Instagram abandons Apple Watch

Over the last several months, some high profile apps have been reportedly pulled from WatchOS. Instagram is the latest one to ditch the Apple Watch. The company has quietly removed its Apple Watch app as of the latest iOS app update.

9to5mac reported: “there is no mention of the Apple Watch app being pulled in the release notes which only mentions the typical bug fixes and improvements, but updating to version 39.0 on iPhone removes Instagram for Apple Watch when paired.” The report asserted that the development was likely because of a new restriction that Apple was enforcing.

"As of April 1, updates to Apple Watch apps must use the WatchOS 2 SDK or later, while new Watch apps have to be built with the WatchOS 4 SDK," the report stated.

This further suggests that the Cupertino giant has stopped accepting updates to non-native WatchOS apps. Following this, rather than rebuilding the app, Instagram has decided to end support for the Apple Watch.

Instagram’s Apple Watch app was one of the social apps that made its debut in the early times of watchOS. Several other apps that have been abandoned from the WatchOS include eBay, Slack, Amazon, Google Maps and Twitter.