Apple Watch on a Huawei Phone: Notifications Yes, Health Data No

An Apple Watch can now show calls, texts, and app notifications from a phone that isn’t an iPhone, but the app that does it had 14 ratings averaging 1.5 out of 5 when the5krunner reviewed it. The bridge comes from Huawei, not Apple, and it stops short of what most athletes wear the watch for: workouts, heart rate, and sleep data still go only to an iPhone. For anyone tempted to switch phone brands and keep their watch, that gap decides the question.

What Happened

Huawei announced Apple Watch and AirPods support at its HarmonyOS 7 launch on September 7. The watch app appeared on China’s App Store a month later as HarmonyOS Interconnect, published by Thunder Software Technology. According to Huawei’s support instructions, it does two things. Incoming calls, texts, and notification summaries from the Huawei phone appear on the watch, though calls can’t be answered from the wrist. And each device can make the other ring at full volume, without using Apple’s Find My network.

It works with the Pura X View, Mate 90, and Mate XT 2 on HarmonyOS 7.0.0.109 or later, with watchOS 10.0 or later on the watch. Setup means installing the free watch app and scanning its QR code with the phone. Because the watch app does all the work, the5krunner suspects that explains the dropouts early users report, with reviewers describing lost connections and messages that only arrive when the app is opened.

Why It Matters

The limitation is structural. The watch stays paired to an iPhone, and its workouts and health data still flow to Apple Health there. A Huawei owner gets a notification screen and a phone finder, nothing more. the5krunner’s verdict is that the app is pretty useless for most people today, and that a Huawei phone owner gets a far richer experience from a Huawei watch.

The direction is the interesting part. Garmin and other watch makers have spent years asking Apple for iPhone features reserved for Apple Watch, and only EU owners have gained some of them under the Digital Markets Act. Huawei came at it from the other side, needing only App Store approval to put its own bridge on the watch. the5krunner reads it as a strategic move: Apple Watch is one of the things that keeps people on an iPhone, so supporting it removes a reason not to switch. Huawei hasn’t described it that way. Vivo, by contrast, says its Apple Watch app for Android already sends workout, heart rate, and sleep data to its own health app.

What This Means for Athletes

Health and training data are the real test. Apple has been adding health features to the watch itself, such as the biological age estimate on Series 12, and all of that still assumes an iPhone at the other end. Until a phone maker’s bridge carries workouts and sleep, an Apple Watch on a non-Apple phone is a convenience for messages, not a training tool.

Source: the5krunner

Content created with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy.