Apple Watch Ultra — what dive software is in the works?

[OrcasC205]

When you request the entitlement to the dive-related data, does Apple ask you for a "reason" for requesting this?

Thinking that they might analyse the amount of interest and reasoning.

The online form to express interest in receiving the entitlement does ask what functionality you are hoping to add to your application as one of the questions. Whether you are providing a safety relation capability is another question.

 

[KenGordon]

When you request the entitlement to the dive-related data, does Apple ask you for a "reason" for requesting this?

They explicitly ask if the reason to get depth is for a scuba diving app.

 

[kimh]

I am not sure if what they are doing is altogether sensible as choosing “blessed” developers seems like a way to be responsible for blessing developers who have bugs.

I think it's a matter of limited engineering bandwidth at Apple (for 3rd-party handholding), and a desire to constrain risk by focusing on one vendor.

I've had the experience of being blessed by Apple (we thought of it as being "anointed.") We had an internal Apple advocate, and tech support that most devs could only dream of. Apple's a huge company, but engineering teams can be surprisingly small, and they can't do this on a large scale.

My guess is that Apple will continue to simply ignore entitlement requests until they decide they have enough data to open the door. And then, they'll do it in stages.

 

[JoshuaHeard]

I have written an app for the Apple Watch Ultra. It is a simple dive computer for recreational divers that will compete eventually with the existing Oceanus app.

I have "expressed interest" in the entitlement, but have received no response. I can't finish or release my app until I get the entitlement and am able to access depth data. I have contacted Apple Developer support and they basically said "not my department" and to wait until they contact me.

Does anyone have any more information or advice?

 

[Rick Brant]

No advice, but I will be a 1-time watch owner if they don't allow a non-subscription option for a dive computer app. I don't do subscriptions.

 

[Belzelbub]

I have "expressed interest" in the entitlement, but have received no response. I can't finish or release my app until I get the entitlement and am able to access depth data. I have contacted Apple Developer support and they basically said "not my department" and to wait until they contact me.

Does anyone have any more information or advice?

Not surprising.

When this was first released, I speculated that it would probably be a while for other Dive apps to hit the App Store. Apple partnered with Oceanic for the initial launch. The benefit for Apple was that they did not need to develop the software for a dive computer, they just needed to have the hardware in place.

For Oceanic, they would have needed some sort of incentive to invest in the software development. An exclusivity agreement for some time would work. How long that is, is probably covered by an NDA.

I wouldn’t imagine it will be lifted soon. Aside from the commercial reasons, there are safety reasons for Apple to tread carefully here. Multiple dive apps would ultimately need to talk to each other in some form. Otherwise tissue loading would be suspect.

For example, Garmin has a dive app for the Descent series. I can also download a ton of other apps on my watch. I can’t, however, download another dive app. They even restrict watch faces in dive mode. Given the potential risk, I find this to be an understandable approach.

 

[KenGordon]

Multiple dive apps would ultimately need to talk to each other in some form. Otherwise tissue loading would be suspect.

As we see from OrcasC205 export app that is not really a problem.

 

[scubaozy]

Real issue for oceanic is they would harm their own business by providing a permanent app that can be purchased. They are in both hw&sw selling business. Subscription model is much less harming their own product portfolio.
Apple on the other hand needs to ensure that there are not tons of apps which users can potentially hurt themselves. I suspect they would like to give special entitlement to entities with credentials.

 

[Belzelbub]

As we see from OrcasC205 export app that is not really a problem.

Not entirely. OrcasC205’s app uses the HealthKit information. IIRC, that just provides depth, time, and temp. Breathing gas is not included. No breathing gas, no tissue loading. If that info is not available to other apps, then i could be dangerous.

It’s possible that it could be done, but that would require each dive app producer to make depth, time, and gas information available to other apps, or to HealthKit, then each app would have to utilize this data.

 

[OrcasC205]

Not entirely. OrcasC205’s app uses the HealthKit information. IIRC, that just provides depth, time, and temp. Breathing gas is not included. No breathing gas, no tissue loading. If that info is not available to other apps, then i could be dangerous.

It’s possible that it could be done, but that would require each dive app producer to make depth, time, and gas information available to other apps, or to HealthKit, then each app would have to utilize this data.

That is correct. Also, the data I am using is only available after-the-fact when the dive is complete and the watch has had a chance to sync the HealthKit data with the iPhone it is paired with.

I too have expressed interest in the entitlement to allow more real time logging of dive data (I'm not intending to develop any tissue load capabilities for a full dive computer application,) but have not heard anything back from Apple at this point.