First swimming app for Apple Watch can't be listed in the App Store

The Apple Watch has a IP certification of IP X7. This means that the timepiece can be submerged in up to 3.28 feet of water for as long as 30 minutes, and emerge unscathed. But that doesn't mean that you can swim with it, and even Apple doesn't recommend that you wear it in the pool. Nonetheless, a developer named Ted Bradley has written the first swimming app for the Apple Watch.

Bradley has written a similar app for Pebble and in porting over the app to the Apple Watch, the developer had to confront some differences between the two smartwatches. Pebble, he notes, has a remarkable seven day battery life as opposed to the much shorter battery life on the Apple Watch. When it comes to storing and running apps, the Pebble is quite limited when compared to the infrastructure of Apple's intelligent timepiece.

On the other hand, an app stays open on the Pebble until the user closes it. On the Apple Watch, the screen turns off to conserve battery life and once that happens, the app stops measuring real time data. But Apple has APIs that allow the Watch to 'remember' data that is stored while the screen is off. Once the screen turns on, the data can be requested by the now awakened app. You can see that in the video when the Apple Watch lags before the data hits the screen. Speaking of data, the information on the Apple Watch can be imported to HealthKit. The app measures the number of laps completed and the distance covered. On the Apple Watch, a swimmer's heartbeat can be tracked.

Section 13.1 of the App Store review guidelines states "Apps that encourage users to use an Apple Device in a way that may cause damage to the device will be rejected." Since Apple says that the Apple Watch cannot be used while swimming, the app cannot be posted in the App Store. As a result, Bradley and his team can only hope that Apple improves the waterproofing on the next Apple Watch. Until then, you can check out the app by clicking on the video below.



source: Activeintime via RedmondPie