Apple Watch is one the most incredible watch I’ve ever owned, but there’s just one problem — the apps are all soooo slow.
That could change pretty soon, according to Apple VP of Operations Jeff Williams, who says Apple will give developers a preview of native Apple Watch apps at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
Currently, only Apple’s own apps run natively on the Apple Watch S1 chips. By adding support for third-party software, Apple Watch apps won’t only be faster, they’ll also have access to more sensors.
During his interview at the Code Conference this morning, Williams told Walt Mossberg that third-party apps will get direct access to all of Apple Watch’s sensors, so if you use fitness apps you won’t be forced to use Apple’s built-in exercise app to access all your fitness data. There could even be better games focused on the watch.
Fully native Apple Watch apps won’t come out until the fall, says Williams, but they’ll be much better than the current options. “Third-party apps will get much better when they can release code natively for the watch and have access to native sensors,” said Williams. “That will make for better apps.”
Williams’ interview is still underway at Code Conference in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California. You can follow all the action live here.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
7 responses to “Apple Watch apps are about to get the speed boost they desperately need”
I have been attacked by Apple Watch lovers because I have complained about how sloooow the apps are on the watch. I am told by Apple Watch lovers that they aren’t slow. Now that Apple has announced native apps are coming those same people are like “oh good, this was soo needed”. Funny how we are blinded by love sometimes.
If they didn’t misunderstand you referring to native apps, then yeah, they were just blind fanboys. Third party apps are slow. Native apps aren’t really slow, but do suffer from UI lag. That’s different than “slow” per se. What does make native apps slow isn’t the fault of the Watch but of the distance to the iPhone. Some native apps need to refresh information that gets pulled from the iPhone and if the phone is in my kitchen and I’m taking dump upstairs, that distance seems to always cause dramatic slowness in loading even native apps. But that can’t be blamed on anything other than the reality of a BT connection and the power constraints of these devices and won’t be fixed anytime soon.
Besides smoother UI, what I really want the Watch to get is MOAR faces and/or 3rd party faces. I’m already sick of all the stock faces because I wasn’t crazy about any of them in the first place. I couldn’t care less about 3rd party apps being native, I still believe it’s an improper use case to be running all sorts of 3rd party apps on this thing, that’s what your phone is for.
ok?…. I just think the watch is not practical and is over priced but if it works for some then great. I just hate seeing people buy things that aren’t worth the money. I warned a few friends about the shortcomings and some of them returned them after they saw what I meant and others decided to keep it and deal with the problems. None of them, even those that kept it, were extremely happy with it especially days later.
I’m extremely happy with my Watch. The one thing everyone was worried about (battery life) hasn’t been an issue for me at all. It easily gets through the day with normal usage. So some apps lag, big deal. It’s a first gen product so they get some leeway with that. I’m happy that they work as well as they do. The only thing I have an issue with is figuring out when I can use Force Touch, and even that is minor considering how little I use the apps on my Watch.
I can’t wait for things to get even better than they are now!
Good! That means Shazam will finally be able to use the mic on Watch to listen to songs over the currently stupid way that relies on your phone’s mic, which defeats the purpose if your phone is in your pocket.
My only concern is if the battery will take a bigger hit from all the native apps running. I’ve only had my Apple Watch a week but on most days I have upwards of 40% by the end of the day (which starts around 6:30a and ends around 11p).
Hopefully native apps won’t take more than a 10% drain on the battery. That’s doable.
Same here with the battery. I have no issues getting through the day on a charge.
The battery life is so good I removed it as one of the complications on my default watch face. No sense checking it as I know it’ll last well beyond the day.
If I ever get into a more consistent exercise regimen I might have to charge it a bit more often, my penance will be a better and healthier body.