Samsung Releases iOS Apps for its Gear Family of Smartwatches

Samsung today announced the first iOS apps for its popular Gear family of smartwatches, which were previously only compatible with Android phones.

The Samsung Gear S app brings iPhone connectivity to the company's Gear 2 and Gear 3 wearables, while the Gear Fit app offers similar compatibility for Gear Fit2 watches. The apps allow device owners to monitor features and manage applications installed through the Gear appstore.

While features and functions will vary by device, iOS users will be able to enjoy the Samsung Gear S3's timeless and stylish design, IP68 water and dust resistance, as well as the built-in GPS, Alti/barometer and Speedometer apps.

It is available in two bold models – the Gear S3 frontier, which takes inspiration from the active explorer with a rugged design, as well as the Gear S3 classic, featuring an elegant style with the balance found on luxury timepieces. Users will also be able to track their fitness by monitoring distance and route traveled, running pace, calories burned and heart rate.

Apart from being able to manage apps on their Samsung Gear devices, users can also adjust individual app settings, control update notifications and enable/disable automatic updates, as well as use the Find my Gear feature for lost watches. Syncing health and fitness data with S Health is also supported, as are iPhone notifications on the wearables.

Samsung Gear S and Gear Fit apps are available as free downloads for iPhone and iPad on the App Store.

Tags: Samsung, Samsung Gear

Top Rated Comments

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vwguy60

28 months ago

The Samsung Gear S2 and S3 and especially the S3 Frontier is the best looking smartwatch in my opinion. I am a watch fanatic and I have old school mechanicals, mainly diver watches. To me (this is my opinion and yours may differ) round looks better. Granted, the rectangular shape of the Apple Watch is far more functional for a smartwatch, however as a watch guy that likes mechanical watches, rectangular is not attractive at all. Again, this is my preference.

I had a LG G Watch R connected to my iPhones, needless to say Android Wear on iOS sucks badly but it worked with many limitations. When connected to an Android device, it was as good as Android Wear can be, on iOS, it was way too limited.

The Samsung OS Tizen is also not the greatest, but when connected to iOS it is better than an Android Wear device connected to iOS. It is obvious that an Apple Watch connected to an Apple phone offers the best experience like an Android Wear device connected to an Android phone.

It is my opinion that if you want a round watch and you have an iPhone, the Samsung Gear S2 or S3 is the way to go. There are far more watch faces, you can also download the face making app and make your own. On Android Wear for iOS, you were stuck with the crappy ones they offered. There are more apps for Samsung on iOS than Android on iOS, there are not many but it is better. It's a compromise when you want a round watch and love iPhones, Samsung is the better of the two choices as of now in my opinion.

Rating: 9 Votes

AppleFan91

28 months ago

Always good to have compatibility, but only so much you can do when the other company only cares to close their customers in.

Omg, I love pointless apple-bashing on a pro-apple website, it's so hip and trendy Yo!

Rating: 7 Votes

MH01

28 months ago

Omg, I love pointless apple-bashing on a pro-apple website, it's so hip and trendy Yo!

Sadly more and more these days it's the actual apple fans that are being sarcastic and cynical , and for that don't blame them, blame Tim and his dream team who are raking in the big bucks while we look down the amazing product pipeline and see cobwebs ...

Rating: 6 Votes

Tubamajuba

28 months ago

Omg, I love pointless apple-bashing on a pro-apple website, it's so hip and trendy Yo!

It's really hard for some people to come to terms with the fact that Apple doesn't make the products they want anymore, and that they would be better served by going with one of Apple's competitors.

And then you have the people that have proudly sworn off Apple and stick around here to tell us how we're all sheep. Which is understandable, being that this is the internet.

Me personally, I think it's cool that Samsung now has a line of smartwatches that work on both major mobile operating systems.

Rating: 5 Votes

Sevanw

28 months ago

Always good to have compatibility, but only so much you can do when the other company only cares to close their customers in.

Rating: 5 Votes

iGobbleoff

28 months ago

Love the round face. This is how the Apple Watch should have looked like

Rating: 4 Votes

H2SO4

28 months ago

That’s not the only thng that breeds dissatisfaction and you know it. Most dissatisfaction is from features being hobbled/removed while the price shoots up. It’s all well and good to say, Go buy a PC instead, but you’ve already made the investment and at Apple prices it’s a significant one. So you want those people to suddenly trash everything Apple in one fell swoop? People may be moving to other manufacturers but they still have some Apple gear, as far as I’m concerned that entitles them to gripe about it.
Another source is being left out in the cold, like having to take them to court to get a graphcis card problem simply acknowledged let alone fixed.

Rating: 4 Votes

Dagless

28 months ago

Now, if Apple would allow people to use their watches on Android devices. I don't follow the mobile arms race but it strikes me that Android has caught up in software and, by some vendors, in hardware too and I'm lead to believe there are more android devices out 'in the wild'. So why not support the largest mobile OS? It doesn't make sense to avoid it.
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Do the watches sync with an ipad?

Imagine a weird future where the company, Apple, let users who own their watch, the Apple Watch, connect to Apple's own tablet computer, the Apple iPad.

Then imagine a weirder future where there is a native weather and calculator app. (Always wondered why Apple are so down on the iPad. Maybe that tells us their attitude thats leading to lagging iPad sales.

Rating: 2 Votes

Relentless Power

28 months ago

Finally a smart watch which is compatible with both IOS and Android. Good work Samsung.

Agreed. Samsung is smart for allowing compatibility with iOS. This gives the user options aside from just the Apple Watch to branch out if they want to.

And the Gear 3 is a fairly appealing Watch.

Rating: 2 Votes

rjohnstone

28 months ago

I've been a beta tester for this for the last 6 months.
It's come along way and the stability is pretty good.
The app is limited by Apple not allowing third party apps to interact with some of the services.
But all notifications on your phone can be viewed and dismissed from the watch. The health monitoring works great too. No integration/syncing with Health app though.

Rating: 2 Votes

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