The Apple Watch is losing its Walkie-Talkie app in this fall’s watchOS 27 software update. Will you miss the Apple Watch’s push-to-talk functionality?
Apple has not said why it is discontinuing the Walkie-Talkie app
Over the years, the Apple Watch has been a playground for weird ideas that end up taking off.
Spinning the Digital Crown from the watch face is used to move data for issues such as weather and calendar events forward or backward in time.
Clicking the side button opened the circle of friends. Digital Touch still exists as an iMessage app, but it was originally an exclusive communication method for the Apple Watch.
Even the Apple Watch face comes and goes. They are sometimes replaced by watchOS features such as the Smart Stack widgets that replaced the Siri watch face.
Sometimes licensing deals seem to expire (the Toy Story clock face couldn’t see Toy Story 5). Sometimes the best watch faces just disappear without a description or a comparable one. I still miss the excellent Explorer watch that came with the Apple Watch Series 3 mobile.
The watchOS 27 update removes the 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 gone.
On a system level aspect, the Walkie-Talkie was complex. You need to add the connection directly to the Walkie-Talkie app. You also had to leave Walkie-Talkie mode on to receive voice messages.
The concept was real-time voice communication that happened in real time. It sits 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 being in Walkie-Talkie mode and receiving messages, the yellow app icon needed to always be displayed on your watch face.
I get why it worked that way. You wouldn’t want your watch to play audio messages from your contacts without knowing for sure that you’re in that mode.
And I didn’t really trust the Walkie-Talkie to relay the message reliably.
I’m sure the audio messages I sent were delivered. I wasn’t sure if the receiver was in a position where he could hear the message as it played.
There was something unintentional about playing again.
If you ask me, I’m surprised Walkie-Talkie has been around as a system-level feature all this time. It must have enjoyed greater discovery built-in than if it were an App Store app you downloaded and subscribed to, but it was far from it, in my experience.
Will you miss the Apple Watch feature to talk?
But I also know from discussing the Walkie-Talkie app on podcasts over the years that the voice user base relies on the push-to-talk feature for practical communication.
That makes me think that the demise of Walkie-Talkie as the Apple Watch’s exclusive voice chat option isn’t the end of the story. Just this week, I saw a Walkie-Talkie icon on someone’s watch face at work.
Maybe we’ll see it return as an Apple platform app in the future. Or maybe it’s just too weird for Apple to invest today, and there’s a gap a third-party app will fill when Walkie-Talkie gets wiped out by watchOS 27 this fall.
Anyway, how’s your Walkie-Talkie app? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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