The 3,500 apps available for the Apple Watch show the device’s promise and pitfalls.
Frankly speaking no one really needs an Apple Watch, or any kind of smart watch, since there is not much to do with them beyond activity tracking and replicating the alerts you already get on your smartphone.
However, that is not going to stop any of app makers from their attempts to create something more to do with wrist-worn gadgets.
Accordingly to MIT, there are more than 3,500 apps available for the Apple Watch, which started selling this month from Apple’s website.
Apps That Make Sense
One would assume that the apps that make the most sense tend to be those that take advantage of the watch’s proximity to your body,
don’t require much time and attention, and don’t crowd its tiny display with unnecessary information. Apps that are more annoying than awesome try to cram in too many features, share content that isn’t really suited to being viewed on your wrist, or simply don’t give you enough information (Rachel Metz, MIT).
- Apple Pay
Apple Pay on the Apple Watch is smartly done, as paying with the gadget that’s already on my wrist could be quite useful, you just double-click the oblong button on the side of the Apple Watch, which you hold up to the store’s credit card reader.
Just remember you will have to be shopping at a store that accepts Apple Pay (such as Walgreens, Sephora, or Whole Foods).
- Yelp
The review service works well on the Apple Watch because it’s simple on the surface.
Opening it up, you’ll see icons for restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and places that are popular and new. Tap on one of the icons and you get a list of 10 places along with vital stats for each (its distance from your location, price range, star rating, cuisine).
This app is full of information, but it’s cleverly hidden, therefore, you can get a lot out of the app with just two taps and a turn of the watch’s so-called digital crown.
- Clear
The Clear app for the watch is pretty simple. Assuming you already have the app on your iPhone, you’ll see all the lists you’ve made, and while you can’t make new lists you can add new items to any list by pressing a finger firmly on the name of the list, or any item within the list, and then dictating what you want.
Apps That Miss the Mark
- Amazon
The Amazon app for the Apple Watch makes sense in theory. However, in practice, the Apple Watch isn’t yet good enough at understanding the strange words and brand names that often identify specific products.
Tapping a result yielded the full item name, its Amazon rating, and buttons to buy it or save it to a wish list with a ta. But with so little information in the description, one may be afraid of getting the wrong one…
Instagram images already too often seem too small on iPhone’s screen, so looking at the much smaller display strapped to the wrist is even less appealing.
Twitter is meant for short interactions, so it seems like a natural fit for the Apple Watch’s small display. Unfortunately, its first iteration doesn’t show quite enough information to make it useful.