The Apple Watch is famous for living entirely inside the Apple ecosystem. For years, if you did not have an iPhone, the popular smartwatch was basically useless to you. That rigid wall is starting to show a small crack. Huawei recently launched a new app that allows an Apple Watch to connect to some of its HarmonyOS smartphones. The integration is not a full replacement for an iPhone, but it is a surprising step toward cross-platform smartwatch support.
Huawei offers basic watch notifications but blocks fitness tracking
To get this working, you need a new app called HarmonyOS Interconnect, which is available in the App Store in China. You install it directly on your Apple Watch. Your Huawei phone must run HarmonyOS 7.0 or newer. Right now, this feature only works with a few high-end Huawei devices, including the Pura X View, the Mate 90 series, and the folding Mate XT 2.
Because you still need the App Store to download the Interconnect app onto the watch, you still technically need an iPhone just to set the watch up for the first time. Once you get the watch and the Huawei phone paired over Bluetooth, the functionality remains quite basic.
Don’t miss the best of The Mac Observer
Set us as a preferred source and our Apple reporting ranks higher in your Google Search results and Discover feed — one tap, no account changes.
Your watch will successfully display incoming text messages, app notifications, and alert you to phone calls. However, you cannot answer those phone calls directly from your wrist. More importantly, none of your health and fitness data will sync over to the Huawei device. Your daily steps and workout records remain locked to the Apple Health app on your iPhone.
This is an interesting move from Huawei. While it does not give you the full smartwatch experience, it offers a functional compromise. If you recently switched from an iPhone to a flagship Huawei device but still want to check messages on your Apple Watch, this new app gives you a limited way to keep using your expensive wearable.
Discussion