Apple Watch is losing its Walkie-Talkie app in this fall’s watchOS 27 software update. Will you miss the Apple Watch push-to-talk functionality?
Apple hasn’t said why it’s discontinuing the Walkie-Talkie app
Over the years, Apple Watch has been a bit of a playground for quirky ideas that eventually go away.
Spinning the Digital Crown from the watch face used to move data on complications like weather and calendar events forward or backward in time.
Clicking the side button originally opened a circle of friends. Digital Touch still exists as an iMessage app, but it was originally an Apple Watch-exclusive form of communication.
Even Apple Watch faces come and go. Sometimes they get replaced with watchOS features like the widgets Smart Stack that essentially replaced the Siri watch face.
Other times the licensing deals seem to expire (the Toy Story watch face didn’t make it to see Toy Story 5). Sometimes perfectly good watch faces just go away with no explanation or comparable replacement. I’m still missing the excellent Explorer watch face that arrived with the cellular Apple Watch Series 3.
watchOS 27 update erases Walkie-Talkie app and functionality
Walkie-Talkie mode is the latest playground experiment to disappear after an Apple Watch software update. watchOS 27 is coming this fall, and the push-to-talk feature that only works between Apple Watches is no more.
For a system-level feature, Walkie-Talkie was a bit complicated. You needed to add connections specifically for the Walkie-Talkie app. You also needed to leave the Walkie-Talkie mode on to receive voice messages.
The idea was real-time voice communication that happened in sessions. It sat between a live audio call and sending voice memos back and forth.
The Walkie-Talkie app was never really for me. I didn’t like that to be in Walkie-Talkie mode and receive messages, the yellow app icon needed to always display on your watch face.
I get why it worked that way. You wouldn’t want your watch just playing audio messages from contacts without knowing for certain that you’re in that mode.
I also didn’t really trust Walkie-Talkie to reliably communicate a message.
I’m sure the audio messages I sent were delivered. I wasn’t ever sure that the recipient was in a situation where they could actually hear the message as it played.
There was something not quite deliberate about the playback experience.
If you ask me, I’m surprised Walkie-Talkie existed as a system-level feature for all this time. It must have enjoyed greater adoption by being built-in than if it were an App Store app you downloaded and signed up for, but it was far from great, in my experience.
Will you miss the Apple Watch push-to-talk feature?
But I also know that from discussing the Walkie-Talkie app on podcasts years ago that a vocal user base relies on the push-to-talk feature for practical communication.
That makes me think that Walkie-Talkie’s demise as a built-in Apple Watch exclusive form of voice chat isn’t the end of the story. Perhaps we’ll see it return as an Apple platform app in the future. Or maybe it’s just too odd for Apple to invest in today, and there’s a gap that some third-party app will fill when Walkie-Talkie is erased by watchOS 27 this fall.
What’s your Walkie-Talkie app experience? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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