Screenshot via Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 page
I, rather recently, wrote about how Apple’s own smartwatch had become a disappointment. The Apple Watch has grown stale, its design isn’t chic, the bezels are too large, it’s too thick, and it has become boring. Six generations of the design barely changing with the best watch faces still being those the watch released with will do that. It’s a snoozefest!
So when an ad for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 came across my Twitter feed, I was a bit taken aback. The design is… actually inspired. It has a sort of two-part design, one that reflects more traditional watch design, and one part that is the smart watch itself. The circular bulk of the smart watch sits within a frame that curves around the wrist and goes down into the straps. The design gives it the illusion of reduced height, while curving to your wrist for a better fit, improved appearance, and improved comfort.
Samsung has come a long way from their days of just copying Apple. The Samsung Galaxy S21 is a unique phone with color options that appeal to a wider audience. The Galaxy Watch 4 is just another in a line of new and fresh designs. However, there’s a big problem. While previous versions of the Samsung Galaxy Watch had some support for the Apple Watch, the latest version will not. Just when iOS users might start looking outside of Apple’s walled garden for new options, Samsung took those options away.
Galaxy Watch on iOS
via Samsung’s compatibility page for older Galaxy Watch devices
I personally never tested a Galaxy Watch on iOS. The Pebble gave me a taste of what a non-Apple smartwatch would feel like with Apple’s platform. You couldn’t reply to text messages or third party messaging apps. There was a lack of third party app support as well. You could also say goodbye to voice assistants. On Android, all of this was possible. The Pebble on iOS was held back by Apple’s decisions compared to the Pebble on Android.
The Galaxy Watch suffered many of the same problems. Samsung built their Galaxy Watch primarily to work with their own phones. In an effort to boost sales within its own ecosystem, Apple restricts many features to their own hardware. Obviously the Galaxy Watch won’t be able to access features that are specific to Samsung devices, but there are other iOS-specific restrictions. This includes slower data, lack of messaging and message replies, no apps that require an app on device as that’s Android-only, and other possible app restrictions.
There were still some surprising features, like calls, most notifications, sleep tracking, heart rate monitor and fitness tracking, music controls, and a few other features. It’s not enough to make the Galaxy Watch useless on iOS. However, with the Galaxy Watch 4, things changed.
Samsung Pulls iOS Support
Likely due to overhead costs of development for a small user base, Samsung has quietly pulled support for iOS in the latest version of their smartwatch. The new device only supports Android devices running 6.0 or higher, with 1.5GB of ram minimum. iOS devices aren’t mentioned. Samsung confirmed, while the older Galaxy Watch devices will continue to work for iOS, the Galaxy Watch 4 will not pair with an iPhone.
Because of the restrictions Apple places on smartwatches, the Apple Watch is, by far, the best smartwatch you can get for the iPhone, at least when it comes to features. While it may not be as attractive as some of Samsung of Fossil’s smartwatches, the feature set is enough to make up for those shortcomings for most people. As a result, nearly all smartwatch users on iOS are using the Apple Watch. It makes sense that Samsung wouldn’t want to support a platform with so few users. However, for iOS users, it’s bad news. This means Apple has even less competition than they had previously. Apple didn’t feel as though it needed to innovate with the Apple Watch anymore. Now they definitely won’t. iPhone users are stuck with the Apple Watch, just how Apple likes it.
Sources:
- Corey Gaskin, ArsTechnica
- Ben Schoon, 9to5Google
- Arjit Pratap Singh, Techwiser