KOBE Gym Now!

I no longer carry my iPhone when I go out for daily errands, and I have become able to live comfortably with just my Apple Watch.

I use the training room at the Kobe City Gymnasium three times a week. While traveling from my home to the gymnasium, I frequently check the webpage for the training room's usage status on my Apple Watch.

However, the Apple Watch is difficult to use for viewing webpages. So, I quickly created an Apple Watch app that simply displays the training room's usage status.

Regarding viewing webpages on Apple Watch

There is no Safari app on the Apple Watch. Since Apple does not provide a Safari app for the Apple Watch, one can imagine that the Apple Watch is not designed for viewing webpages.

There are two conceivable reasons for this. First, the screen size of the Apple Watch is small, making webpages difficult to view, and second, the battery capacity is small, making it unsuitable for web access, which consumes a lot of battery.

Even so, the Safari engine exists within the Apple Watch OS, and it is possible to display webpages from URL links in messages, emails, and Siri responses.

However, since webpages on the internet are not optimized for the Apple Watch screen, the screen operations (zooming in/out, scrolling) are cumbersome and the usability is poor.

Personal App

I created an app that displays only the information in the "Current Usage Status" section on the Kobe City Gymnasium training room webpage. By using this app, I was freed from the cumbersome screen operations of viewing webpages on the Apple Watch screen. I can now easily check the current training room usage status just by tapping the app screen.

This app is a personal one I made to easily check the usage status of the specific gymnasium I always use on my Apple Watch.

From personal app to public app

When I tried using the app I made, checking the usage status was unexpectedly comfortable. So, I thought about releasing this app so that other gymnasium users besides myself could use it. In releasing the app, I rebuilt it so that it could be used at the five Kobe City Gymnasium facilities that have implemented the usage status system.

Things considered

This app minimizes the data loaded from the webpage to optimize communication data volume and loading speed. In particular, since images have relatively large data sizes, I decided to use images saved in advance within the app instead of loading them from the webpage.

The usage status system is updated every minute. To prevent unnecessary access to the server, I restricted access to the server to once per minute.

How to distribute the app

Users of this app are limited to those who use the training rooms at Kobe City gymnasiums. Therefore, the application to Apple was submitted not as a standard 'Public App,' but as a 'Hidden App' with a limited distribution scope. This method involves accessing the App Store via a distributed link to install the app.

Rejected as a Hidden App

It was not approved as a 'Hidden App.' While it seems relatively easy to get approval for limited distribution within companies or organizations, it appears difficult to get approval for limited distribution conducted by an individual.

Approved as a Public App

Although I applied as a 'Hidden App,' it was approved as a 'Public App.' This means that while limited distribution is not permitted, standard public release is acceptable. This might be part of Apple's policy to increase the number of Apple Watch apps, even if only slightly, even for apps with a limited user base.

Since it is a public app, anyone can download it, but it can be confirmed in the App Store subtitle and app description that the app is intended only for users of Kobe City gymnasiums. The decision to download is left to the user.

Afterword

I am glad I made the app, having experienced the process of applying as a Hidden App and, as a result, being able to release the app.

A week has passed since the app was released, and there has been only one download. I would be happy if users of the Kobe City gymnasium training rooms find this note article, learn about the app's existence, and use it. And I would be even happier if I could receive feedback or requests regarding the app.