Not So Smart Watch

I know, we live in throw away times but one of the reasons I was happy to move from Android to iOS was that my TicWatch worked with both operating systems so getting a new phone didn't mean getting a new watch, and it worked.

Apparently an update back some time in 2024 stopped the watch working with iOS!

I'd noticed that I wasn't getting notifications or generally connecting with the phone but kept using the watch as a watch, vowing to look at it one day and fix it.

Today was that day!

First I tried a factory reset of the watch and it failed to re-connect to the phone. Then I did a search and found that the watch is no-longer supported on iOS...

So a work around is to use an app called "Merge Android" on both the watch and the iPhone, and deep joy this is a monthly subscription!

I've got the app installed on a two week free trial, lets see how it goes as to whether it's worth the actual subscription.

So Android Wear and iOS do not work well together. For the price of an annual subscription I can get a generic watch that counts steps and shows notifications which is essentially all I want from a smart watch. I've put this on my wish list for my birthday.

I can't get the Strava app to work on the watch even when paired to an Android phone, I'm happy to exercise with my phone in my pocket so even that isn't a requirement any more.

Will I remember to cancel the subscription if the app doesn't work?

❤️0

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Tags:TicWatch, Merge Android, App, Subscription, Smart Watch

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This update was first written by Darren Wall
on Wednesday 4th Feb 2026.
Privacy : public