Apple reportedly abandoned a secretive project that would have made the Apple Watch compatible with Android phones

• Apple reportedly considered making the Apple Watch compatible with Androids under a secret project.
• The project was reportedly abandoned over concerns it could impact iPhone sales, Bloomberg reported.
• Apple previously had similar concerns around making iMessage for Android, with an exec saying it would hurt Apple more than help.

If you buy one Apple product, Apple wants you to be tempted to buy another — and that’s why we might never get an Android-compatible Apple Watch.

It’s no secret that Apple’s suite of products, apps, and services encourages and sometimes outright requires another Apple device to function or access certain features. You need an iPhone to set up an Apple Watch, for example. Sure, AirPods can be connected to an Android phone, but you won’t be able to enjoy all the fancy features unless you pair them with an Apple device.

Want those envy-inducing blue messaging bubbles? You’ll need an Apple device to enjoy iMessage. Apple’s Health app, too, was only available on the iPhone until the company announced it would also be bringing the app to the iPad in June.

And that’s not a coincidence. Apple clearly designs its apps and services to be compatible with its devices to drive sales of other products. And it also has a history of protecting that ecosystem lock-in.

The latest example? The company was actually working on making both the Apple Watch and its Health app compatible with Android devices at one point in an effort codenamed “Project Fennel,” Bloomberg reported, as part of an investigation into Apple’s larger ambitions for revolutionizing healthcare.

Project Fennel would have brought Apple’s health offerings to a significantly larger swath of people outside the US, according to the report. The iPhone may dominate the US, but Android devices are more popular worldwide, with an estimated market share of over 85% in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran and Turkey, according to Business of Apps. But Apple canceled the project as it neared completion partly because the Apple Watch helps drive iPhone sales, Bloomberg said, with a source familiar with the decision telling the publication that, “If you gave up the watch to Android, you would dilute the value of the watch to the iPhone.”

Apple did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for a comment ahead of publication.

While it’s disappointing news for those who prefer Android’s smartphones but Apple’s smartwatch, the decision shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

In documents released in part of Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple in 2020, Apple said it had decided as early as 2013 not to develop a version of iMessage for Android phones to avoid causing harm to the company. “iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones,” Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said per the documents. 

According to the same documents, former Apple employee also wrote in 2016 that “The#1 most difficult [reason] to leave the Apple universe app is iMessage . . . iMessage amounts to serious lock-in,” to which Apple exec Phil Schiller replied that, “Moving iMessage to Android will hurt us more than help us.”