With yesterday’s announcement of the Apple Watch comes further incentive for dating brands to bring their services to wearables.
The Apple Watch works as an extension of your iPhone, and will let users perform a host of activities, such as reading and sending messages, getting map directions and using third party apps.
You control the device by tapping the screen and using the “digital crown” – a dial on the side of the watch that lets you scroll, navigate and zoom.
And developers of third-party apps will soon be able to build tailored versions of their apps for the smart watch, using WatchKit.
Companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Nike and BMW were amongst the list of partners of the Apple Watch.
As expected, social apps like Twitter and Facebook will let you read notifications and send social updates, while others like BMW will allow you to check your car’s fuel tank, or direct you to where it is parked.
And one can certainly imagine dating apps harnessing the Apple Watch to deliver their own functionalities – swiping through matches with the dial, browsing photos, reading and replying to messages, or sending personal notifications.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that “this is the most personal device we’ve ever created”, and some of its more intimate qualities could be utilised by dating apps to introduce new and exciting features.
One of these is the ability to send your heartbeat, which is tracked by the watch, to someone.
This is via Apple’s Digital Touch, which they say is an “entirely new vocabulary of alerts and notifications you can both hear and feel”.
With the vibrating unit on the back of the watch, you can also get private notifications that only you can feel.
You can also send sketches, emoticons, audio messages and personal taps – which you are notified to with a small vibrate on your wrist.
The Apple Watch is expected to be available in early 2015, and will cost around £216 ($349).
Earlier in the year, Tinder and Match.com integrated their dating apps for use on Android Wear, Google’s smart watch software.
Watch the introduction to the Apple Watch below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktujsc4ZUTo&list=PLHFlHpPjgk73J6C3PHUrDntzy6TQxBh44