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Final Apple Watch Companion app for iPhone interface revealed [Gallery]

Early this year, we posted the first screenshots and details of an early version of the Apple Watch Companion application for the iPhone. Now that the application is bundled into iOS 8.2, developer Hamza Sood has activated the Apple Watch Settings portion and has shared a view of screenshots. As can be seen in the full gallery below, the interface is dark black, like the Activity app for fitness revealed yesterday, and includes all of the functionality we detailed earlier. Some interesting new settings, however, were revealed today, such as one for assigning a left or right wrist to the Watch, Handoff support, Haptic Strength, and volume levels. The Apple Watch will be released on April 24th, with pre-orders beginning on April 10th.

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Comments

  1. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Notification Privacy toggle is the most important thing I see up there. Save ya from seriously embarrassing text messages popping up during meetings at work!

    • CitizenX - 9 years ago

      It’s on your wrist… who is under your shirt sleeve?

      • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

        Seriously? Your watch is almost never under your shirt sleeve unless your arms are hanging straight down. people are constantly reaching up to touch their faces. By all means keep your want under your sleeve while touching your face and I will promise you your shirts are two sizes too large.

  2. There’s a lot of functionality here that Apple should’ve marketed.

    • cjt3007 - 9 years ago

      Should’ve? The device isn’t even out yet!

  3. cjt3007 - 9 years ago

    Dark themed app? Very un-apple… the only thing that comes close would be the Remote app.

    • carmenia83 - 9 years ago

      I would assume it’s to match the Watch UI, which Jony Ive said is mostly back so the edgers of the screen blend with the bezels and curved glass (or sapphire).

      • carmenia83 - 9 years ago

        *edges. Autocorrect 😒

    • rogifan - 9 years ago

      Maybe a dark theme coming to iOS? Yes please!

    • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

      At least the remote app doesn’t have a black icon. This is just ugly IMO.

      The icon should be more neutral to match the UI of iOS, and internally, they should implement a slider for light or dark themes.

      • friedmud1 - 9 years ago

        Lol at a slider.

        Are you really expecting to spend so much time in this app? How does having it be dark hurt your overall productivity in some way?

      • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

        @friedmud1: Did I say it was about “productivity”? No, I didn’t.

        Also, they have implemented the slider in iTunes in the same situation, so I don’t see the humour you’re seeing in my remarks.

    • James Kuang - 9 years ago

      Stocks app also has a dark theme.

  4. Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

    I don’t like the black at all. Why does Apple insist on selling us mostly white or silver gear, with candy coloured bright UI’s, and then give us black apps with black icons?

    Maybe one out of a hundred Apps on the app store are “dark” in this way. Developers doing this need to understand that not everyone likes the “black everything” thing.

    I don’t get why Apple would do this. Either give us a choice (light or dark themes), or make everything look nice together.

    Those are the only two (sane) options.

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      This is why people like you do NOT work for Apple… This app was made to match the mostly black interface of the Watch, because Apple wanted to the screen interface to blend in with the surrounding bezel.

      • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

        Well, duh. But the Watch App doesn’t actually RUN on the Watch does it? And the Fitness App doesn’t actually RUN on the watch either does it?

        It runs on my white iPhone with the candy coloured icons and the bright background. It looks like a f*cking mole or carbuncle or something next to my other apps.

        My point is that they should either stick to white everywhere, change to black everywhere, or do both (have white and black “themes” for iOS).

        There are pretty obviously a lot of young dudes who buy the all black iPhone and put it in an all black case, and they are probably pissed off about all the white everywhere in the UI (and rightly so). There are likely as many or more folks who buy the white gear and like the white everywhere like me, but get pissed when they are forced to have a “black app.” Apple should just make up it’s damn mind about the UI.

    • sgns - 9 years ago

      One likely reason is to distinguish the Watch app from the Settings app UI.

  5. xprmntr - 9 years ago

    Settings>General>accessibility >accessibility shortcut > invert colors > workaround for the dark UI

  6. ttss6 - 9 years ago

    I would have really liked if they made the Apple Watch icon on the iPhone the same as the icon above for “App Layout.” More inline with the iOS 7/8 design

  7. While everyone’s trying to figure out the app and the sizing and all the other good stuff, I’m still trying to figure out what’s going to happen on the 10th.

    They said you can come in to preorder and try on an Apple Watch – by appointment – as early as the 10th.

    Given the popularity of Apple products, I suspect we could see lineups as early as midnight of the 9th. So, what will happen when the doors open at 8AM on the 10th? We’re lining up to make appointments, or will we be allowed to try them out upon arrival at the door? Will preorders start at 8AM or midnight?

    Do most people know what model, band, and/or size they’ll want and just going to preorder online, or will they hold off to try when they come in or make an appointment?

    Getting an appointment at the Genius Bar has been hard enough over the years, I can only imagine what trying to get an appointment to try out as many Apple Watches as you’d like is going to be like.

    • Chris Paradies - 9 years ago

      According to an article a few days ago on 9to5 (link below) you can preorder online and when you go in store to pick it up on the 24th you’ll actually try on something similar before you complete your purchase. This way you know it’s what you want.

      Depending on how they package these things it could be very easy to change your order. If the case and band are in separate packages it will be easy to swap out your choices. If they’re packaged within one unit it might be a bit more difficult.

      http://9to5mac.com/2015/03/10/apple-stores-preparing-new-reserve-and-pickup-system-for-watch-launch-on-april-24/

      • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

        I think you are probably right, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me even so. If the thing is already ordered, paid for, packaged and shipped to my local Apple store with my name on it, but then I try it on and decide I don’t like it, then that’s a HUGE supply chain problem for Apple in that those devices all have to be returned.

        Also, the customer experience would be awful in that the watch would be a huge disappointment, and if they changed their mind (based on the fitting) and decided to get a different model, then either they are waiting further MONTH, or they are going to give these idiots special treatment and expedited service, which would be another huge supply chain problem.

        It complicates things immensely to have product flying both ways based on customer whims. If this becomes the norm, they will also have a problem with folks ordering five watches, hoping only to try them all on at the store, knowing that they are only going to keep one of them.

        Personally, I’m ordering online and taking my chances with the “fit.” I think the launch is going to be problematic at best and possibly a big disaster for Apple and want to stay as far away from retail for those few months as possible.

        I can’t imagine how they are even going to find a way to display it given the layout and the intense crowded-ness of my local store. There is no room for appointments, no room to have an area to try it on, no room to casually browse, or anything of the sort. It’s literally cheek to jowl, and suck in your gut to pass at my local Apple store 24/7.

  8. Did the voice over accessibility features make it into this final version of the settings?

  9. The black theme is so nice. I hope they make the option system wide

    • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

      I would prefer white, but I think it’s pretty hilarious how the author refers to the UI as “dark black.” As if there were a “light black” and a “medium black” out there somewhere. :-)

      Black is black. It’s either black or it’s not.

  10. Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 9 years ago

    Remember when Apple fans used to attack Samsung for bundling loads of crapware onto their phones which could not be deleted?

    How many undeletable Apple made iOS apps are there now? It feels like a heck of a lot.

    There is no sane reason why the watch app wasn’t just a download from the App store. Apple forced this upon all their users simply as an ad, or to give it a more accurate name, a piece of spam.

    It’s shameful and grubby.

    • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

      True. Especially this app, which if you don’t have an Apple Watch, LITERALLY just displays an advert for the Apple Watch.

      It shows a rotating picture of the three models you can buy and has three buttons at the bottom. The first one connects you to your watch, but is inactive if you don’t have one. The second one takes you to further advertising material, and the third one takes you to the store (currently inactive) for in more promotional material.

      It’s completely non-functional except as a multi-level advertisement.

  11. NerdShouts - 9 years ago

    Someone at Apple must be hearing lot of buzz for making this application workable ahead the launch date. It is hard for me to ingest, how Hamza enabled the stock application at iOS 8.2. As I know, there is no working jailbreak exploit available.

  12. Nathaniel King - 9 years ago

    This “port” (now called Ignition on Cydia) does not do this at all. The only thing it does is replace the traditional iOS 8 UI with the new CarPlay UI. So it essentially redisplays the information that it already on your iPad (that’s right… it means music has to be already loaded onto you iPad… sucks if you have a 16GB version). It also means that you need to either have an iPad that has the cellular option or if you have a Wi-Fi only iPad, you’ll have to tether it (hotspot) your iPhone.

    That alone isn’t the end of the world (like I said earlier, I like the ability to hotspot). It also means that there is no relay of phone calls or text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, making this completely useless as a hands free calling device. for more information about it please contact:-

    http://cheapbuynsave.com/

    Now, please don’t misinterpret the above as an insult to the guy who is working on this… I understand this is an intensive process. However what bothers me is that no one at any point explains how it actually works. It should have been noted that this is just a UI change of your iPads existing system.
    I’ll keep playing with this and post an update if I find anything new.

  13. Seems that you can set which side of the watch the Digital Crown is located. This being the case I assume that you can wear the watch either with the crown at the top right orientation or at the bottom left orientation [upside down to what’s been shown so far]?

  14. Did Apple talk about “Cover to Mute” before? Either way, that feature sounds great!

  15. The black interface on the iPhone is there to match the black interface on the Apple Watch.
    The possible reason for having a black display on the watch is to save battery. Apple Watch has an AMOLED display which means that more black on the screen is more energy-effecient. AMOLED turns off the pixels when it displays something black which helps consume a lot of battery.