7 Thoughts on Owning an Apple Watch

I recently received my Apple Watch, here are a few of my thoughts after owning it for a few days.

1. Setting Up Apps is Hard to Do — To install apps on your Apple Watch you must first browse and install the app on your iPhone. Then you must open the Apple Watch app and flip a switch to install all Apple Watch apps or individually select the apps you want on the Apple Watch. It’s a pretty clunky workflow, but works for a first version. Once you do launch the Apple Watch app, most apps require you use your iPhone to set it up for the first time. This leaves you jumping back and forth between the watch and phone, Apple’s new Handoff feature is supposed to help make this easier, but it wasn’t working for me. Allowing users to accept permission requests and install apps directly on the watch are much needed features.

2. A Quiet Speaker — The speaker on the watch is used for phone calls and small notification sounds. It is not used for music playback or anything else. This leaves most music-based apps like Music or Pandora with more of a remote-control feel than an actual app. I have also used the speaker and microphone to make calls, but most people on the other end said I sounded like I was in the car.

3. Siri And You Are Going To Be Friends — Since the watch doesn’t have a keyboard, Siri is critical for input from the user. Hold the Digital Crown down to activate Siri and it will vibrate when ready. Siri on the watch does not have a “Siri is Ready” beep when you launch Siri. It makes using Siri in public much less stressful or embarrassing. While Siri is not perfect, it does give you the option to just send a audio recording instead of an interpreted response.

4. Raise, Shake, Tap, Rattle to Wake — The Raise to Wake feature could really be improved, the watch constantly is waking up on small movements like opening the refrigerator but failing to wake when I deliberately raise my wrist toward my face. This leaves you trying anything to wake your not-so-smartwatch. Hopefully Apple can improve the wake thresholds after they have more data from users.

5. Navigation Takes Some Practice — At first I expected to just put the watch on my wrist and start walking and launching apps. That was not the case, the navigation on the Apple Watch is a bit confusing. It uses the same “dive-down” and “back” button in the upper left corner as the iPhone, but I can rarely hit the back button on the first try. It is nearly impossible while walking. I recommend Apple provides the “swipe-to-go-back” feature copied from Android and released on iPhone in iOS 7. This navigation feature also existed in the Apple Watch’s earlier cousin, the iPod Nano 6th Generation. The crown makes scrolling up and down easier, but I still find myself just using my finger to scroll.

6. Friends Button, Why? — The Apple Watch is rather small and real estate for buttons is extremely limited. It is still very surprising to see Apple added a large button on the side of the watch, especially for a feature that is rarely used. I am sure Apple pictures everyone having friends with Apple Watches, but in reality most people have 0 to 2 friends with an Apple Watch. Especially, with these shipping issues. The fact that Friends button is there is confusing, and it’s even more confusing it’s tied to a rarely used feature like drawing squiggles with friends.

7. Apple Pay and Lock Screens — Apple Pay on iPhone is pretty easy to use, you just place your iPhone next to the terminal, put your thumb on the reader, and you hear a beep when the transaction is complete. Since the Apple Watch is paired to my iPhone, I thought Apple Pay with Apple Watch would be even faster. But I was wrong, first to setup Apple Pay on Apple Watch, you must re-enter your credit cards into the Apple Watch App. But wait there is more, to use Apple Pay with Apple Watch you must also setup a pass lock on your Apple Watch. Yes, another passcode to type in, this time on a 1 inch screen. Then to use Apple Pay with Apple Watch you must double-tap the Friends button and wait for your watch to go into “Apple Pay Mode” then you can swipe your hand in front of the terminal. At this point, pulling out my iPhone from my pocket is still faster.

Overall, the Apple Watch is a first iteration of a production. The second iteration really should be a standalone device, dropping the iPhone tethering requirement. Android already has a standalone smartwatch and it seems Apple is just playing catch-up with smartwatch hardware, just like they have been doing with smartphone hardware for years.

What is your favorite Apple Watch app? What do you think of the Apple Watch? @stevederico​ me on Twitter.