If you've been following SamMobile closely, you're probably aware that Samsung finally launched its Gear S application for iOS on Sunday, January 8, bringing Gear Fit 2, Gear S2 and Gear S3 owners the facility to connect their device to an iPhone.
We've already shown you the easiest way to pair your iPhone with the firm's latest smarwatches, but after playing around with the newly-introduced compatibility for a while, we started to notice that a few core features are missing.
For starters, due to Apple's restrictions, users are unable to respond to notifications on their wrist. They can only view short summaries of alerts and mark them as read, which makes the Gear S3 more of a notifier than a smartwatch when paired with an iPhone. That's not all, though. Many other pieces of functionality that make the Gear S3 such an attractive offering for Android owners are missing on iOS, including Samsung Pay, functional watch faces that integrate calendar events and Find my Device.
Samsung's also been forced to limit the capabilities of some of the basic features baked into its Tizen operating system in order to make them compatible with iOS, such as preventing call logs from syncing between the handset and the wearable.
Due to the sheer amount of differences between the way the Gear Fit 2, Gear S2 and Gear S3 work with Android and iOS, we've decided to create a post highlighting all of their features, and how they function with different operating systems.
Gear Fit 2
| App | Feature | Samsung & Non-Samsung Android | iOS | Additional Details |
|
Notification
|
Receiving | O | O | – |
| Reply | O | X | Due to iPhone's limitation | |
|
Watch Face
|
Functional Watch Face | O | O (Doesn't support Calendar Complication) | – |
| Watch Face Store | O | O | – | |
|
Music Player
|
Music Player | O | X | You cannot transfer music files directly from iOS. You need to use the Gear Music Manager PC/Web client. |
| Media Controller | O | O | – | |
|
Find My
|
Find my Gear | O | O | – |
| Find my Device | O | X | – | |
| Stop Watch | O | O | – | |
| Timer | O | O | – | |
| Alarm | O | O | – | |
|
S Health
|
Monthly, Weekly Report | O | X | – |
| Dash Board Edit | O | O | – | |
| View by Device | O | X | – | |
| Chart View | O | O | – | |
| Sync with Partners Co. | O | X | – | |
| Pedometer | O | O | – | |
| Floors | O | O | – | |
| Heart Rate | O | O | – | |
| Auto Sleep Tracking | O | O | – | |
| Together Social Challenge | O | X | – | |
|
Health Tracking
|
Walking
Running
Cycling Hiking Elliptical Exercise Bike Step Machine Tradmill Pilates Rowing Machine Yoga Lunge Crunch Squat Others |
O
|
O
|
No GPS on iOS.
|
Gear S2/S3
| App | Feature | Samsung Android | Non-Samsung Android | iOS | |||
| Gear S2 | Gear S2 (3G) | Gear S3 | Gear S3 (LTE) | ||||
|
Messages
|
Notification | O | O | O (Does not support reply) | |||
| Sync | O | X | X | O (Only through Gear number) | X | O (Only through Gear number) | |
|
Call
|
Notification | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Accept/Reject | O | O (Not available on S2 BT) | O (HFP setting required) | ||||
| Outgoing | O | O | X | O (HFP setting required) | |||
| Auto Forwarding (3G) | O | X | X | X | X | X | |
| Manual Forwarding (3G) | O | O | X | X | X | X | |
| Log Sync | O | O | X | X | X | X | |
| Log List | O | O | O (Call Logs through HFP remain) | ||||
| Log Details | O | O | O (Call Logs through HFP remain) | ||||
| Dialer | O | O | X | O | O | O | |
|
Contacts
|
Sync | O | O | X | O | O | O |
| List | O | O | X | O | O | O | |
| Details | O | O | X | O | O | O | |
|
S Health
|
24H Log | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Activity Tracker | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Exercise | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Heart Rate | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
|
Weather
|
Current Weather | O | O | O (Current location only) | |||
| More Information | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
|
Music Player
|
Music Player | O | O | X (You cannot transfer music files directly from iOS. You need to use the Gear Music Manager PC/Web client) | |||
| Media Controller | O | O | O (No Album Art) | ||||
|
S Voice
|
Voice Action | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Voice Search | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Reminders | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Alti/Barometer | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
|
Schedule
|
Notification | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Snooze/Dismiss | O | X | X | X | X | X | |
|
Alarm
|
Create/Edit/Set | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Snooze/Dismiss | O | O (Only for alarms created on the Gear S2/S3) | |||||
| World Clock | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
|
Gallery
|
View | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Transfer | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
|
Find My
|
Find my Gear | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Find my Device | O | O | X | X | X | X | |
|
Email
|
Notification | O | O | O (Does not support replies) | |||
| Sync | O | X | X | X | X | X | |
|
Nike+ Running
|
Running | O | O | X | X | X | X |
| Sync | O | O | X | X | X | X | |
| Samsung Pay | O | O | X | X | X | X | |
| SOS Request (Safety) | O | O | X | X | X | X | |
| Speedometer | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Number Sync | O | O | X | O | X | O | |
