Two months ago Android announced Android Wear for iPhone. This announcement now gives owners of iPhones a bit of choice when it came to their smartwatch. As the Apple Watch currently starts at £299 on Amazon, this should be a welcome announcement for iPhone owners!
Rumours of an Android Wear for iPhone app started at the beginning of this year, but no announcement had yet been made. Some developers managed to get the Moto 360 working with the iPhone using hacks earlier this year – and it started to seem as though that might be the only way forward! Luckily Google came through in August with the release of the Android Wear app on the App Store. So, should you use Android Wear for iPhone – or should you stick with the Apple Watch.
How Does Android Wear Work on iPhone
All you have to do to get Android Wear up and running on your iPhone is to download the Android Wear app. The Android Wear app is available free of charge on the iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6, 6s, 6 Plus and 6s Plus. It is a painless experience to pair your Android Watch with your phone as the app walks you step by step through the process.
What Works on Android Wear?
After pairing up your watch with the iPhone you have the option to choose from a number of watch faces. There are a wide range of watch faces available to you on the app, meaning that you will almost certainly never get bored of the watch faces on your Android Wear watch!
Your Android Wear device will receive all notifications from your iPhone and vibrate to notify you, which is very useful. You can also dismiss notifications from the device, which dismisses them on your iPhone as well.
There are a wide range of other actions supported by the iOS app. You can sync your watch up to display calendars, alarms and reminders through the smartwatch. Unfortunately there are a few features missing from the iOS app which do work if you connect your watch up to an Android device. We will come on to these in the next section.
Google Now cards are available on your smartwatch through the iOS app. This will be really exciting for any avid Google Now users. You are able to activate all of the Google Now features through the phone including voice search.
What Doesn’t Work on Android Wear?
Some of the actions available on Android Wear through an Android phone are missing. Google Maps navigation, music playing options and note options are unfortunately missing from your the iOS app. Activity data (heartbeat, steps, etc) are available on your watch, but will not sync with the iOS app, which is a shame.
Communication methods available when you connect your phone up to an Android device are not available when you use Android Wear for iPhone. Your full contact list will be missing and if you want to respond to any notifications you will need to pull out your phone.
You won’t be able to use any third party apps with your Android Wear device as you can when you connect it to an Android phone. Which may be disappointing if you are used to a full range of apps on your Android Watch.
Conclusion
iPhone users will be happy to have a wider range of smartwatches which they can pair up to their device. Previously the options were to use a Pebble watch or an expensive Apple Watch – now there are a lot more watches available to use.
The Android Wear for iPhone app is very easy to use, it won’t take long until you and your watch are up and running. The range of actions you can use on your phone is extensive enough to make connecting up an Android Wear device a worthwhile exercise.
But what have people said after testing out the app for themselves?
Matthew Miller told ZDNet that “Initial setup was quick and easy, simply turn on the Android Wear device and then launch the Android Wear application on your iPhone and then follow the steps on the display.” But his experience wasn’t perfect and he explained that “I constantly had the Huawei Watch disconnecting from my iPhone 6s Plus. This happened so often, that I completely wrote off every trying to use Android Wear on iOS again.”
Craig Lloyd appeared to have a better experience after using his Moto 360 for 2 months for Gotta Be Mobile. He explained that: “Android Wear essentially gives you a small taste of what a true smartwatch experience is like on the iPhone, but you’ll really need the Apple Watch in order to get the whole, uncensored experience.”
It appears as though the Android Wear experience can add to your iPhone, but that the Apple Watch is really where it’s at! The app is still new and if there can be any significant feature additions it may be worth looking at the app again next year when Tag Hauer and Casio release their Android Wear devices.
Images: Intel Free Press
