Fb Messenger is about to sail into the annals of Apple Watch apps which have been unceremoniously pulled from the wearable by their builders.
Posts started circulating on Twitter this week from people who obtained a notification in Fb Messenger on their Apple Watch telling them that the app would stop to be obtainable on the finish of this month.
The message learn, “After Might thirty first, Messenger received’t be obtainable as an Apple Watch app, however you may nonetheless get Messenger notifications in your watch.” Whereas this popup solely appears to have appeared for a number of individuals, and there’s been no different official notification from the social media big, a spokesperson confirmed the transfer to Reviewgeek after they reached out to Fb for remark.
In keeping with Fb’s assertion, “individuals can nonetheless obtain Messenger notifications on their Apple Watch when paired, however beginning on the finish of Might they are going to not be capable of reply from their watch. However they will proceed utilizing Messenger on their iPhone, desktop and the net.” Reviewgeek notes that the spokesperson later clarified that the change would happen “initially of June” relatively than the “finish of Might.”
Nonetheless, that’s a reasonably delicate distinction, and the underside line is that the Fb Messenger app for the Apple Watch is certainly going away for good. There’s no official phrase on precisely why Fb is doing this, but it surely’s removed from alone; in actual fact, it’s simply the newest in an extended string of high-profile builders which have sunsetted their Apple Watch apps in recent times.
This listing consists of Amazon, Google Maps, eBay, Slack, Goal, Twitter, and Instagram. That final one is a Meta property, together with WhatsApp, which has by no means had an Apple Watch app. In that context, it could be extra stunning that Fb Messenger has lasted for so long as it has on Apple’s wearable.
As Fb factors out, notifications from Fb Messenger can nonetheless be delivered to the Apple Watch, however the firm isn’t doing something particular to perform that; any iPhone app can ship its notifications to the Apple Watch — that’s been a core characteristic of iOS and watchOS for years. Nonetheless, now you’ll want to achieve to your iPhone if you wish to reply to that message — no extra dashing off a fast reply out of your wrist.
As to the reasoning behind this choice, solely Meta is aware of for certain. Some have speculated that Meta desires individuals to spend extra time within the Fb Messenger app, and the watchOS model circumvents that. It’s simply as doubtless that the corporate doesn’t wish to commit any extra assets to sustaining or bettering the app — efforts that would improve if a number of the rumored adjustments in watchOS 10 come to fruition.
Most of the apps that beforehand left watchOS did so for related causes, though in some circumstances, it was merely a matter of the apps not making sense on a wrist-sized display screen. When the Apple Watch was initially launched in 2015, a large tide of apps appeared for the wearable — and disappeared nearly as rapidly because it turned obvious that issues like long-form studying and in depth searching aren’t sensible on a 1.5-inch display screen.
The opposite issue that drove many apps away was the necessity to flip them into standalone apps. Early watchOS apps have been mainly “second display screen” apps operating on an iPhone, just like how CarPlay apps work right this moment. When watchOS 2 arrived in September 2015, Apple launched assist for native apps, and by June 2016, it had introduced that each one new apps must meet this requirement. For some builders, it was simpler to tug their Apple Watch app than replace it, and even some who wished to proceed on the Apple Watch have been pressured to tug their apps for a season whereas they retooled them to satisfy the brand new necessities.
Of all of the mainstream watchOS apps which have been put out to pasture, just one has made a big comeback. After pulling its watchOS app in 2017 with none guarantees it might return, Google Maps got here again to the wearable in 2020. Google Maps was arguably one of many few discontinued apps that have been really helpful on the Apple Watch, in order that made sense. Sadly, Fb Messenger suits into an analogous class, however there’s no indication that Meta is about to alter its thoughts on this one.