Apple Watch 2, A Year On

About a year ago, I described my early experience with the Apple Watch 2. I noted that based on my priorities for a digital watch, the Apple Watch 2 had excellent hardware but some limitations with its software. A year later, the software has improved, but is still not as good as I might like.

Everyone has different needs for devices such as a digital watch, and mine mostly revolve around running. Other functions, such as telling time, viewing local weather, and accessing text messages, are secondary. My main needs for running center around access to the data. I need data from my runs to live in the cloud, and not be stuck on my phone. I want to be able to access the details of my runs from any device, and share them with friends who do not need to be logged on to the app or its Web site to view them. I also want to be able to run without having to take my phone with me, even though I sometimes do, especially when I am traveling.

I have gone through a number of running apps on my Apple Watch. The requirement to be able to run with the watch and without the iPhone made the initial choice very limited. I started with Apple’s Activity app that comes with the watch. While the app has a nice interface and can be used without being tethered to the iPhone, its inability to export data beyond the iPhone makes it a non-starter. When I upgraded my iPhone shortly after obtaining my Apple Watch 2 last year, and promptly lost all of my runs that had been stored on my old iPhone, I had no way to get them back.

Within the first few months of the Apple Watch 2 release, some of the other running app vendors released standalone versions of their apps. One of the first was RunGo. It was a decent app, although one has to explicitly save runs to the cloud as “My Routes,” as it is not done automatically. Nonetheless, RunGo has served me well in places such as Singapore, Bangkok, Honolulu, Siesta Key FL, Chicago, Philadelphia, and here in Portland (including my annual birthday 10-mile run).

More recently, I have settled on Strava, a long-time running and cycling app that by default stores exercise sessions in the cloud. The Strava Apple Watch app is not perfect. I wish the watch app displayed the cumulative distance run in hundredths of miles (instead of tenths) and the cumulative time and distance in larger size on the watch than the pace. I do like its auto-stop abilities for when I get stuck at stop lights, although get a little bit annoyed when it stops temporarily when I pull up the watch to view my distance and time. Strava too has served me well in a number of places, including Washington DC, New York City, and Abu Dhabi. All in all, I will stick with Strava for now.

Some may wonder whether I have considered upgrading to the Apple Watch 3, whose main feature is including a cellular chip so it can be accessed without being tethered to the iPhone. Given my running needs, it may seem ironic that I do not see a need to get the new watch. This is because with the exception of being out on my runs, I am just about always carrying my phone, so see no need to have the watch stand alone at other times I am not exercising.