It’s no mystery that the iPhone works best with an Apple Watch. But Apple takes the contrary approach with smartwatches and accessories from other brands, limiting certain features while using security as a shield. This has upset the lawmakers at the European Union, who have now instructed Apple to enable better harmony between the iPhone and third-party accessories under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The European Commission recently passed two resolutions, compelling Apple to honor the interoperability clause in the DMA. It enforced that Apple must allow “deeper and more seamless integration of third-party products with Apple’s ecosystem.”
The Commission has listed nine connectivity issues in iOS that Apple must address in order to allow better support for devices including smartwatches, headphones, or TV. These changes are expected to allow apps to get better access to information from the iPhone, faster speeds, and simplified means of pairing.
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For smartwatches specifically, this would mean third-party smartwatches will be able to interact better with the iPhone. One vital implication of this would allow these watches to reply to notifications from iPhone, which Apple currently prohibits. Pairing with the iPhone, the EU imagines, should also be easier for non-Apple smartwatches.
How Apple limits third-party smartwatches
Pebble, which, after being bought by Fitbit and then shut down, recently re-emerged with new watch options. But with the launch, the makers of the new Pebble emphasized different ways Apple handicaps third-party watches. These include limitations in viewing and reacting to notifications, sending messages in Apple Messages, limiting wrist-bound notifications when you are using the iPhone, among other issues, all of which are listed in a blog.
The EU expects Apple to release technical documentation on features, which, if delivered adequately, should be expected to mitigate some of the issues Pebble lists. The order says these decisions are “legally binding,” and expects Apple to share a timeline to implement the changes.
The actual implementation, as we witnessed in the iPhone’s complete transition from Lightning port to USB-C, could be a matter of months, if not years. For now, Apple appears hesitant and called this an attempt at “slowing down Apple’s ability to innovate for users in Europe and forcing us to give away our new features for free to companies who don’t have to play by the same rules,” in a statement to The Verge.
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