The first to know: Using an Apple watch to stay up to date on the latest headlines
I don’t remember where I was on Sept. 17, 2016, when I found out about the bombings in New York, but I do remember how I found out.
My wrist vibrated.
When I lifted my wrist to look at the face of my Apple watch, CNN’s logo popped up with a brief synopsis of what had just occurred.
I knew before anyone else around me. My friends were all shocked when I read the notification aloud and they checked their phones immediately to get the latest updates. I did the same.
The Apple watch is a wearable extension of your iPhone. I was able to test an Apple watch for a week to see how effective and useful it was for consumers looking to get the latest headlines.
Limited news apps
One thing I noticed when I first started out with my new Apple watch was the amount of news organizations that had news apps compatible with the watch.
There weren’t many. I saw the big players: CNN, BBC, New York Times. But I did not see any of my local stations that I have apps for on my iPhone.
I downloaded the CNN and BBC apps for my watch and turned my push notifications on for an entire week.
Every time a push notification was sent out to anyone who had the iPhone app, not only my phone vibrated, my watch did too.
When something big in the news happened, I felt like I was one of the first of my friends to know, mostly because even if I didn’t have my phone on me, my watch kept me up to date. As Joshua Benton, director of Nieman Lab, wrote in an article, the watch is like a “town crier attached to my wrist.”
All of the latest headlines showed up on my Apple watch and I would be able to read a brief synopsis of each one as I was walking to class or hanging around in my dorm room. As soon as I felt my wrist vibrate, I’d lift my Apple watch to read what was going on.
“What the Apple watch is really good at is notifications — getting your attention. And that’s important,” Benton wrote. “The shift to digital has pushed news from a scheduled activity — a morning newspaper, an evening newscast — to a constant background noise, something you dip into or stumble upon regularly.”
This couldn’t be more true. Not only did I get the latest news updates from CNN and BBC, I also got all of my text messages, phone calls and reminder updates all on my Apple watch.
Always switching devices
There’s tons of potential for news organizations to use the Apple watch as another means of promotion.
As Jack Riely wrote recently for Nieman Lab, “For all of wearables’ potential in their own right, the most salient technological shift the smartwatch could cause for news companies might be the shift to multi-device products designed to work seamlessly across multiple platforms.”
The part I find most interesting is with the Apple watch, news organizations can promote content that can more easily be read on other devices.
“The watch is not going to be the focal point for consuming content,” Riely wrote. “Even for publishers who’ve invested lots of effort in thinking about how they deliver it.”
The fact of the matter is: It’s really hard to read off of a tiny screen on your wrist. When I received news updates I never clicked to read more on my watch, I just switched devices and read the full article on my iPhone.
The potential lies solely on getting the attention of consumers and directing them to read more on another device.
The future of the Apple watch as a news platform
Overall, my experience with the watch was positive. At first I hated wearing something on my wrist everyday that distracted me from my routines and made my wrist sweat, but I was intrigued by the fact I received updates from news organizations as soon as they were published.
It will be interesting to follow the future of the Apple watch as a news tool. I am curious to see if news outlets will change from one word stories to more in depth pieces that are readable on your watch.
Only time will tell if the Apple watch will be a successful news tool, because right now, it just redirects the consumer to their iPhone to read more about the latest headlines.
