Since day one, our team has been committed to delivering a modern and efficient experience through our iOS and watchOS apps. To achieve this, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue support for older devices going forward. It’s a decision that we don’t take lightly, but know that it is necessary for the future of Pray Watch.

This step allows us to fully leverage new features and APIs that have been introduced, streamlining our development efforts and ensuring a smoother user experience.

Here’s why we are taking this step:

1. Enhanced Widget Functionality: Widgets have evolved to reach new areas such as StandBy mode, Live Activities, and more. To take advantage of these improvements and provide a consistent user experience, we need to use the latest APIs, including those for curved complications, which were broken in older APIs.
2. New App Intents APIs: Apple has introduced App Intents APIs, offering a modern way to architect code that can seamlessly integrate into various parts of the ecosystem, including Siri, Shortcuts, Widget configurations, and Vision Pro. Embracing these APIs ensures our app remains forward-compatible and versatile.
3. SwiftData for Data Persistence: We are excited to begin adoption of SwiftData, a more efficient and seamless method for data persistence that syncs across multiple devices. This modern API replaces the older and complex iCloud integration, resulting in a more reliable and user-friendly data management experience.

We understand that change can be challenging, but this decision allows us to focus on delivering the best possible features and performance for our users. We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we move forward with these improvements.

Thank you for being a part of our app community.

Which devices will be supported going forward?

We will follow Apple’s guidelines and Pray Watch 17 will only support devices running iOS 17 and WatchOS 10, including iPhone SE (2nd gen) and above, and Apple Watch Series 4 and above. (please see note below about exceptions)

What will happen to older devices?

We are not removing Pray Watch 16 from the App Store; we are just discontinuing development/support for the older version while we focus our development and support efforts on version 17 and above.

So if you’re currently running iOS 16 and watchOS 9, Pray Watch will continue to work on your device with no change insha’Allah.

But here’s where things get tricky…

The tricky part is when mixing and matching iOS 17 with watchOS 9. If you install iOS 17+, you must be able to also install watchOS 10+ in order for the latest Pray Watch to work on both your phone and watch.

Please note that according to Apple:

watchOS 10 requires iPhone XS or later with iOS 17 and [Apple Watch Series 4 or later].

Because of this, WatchOS 10 is not supported for use with some iPhone models such as SE (see chart above).

Final Thoughts

We know this confusing, and we’re also trying to wrap our heads around Apple’s compatibility standards as well.

So here’s the quick rundown: If you’ve updated your phone to iOS 17 and downloaded the latest Pray Watch 17 update from the App Store, but the app seems to have disappeared from your Watch, it’s most likely that there’s a compatibility issue with either your Watch series, WatchOS, or your iPhone model.