…and you’re fired from it

After putting up with a couple more months of crashing and overall latency, I finally gave up on tracking my runs using the Nike running app on my Apple Watch Nike+. The final straw was when it started to freeze during the countdown when starting a run. I considered getting a new watch (I’m still using a Series 2, and a Series 4 should be more responsive), but as an experiment I just used the built-in fitness tracking capability. It was extremely responsive and gave me zero trouble, so I’ve just switched over to it. I do feel a little sad about losing my accumulated run stats, but I don’t care enough to keep putting up with the crappy experience of the Nike+ app.

Frankly Apple should be embarrassed by the quality of the experience. If they’re going to sell a Nike-branded Apple watch, it should provide a fitness tracking experience equivalent to that of the Apple-provided one (or better). And it’s just frankly awful. I’m sure part of the responsibility is Apple’s; 3rd party apps on watchOS are clearly 2nd class citizens, so even if Nike were doing a good job they’d still be facing a handicap in providing an equivalent experience.

But clearly Nike is not doing a good job. Instead of focusing on the core experience (a fitness tracking app should be good at tracking fitness!), they’re busy cramming in challenges, themed runs, and other things that I could care less about. And meanwhile the basic tracking experience has been getting worse and worse.

But the fix is straightforward: just avoid the Nike app. It had one job, and it was lousy at it. So it’s fired.