Uber is the newest common app to bail on the Apple Watch

Uber has quietly shut down its Apple Watch app, with the software program now exhibiting a message that instructs folks to “please switch to the Uber mobile app.” The firm is “no longer supporting the Apple Watch app,” in response to the textual content, which ends with Uber apologizing for any inconvenience brought on by the app’s discontinuation. There’s additionally a tragic face emoji to drive that sentiment house.

As famous by MacRumors, Uber hasn’t but eliminated the Apple Watch app from its App Store listing, the place it nonetheless will get its personal tab and screenshots. Presumably, that can all be historical past as soon as the corporate releases its subsequent replace to the iOS app. The Verge has reached out to Uber for extra particulars, and if I needed to guess, the corporate is prone to cite low utilization as the principle cause for its Apple Watch exit.

On the one hand, that is one other instance of smartwatches persevering with to shed apps — even these which can be massively common and borderline important on a telephone — that aren’t core to their objective(s) of health monitoring, notifications, music playback, and so forth. I’ve lengthy had Uber put in on my Apple Watch, and I don’t assume there was a single event the place I hailed a trip from my wrist.

Uber ended assist for its WearOS app greater than two years in the past, so it’s not like Google’s platform fared a lot better with person engagement. Lyft has been out of this recreation since 2018. Maybe it’s a case the place the shape issue simply isn’t the fitting match for the service.

The Apple Watch app offered barebones ride-hailing performance, with extra superior choices like splitting fares and sharing an ETA reserved for the complete cellular app.

Image: Apple

But it additionally goes to indicate that, in some methods, smartwatches are solely transferring additional away from having the ability to function a standalone smartphone fill-in — even quickly. Maybe barely anybody took benefit of Uber on the Apple Watch, however the truth that it now not exists on the platform in any respect feels notable.

Want to depart your telephone at house for the day and depend on your mobile Apple Watch? You can’t hail an Uber in that state of affairs anymore. And it’s a use case that Apple itself as soon as highlighted, as you possibly can see above.

Uber continues to supply its main app for iPhone and a bigger model for the iPad.