Independent Watch Apps don't automatically install for users

I've had independent Watch apps on the market for over three years now.

A continuing problem is that users will buy the apps from an iPhone, but if they don't have their Watch App Store setting enabled to "automatically install apps purchased from other devices", then the apps do not show up on their Watch.

This leads to daily support traffic with customers where I have to walk them through looking in the purchase history on the Watch's App Store app to manually install the apps on the Watch (I also tell them how to turn on the setting to enable automatic installs in the future).

I can't believe that after three years, this is still a major problem. It seems exacerbated by customers who don't understand the difference between companion apps and independent apps, and they often get belligerent, accusing me of ripping them off because the install didn't happen the way they expected.

Does anyone else see this problem as often as me? It has me contemplating pulling my Watch apps. The revenue is decent but I probably burn more $$ in time responding to these requests on a frequent bases. It also leads to a lot of poor reviews and angry customers.

Sorry you are having issues! If your customers are buying your apps in the App Store on iPhone and have "Automatic App Install" (NOT "automatically install apps purchased from other devices," but the setting in the Watch app on iPhone under General, as shown below), your watchOS app will install automatically. This is the case for both dependent and independent watchOS apps. If this setting is off, your customers can install the app on their paired Apple Watch manually from the top level of the Watch app on iPhone (look for the section headed "Available Apps").

Is your app Watch Only, by any chance? In that case there is an alert when purchasing in the App Store on iPhone that the customer can go to App Store > Account > Purchases to install if the download does not start automatically on the watch (it did download as expected for me when I tried purchasing a watch-only app on iPhone just now; I have the Automatic App Install option on). If you're still seeing issues, please do file Feedback and post the number here so we can get it routed to the correct team. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply -- my apps are independent Watch apps (Watch only) not related to an iPhone app, so the Automatic App Install setting doesn't have any effect on them. The one that does is in the Watch app under "App Store", but unfortunately this seems to be turned off by default and nobody thinks to look there.

I am glad to know that there is an alert directing customers to do a manual install if automatic install does not start, but it seems like customers are not paying attention to that or maybe they do not know what to do or to look on the App Store on the Watch itself. In fact, based on the contacts I get from customers, they do not understand the concept of independent Watch apps and they don't even know there is an App Store on the Watch. Three years ago I could understand this, since independent apps were new in watchOS 6, but I would have hoped customers would catch on by now.

I filed report FB 12157657 in Feedback Assistant.

Thanks for the Feedback. The switch you indicated does NOT need to be on for downloads to work. It is not on for me, and the watch-only app I tested with installed properly..

I do appreciate the Feedback; we can use it as a jumping off point for making this flow better/clearer.

Independent Watch Apps don't automatically install for users
 
 
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