The apps that swim through Apple's ecosystem

BitDepth#1486

Mark Lyndersay

IT SHOULDN'T surprise you that Apple encourages its developers to create software that works on all its current devices.

A year ago, I jumped to an all-Apple device ecosystem after years of managing a hybrid environment. For me, that's a Mac laptop, an iPad, an iPhone, and an Apple Watch.

Most recently, Apple introduced iPhone Mirroring, which allows you to use a virtual representation of your iPhone on the Mac desktop. Apparently frivolous, until you realise you can copy text off the virtualised OS and paste it into an app on the desktop.

Many of Apple's own apps work seamlessly across all these devices, but not always in the ways you might expect.

I track my lap swimming on an Apple Watch, which displays only general information about activity, but uploads more detailed statistics when it connects to an iPhone.

There it appears in the Fitness app. Oddly, on an iPad the data shows up in the Health app, because on iPad the Fitness app is a portal for paid exercise videos.

And there is no way to see this information on MacOS.

So, by Apple's own yardstick, an app that shares usable data across three devices is acceptable, one that synchronises with four is a distinct winner.

Several regulars make the cut easily. Pages, my word processor of choice, is available everywhere except for the watch, which would make no sense at all.

Evernote has its own synchronisation system that adds deeper database capabilities, but there is no use case for its data collection on a watch face.

Microsoft To Do was already in use on all my devices before the watch got added to the mix, and the implementation there is clutter free and clear. I can mark items done directly on my wrist, though I'm unlikely to create a to-do task there.

If you want to ramp up your list-making capacity across an all-Apple ecosystem, you have other choices. Long-standing task organiser Things is available everywhere, though it just shows the Today list on the watch.

Structured takes a different approach, mixing calendar planning with task lists drawn from the native Calendar and Reminder apps.

It all feels a little new-age, with a strong implication throughout the design and encouragements that the goal is less about getting things done than managing work-life balance. The company avoids hard descriptions like to-do lists in favour of the much softer "day-planner."

Like Things, it can synchronise with instances of itself across all Apple's consumer hardware.

Structured taps into Apple's iCloud data transfer system and rides on the existing synchronisation capabilities of the Calendar and Reminder apps. It also offers a private cloud synchronisation option, like Things, which bypasses Apple's iCloud data exchange.

Is there an advantage to this?

It's necessary for apps like Structured, Evernote and Microsoft To Do, which exchange their data with instances on other platforms.

Apps that use iCloud natively, such as Pages, Keynote and the Safari browser support HandOff, are part of a larger technology the company describes as Continuity, which allows users to move from working on one device and continue on another Apple device entirely. The only non-Apple apps so far to support HandOff are Microsoft's Word and Excel.

Most other apps take advantage of Apple's robust notification system on the Apple Watch. On the desktop, Apple's notifications can get busy, popping up at the top-left corner of the screen. They appear less intrusively on the lock screen of the iPhone, and on the Apple Watch appear as a scrolling list of summaries of messages, posts and texts.

Apple's Mail, Meta's WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook and Instagram, Musk's X and other notification-aware apps can be set to display notices on the watch face, making alerts and summaries available across all available devices.

There's actually no way to make effective use of multiple devices without making peace with iCloud, because it also synchronises contact information and other background details as part of its framework.

It's also pointless fussing about it. A private data network to support users was one of Huawei's final strategies for its smartphones sold in the West and registering for a Samsung account unlocks additional synchronisation features and software availability on that system.

The ambition of both Samsung and Apple is to achieve lock-in, the capture of the customer in an ecosystem that delivers a value proposition that they find difficult to live without.

Of the two, Apple is much further along in both the number and quality of their connections between their hardware families. If you've got the devices, be sure to explore the links between them.

Mark Lyndersay is the editor of technewstt.com. An expanded version of this column can be found there