land on tablets.
Adams clarifies that “aside from installing apps, most things can be done from the watch itself (such as adjust settings, customize the interface, select watch dials, switch apps, etc...).”
Essentially, you’ll be iPhone-free as long as you’re not going to install apps on a daily basis. And frankly, who has time for that?
It’s not an iPhone for your wrist
For a while, there was this general misconception that the Apple Watch would employ a similar iOS as the iPhone and that it would work much in the same way as the smartphone does.
But put that into practice and you’ll soon realize that the screen size makes it almost impossible to do anything on the Apple Watch that you’d normally do on the iPhone. Aside from flipping through photos, nothing on the watch works the same as on the handset.
That’s why Apple put that thing called the “digital crown” in there, and that’s also why you can consider the Apple Watch a truly independent device. And it will be able to download and install its own apps sooner than some would care to think.