Weather question

[eriks1805]

I have an Apple watch 1 gen and have a question about the weather which is displayed on the watchface as a small icon. When you use this, will it cost more battery and how often does it refresh?

 

[anon(9602380)]

Welcome to iMore!

Yes it will use battery, but for a single app it would be minimal. You can turn it off at General>Background App Refresh. But if you are using it in a compilation on your watch face it will continue to refresh even if it is turned off. It really is minimal.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Welcome to iMore!

Yes it will use battery, but for a single app it would be minimal. You can turn it off at General>Background App Refresh. But if you are using it in a compilation on your watch face it will continue to refresh even if it is turned off. It really is minimal.

I'm confused. You turn a watch weather app off by turning Background App Refresh off? It's still going to run in the background, regardless. BAR just helps them run more efficiently. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[anon(9602380)]

I'm confused. You turn a watch weather app off by turning Background App Refresh off? It's still going to run in the background, regardless. BAR just helps them run more efficiently. Maybe I'm missing something.

Sorry for the confusion. From my knowledge of how the weather app works is that if it is a compilation in the watch face you are using, even if turned off in Backgound App Refresh it will continue to refresh. If it is turned off in Background App refresh and not used in watch face compilation, it will not refresh. Never made sense to me but this is how it is supposed to work. Please correct me if I am wrong as I do not want to post incorrect information. Thanks!

 

[Ledsteplin]

Sorry for the confusion. From my knowledge of how the weather app works is that if it is a compilation in the watch face you are using, even if turned off in Backgound App Refresh it will continue to refresh. If it is turned off in Background App refresh and not used in watch face compilation, it will not refresh. Never made sense to me but this is how it is supposed to work. Please correct me if I am wrong as I do not want to post incorrect information. Thanks!

That sounds right I think. An app runs in the background when it needs to. BAR only helps it do so more efficiently. Turning BAR off doesn't stop the app running in the background.

 

[Mac Guy]

Never made sense to me but this is how it is supposed to work.

I believe this was to help compensate for the slow performance of the Watch and the reliance of apps being on the phone and not the Watch.

If someone has a complication for an app, they want to see it frequently. And glancing at the Watch, the complication should display the current information. This means the app has to refresh in the background, whether the app is on the phone or Watch.

It just wouldn't do to touch a complication and have to wait for an app to wake and refresh and display the info. Having the app refresh in the background because it's complication is part of a Watch face means the user doesn't have to know/remember to engage it on the phone.