Apple
Uber has gone the way of Lyft, canceling support for its app on Apple Watches. As spotted by MacRumors Monday, the Uber Apple Watch app is still available but won’t let you hail a ride if installed.
We checked on an Apple Watch Series 7 and got a message reading, “Please switch to the Uber mobile app. We no longer support the Apple Watch app. Sorry for the inconvenience,” followed by a crying-face emoji.
Like Uber’s app for iPhones and iPads, the Apple Watch app let you call a ride from your device, but some features, like Uber Pool, fare splitting, and the ability to contact your driver or share your estimated time of arrival with contacts, were disabled.
The removal of Uber functionality on the Apple Watch ends a longstanding relationship between the app and the device. Uber was one of the first apps available when the Apple Watch App Store first opened in 2015 (other apps included Twitter, Evernote, and The New York Times).
This morning, Uber’s website still had a page describing what you could do with its Apple Watch app. But as of this afternoon, the page reads, “We no longer support the Apple Watch app. Please use the Uber mobile app to request rides. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.” We reached out to Uber for more details but didn’t hear back in time for publication.
In 2018, Lyft removed its Apple Watch support. At the time, the company told MacRumors, “The latest Lyft update on iOS will no longer support a standalone Lyft app for Apple Watch. Lyft users will continue to have a great experience receiving notifications on their Apple Watch to easily follow their ride.”
Uber also stopped supporting its app for Wear OS watches in 2019, as noted by The Verge.
