With the advent of the Apple Watch and the iOS 8.2 upgrade comes one more annoyance for iPhone users: the undeletable Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
You know all those native iPhone apps you probably don’t use like Weather, Stocks, Newsstand, Game Center, etc. but which you can’t delete from your iPhone? You can now add the new Apple Watch app to that list of apps you can’t remove from your iPhone, whether or not you own an Apple Watch.
The inability to remove native apps from the iPhone has been an annoyance of mine for years. For a company that prides itself on simplicity, why does Apple insist on loading our iPhones with junk apps that we can’t delete or hide?
If you’d like to do something to hide the Apple Watch app, you have two mediocre options for the time being:
#1. Jailbreak your iPhone and download the Poof app from Cydia. Poof is one of the best iPhone jailbreak apps since it can delete the Apple Watch app and other undesired native apps from iPhone. Once a jailbreak is out for iOS 8.2, this will be the only way to remove the Apple Watch app for iPhone.
#2. Hide the Apple Watch app on the last page of your apps on your iPhone springboard. I have a folder of apps that I don’t use which sits quietly on the last page of my iPhone icons. It is the second-best compromise despite not being able to delete the Apple Watch app altogether.
If you REALLY can’t stand the idea of the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, your best bet is to not upgrade to iOS 8.2, since at this moment there is no jailbreak available for the new update (though it’s likely coming soon).
Apple Watch, Cool; Apple Watch App, Not
The Apple Watch app will take up space on your iPhone containing promotional videos for the Apple Watch, whether or not you own the smartwatch. Pretty lame.
While personally I have been intrigued by the idea of the new smartwatch and interested to see how this technology progresses, in its expansion of its product line, Apple should resist the temptation to bog down iOS users with useless mandatory apps such as the Apple Watch app.
How to Remove the Apple Watch App From Your iPhone is a post from Apple iPhone Review.