Lyft Quietly Removes Apple Watch App From App Store

Lyft has quietly removed its Apple Watch app from the App Store.

Lyft removed its Apple Watch app without making an official statement on Tuesday. The app is no longer listed in the App Store and it isn’t available as an app to install through the Watch app on the iPhone either.

Since the removal of the app came at a time when many companies are ditching support for Apple’s smartwatch series, MacRumors first assumed that Lyft has also decided to eliminate its Apple Watch app.

Major companies are deleting their apps for the Apple Watch for two known reasons: low number of users and the fact that Apple has required developers that all apps should adopt the watchOS 4 SDK. Twitter, Amazon and eBay are among the companies that chose to just put an end to their support for the Apple Watch.

Fortunately, Lyft may not be doing the same thing here. Lyft’s customer support has reportedly informed a MacRumors reader that the on-demand transportation company just deleted the app because it is preparing a new one. Lyft is said to be “testing the integration” for a new app. However, the timeline for its release was not disclosed.

Meanwhile, Facebook terminated its Instagram app for the Apple Watch last month. In a statement issued to French website iPhoneAddict, Instagram blamed Apple for the company’s decision to eliminate its app.

According to Instagram, its Apple Watch app was built using the watchOS 1 SDK. Because Apple has now obsoleted the kit, Instagram chose to just put an end to its app instead of rebuilding it for watchOS 4.

Apple started notifying developers last year that it is going to make watchOS 1 SDK obsolete. Back then, the tech giant only urged developers to build apps using the watchOS 2 SDK or newer starting on April 1, 2018. But now Apple is encouraging developers to build apps using the watchOS 4 SDK.