The new Walkie-Talkie app is being lauded by Apple Watch owners as the best new feature that came out as part of watchOS 5. But for some wearers, there’s a serious problem: they can’t find anyone to talk to.
Walkie-Talkie gives Apple Watch owners the ability to turn their wrist into a sort of digital two-way radio transceiver to talk with friends and family. It’s a super-convenient way to have short bursts of conversation when you don’t want to talk on the phone. If you don’t have any friends with a compatible Apple Watch, though, there’s no way to get in on the action.
Twitter has been full of people feeling the pains of Walkie-Talkie FOMO the last few days:
When you have no friends that you can use Walkie Talkie mode on the Apple Watch with ☹️
— Kieran (@K13ranE) September 19, 2018
When you have no friends that you can use Walkie Talkie mode on the Apple Watch with ☹️
— Kieran (@K13ranE) September 19, 2018
I just found out that everyone I know who has an Apple Watch has the original and can’t update to watchOS 5.
SO I CAN’T WALKIE-TALKIE TO ANYONE EXCEPT ME. #watchOS5 #AppleWatch
— Ali Aljoubory (@AliAljoubory) September 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/Simbaa254/status/1042459565495922689
I want to try the Apple Watch walkie-talkie but I’m the only one with a watch :(
— Camacho (@pugmacho) September 19, 2018
How to Walkie-Talkie the right way
To enable the Walkie-Talkie feature you’ll first need to upgrade to watchOS 5 and make sure you have the FaceTime app installed. The feature works on the Apple Watch Series 1 and above; if you have an original Apple Watch, you’re out of luck.
Even if you do have friends with a compatible Apple Watch, finding them is a bit tough. Apple doesn’t indicate whether your contacts have an Apple Watch, so you’re kind of left to guess. Even worse, scrolling through your list of contacts on the Apple Watch proves pretty cumbersome.
If you use the Digital Crown to scroll fast through your contact list, it enables a speed scrolling feature that pops up the letter allowing you to move quickly through your contact list. That helps, but it’s still a bit of a nightmare if you’ve got a lot of contacts. (It’s even worse if you’ve got dupes.)
Don’t have Apple Watch but want to get in on the action? Grab one of the new watches! Apple Watch Series 4 hits stores on Friday, September 21.