Apple Worked on Support for Apple Watch on Android Smartphones for Three Years: Report

Apple spent a few years attempting to bring support for its Apple Watch to Android smartphone, the company reportedly stated in its response to the US Department of Justice (DoJ) lawsuit filed against the firm on Wednesday. Previous reports shed some light on the company’s efforts to introduce support for its smartwatches on phones running on Google’s smartphone operating system, but this is the first confirmation from Apple that the company previously wanted to launch an Apple Watch that worked with Android phones.

The company’s response (via 9to5Mac) to the US DoJ lawsuit states that the company considered supporting the Apple Watch on Android handsets. Owing to technical limitations discovered over a three-year period, the company reportedly decided to drop its plans to expand support for its smartwatches beyond the iPhone.

The 88-page US DoJ lawsuit accuses Apple of violating US antitrust laws (federal and state) including allegedly reducing the quality of cross platform messaging (iMessage exclusivity), diminishing functionality of non-Apple smartwatches (limiting Apple Watch to iPhone), supressing cloud streaming for games on iOS, and blocking third-party apps from offering Apple Pay’s tap-to-pay functionality.

Apple told the publication that the lawsuit “threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets”, adding that it plans to “vigorously defend” against the US DoJ’s lawsuit, which it believes is “wrong on the facts and the law”.

Last year, Bloomberg reported that Apple’s engineers were “deeply engaged” in an effort called “Project Fennel” that aimed at bringing both the Apple Watch and the company’s Health app to Android smartphones. The project was cancelled when the work was about to be completed, to allow the wearable to continue to push Apple’s iPhone sales, as per the report.