In spite of never ever having actually laid their hands upon an Apple Watch, developers are feverishly crafting apps for the long-awaited wearable.

To do this, they deal with substantial challenges: The size of the device differs anything a lot of them have ever pondered, and they must design for an entirely various kind of user experience. To make matters worse, the Apple Watch's performance will be significantly limited, at least in the beginning.

Still, the independent developers that Cult of Mac spoke with are unabashedly happy to take on the design challenge as they look for to colonize the next frontier of computing: your wrist.

"There's this natural extension of the device experience people have been craving, and I think this is that next step," states David Chartier of AgileBits, the Canadian company behind 1Password, in an interview with Cult of Mac.

It seems obvious that Apple would wish to bring its $20 billion-plus app environment to the Watch, however the speed at which WatchKit was provided contrasts starkly with the history of iOS. When you loved this article and you would want to receive much more information regarding free PlayStation VR headset kindly visit our page. The original iPhone was on sale for nine months before Apple officially offered third-party designers the ability to make apps on the platform.

This time around, the clock is ticking much quicker. If Apple adheres to its existing release timeline, designers now have about six months to get their apps ready. It's clear that Apple sees third-party apps as crucial to the Watch's success, and devs see the brand-new product category as a big opportunity.

Numerous designers have currently started dealing with their designs using WatchKit, the collection of development tools Apple launched last month. AgileBits, for example, is currently dealing with ideas to bring 1Password to the Apple Watch. Chartier notes that the app might gain from having delicate data, like logins or a Social Security number, easily available on the wrist.

Benedikt Lehnert, main design officer of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder, which makes the to-do app Wunderlist, likewise sees the wrist as an excellent place for app interaction.

"Wearables, and specifically the Apple Watch, are an incredibly natural growth of Wunderlist and our vision of keeping people's life in sync," states Lehnert. "It will feel like a pal that is kindly reminding you of the project discussion you wished to finish for the upcoming meeting. Or you will certainly get advised of bringing the groceries that your partner added while walking past a supermarket. And in case you want to swiftly include a to-do or save a thought for later on, just determine it through the Apple Watch and Wunderlist will certainly remind you later on.".

Apple has actually stated that full-blown, native Watch apps won't be possible till sometime next year, and apps are presently so restricted that it's tough to call them "apps" at all. They will instead function like extensions of iPhone apps. The majority of the Apple Watch's marquee functions, including heart rate tracking and NFC, are off-limits.

No matter the constraints, the frustrating agreement amongst app makers that Cult of Mac spoke to is that WatchKit allows for more functionality than expected at launch, specifically due to the fact that apps can do more than just push alerts.

"Exactly what they've offered in terms of WatchKit is really rich," says Michael Simmons, co-founder of Flexibits and developer of calendar app Fantastical. "It behaves to have a new item coming that you can really design for without needing to guesstimate.".

Flexibits is looking forward to bringing Fantastical to the Apple Watch, however Simmons admits there will have to be a legitimate need for porting the item. "If we cannot make Fantastical for Apple Watch better than Apple's own Calendar app, we will not do it," he says.