One of the great novelties that watchOS 7 brought at the time was to be able to download spheres on the Apple Watch from friends or third parties. This opened the door to applications like the one we will analyze in this article, and Buddywatch is probably one of the best apps in this sense and that will allow you to customize your Apple Watch more than ever.
What is Buddywatch and how much does it cost
This application is, how could it be otherwise, within the App Store. It is developed by Federico Gentile, creator of other apps such as LGN or Perfec. In December 2020, they reported that the app had been downloaded by 5 million users , which is a record number considering the limited use of the application.
It is a 99% free app. We say this because its download has no cost and once inside the application there are no in-app purchases other than for some icon packs of the app, which is not necessary in any case to be able to squeeze it to the fullest. However, in a next section we will analyze a possible future of the app that would add new possibilities with in-app purchases.
Necessary requirements to take advantage of it
In order to take full advantage of this application, it is necessary to meet certain minimums both on the iPhone, which will be where it is downloaded, and on the Apple Watch, which will be the beneficiary. As for the clock, you will have to have watchOS 7 or later as the software version. These are the devices compatible with this base version:
- Apple Watch Series 3
- Apple Watch Series 4
- Apple Watch Series 5
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch SE
It should be noted that in the Series 3 there is a certain incompatibility with some of the spheres due to the screen aspect ratio it has, however it is compatible and there will be many spheres that will help you.
As far as iPhone is concerned, it must have iOS 14 or later . Remember that the devices compatible with that version of software are these:
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 6s Plus
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 8
- iPhone 8 Plus
- iPhone X
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
Simple, but very useful functionality
One of the star features of the Apple Watch beyond its health or sports training functions are the so-called watch faces, also known as spheres or watch faces in Spanish. In a native way, we find a wide customizable variety in terms of colors, styles and elements such as complications. Buddywatch arrived to further expand this range of possibilities by allowing the user to download dozens of spheres to add instantly to their watches.
The catalog of spheres available is being expanded weekly, finding all kinds of spheres adapted to any taste. The striking thing about this is that it can be the users themselves who share their own spheres . To do this, one must register in the app with the “Sign in whit Apple”, a secure and private login that the apple company added with iOS 13.
Application on both iOS and watchOS
In this article we are analyzing the iPhone application in a more complete way because after all it is where the most possibilities can be found and where the Buddywatch functionalities can be discovered in a more comfortable way. The version available for the watch itself is ultimately just as practical, but due to the size of the screen it will be more tedious at times to access to discover dials.
How to download spheres in Buddywatch
As soon as you open the application, you will find yourself in the main tab where you will find an extensive compilation of spheres that will even be personalized to your tastes depending on what the app knows about you. You will also find general categories dedicated to specific themes such as Christmas or Halloween when those times of the year occur. There is also a search engine in the upper left that allows manual searches.
Once you have found the sphere you like, you just have to click on it. Within the tab of this you will find information such as the name given to this sphere, its image and description, as well as the name of the author and the Apple Watch that are compatible with it. Then you just have to press the “Donwload” button and it will redirect you to the Watch app on the iPhone, having to click “Continue” to add it to your catalog.
Downloaded spheres can be customized
This is another of our favorite functions and is that despite being spheres designed by others, you yourself can take command and customize the colors in those where possible, but also the complications that appear in it.
Something to keep in mind is that many times you will have to download third-party applications if you want to have all the complications that are seen in the spheres. While there are some that may be free, others do require payments. In any case, we insist on emphasizing that it is possible to modify these complications and therefore you will not be obliged to download these apps.
Limitations are from watchOS
The spheres that we can find in this app, as in others, are really the ones that watchOS already brings natively, but personalized in such a way that they are often unrecognizable. Perhaps it would be ideal if a designer could make a completely new sphere following his own style, but unfortunately this is not possible due to the limitations of the software itself. If this changes one day, it is very likely that Buddywatch will take advantage of it and we will see even more possibilities, but for now we believe that this is not a serious disadvantage either.
Other current and future features
Within the interface we can find other tabs such as ” Followed “, in which all those spheres and creators that you have marked as favorites will appear. On the other hand, you will find a tab called ” Icons ” in which you can modify the icon of the app on your iPhone, some of these being free and others the aforementioned packages that require payments of 2.29 euros.
Finally we find a tab called ” Shop ” that at the time of publishing this review is not yet available. Although nothing is specified in this tab beyond that information that it will be available soon, we can intuit that in this section a series of payment areas could be added in the future that in some way differs from the free ones offered by the app at present. We do not know if the users themselves will be able to upload their creations and set a price, but surely we will be waiting to find out.