Please Don't Put A Camera in the Apple Watch

Brian Barrett of Wired explaining some of the reasons why the rumored FaceTime camera on the Apple Watch 2 isn’t a good idea:

Now let’s think about how a FaceTime call fits into that calculus. Surprise! It doesn’t. A FaceTime call would not be one of the “glanceable moments” the Apple Watch enables. It would be a squintable horror, a tiny eternity spent yapping at a stamp-sized acquaintance on your wrist.

Oh, and about that wrist, which is where the Apple Watch lives, because it is a watch. Where do you position it during a FaceTime chat? Normal rib-height gives your video pal a terrifying view of your chin(s) and nostrils, but raising your hand to face-level for conversational duration would be both uncomfortable and make you look insane. At least you’d be able to hear what your FaceTime friend is saying better, but then again, so will everyone else.

I honestly agree with everything Barrett says here. When you think about the mechanics of how you use your arm for FaceTime on a phone or tablet versus how you would use it on the Watch, you quickly realize that FaceTime on the Watch won’t be the best experience. In fact, for months I’ve been railing against the idea that the Apple Watch would get a camera.

Of course, Mark Gurman has an incredible track record, so it’s tough to go against what he claims. The only thing I can think of is if the camera is not used for FaceTime. If instead, the camera is there for other possibilities like scanning and such. That would make more sense to me. I guess we’ll have to wait a year (or so) to find out.