New BuzzFeed Watch App Is Surprisingly Different

Getting news alerts on Apple Watch (think apps like NYT, CNN, Fox, etc.) has always struck me as something of a silly idea. Certainly, if one could specifically — and I mean specifically — tailor the categories of what gets pushed wristward and what doesn’t, these might make more sense, but all in all, they seem like fluff churned out for no other reason than to not not have an Apple Watch app. Bah.

BuzzFeed, however, takes a different tack. If you install their somehow popular iPhone app, your Apple Watch extension won’t be what you expect.

But dont get too excited, because this doesn’t mean that what you get is actually anything you actually need. Because in BuzzFeed’s case, what you get on Apple Watch is a Tamagotchi-esque virtual pet.

Yeah.

I guess this is the outlet’s attempt to be kitschy or cute in an effort to match their network’s tabloid-esque idiot hipster nonsense content, and to that end, maybe it works. Making a totally unrelated Watch App extension is certainly a novel approach, but that’s all it is: a novelty.

What’s really pathetic is that, with just a modicum of creativity, BuzzFeed could have tied its virtual pet into the company’s core business, requiring users to feed this thing “shared stories,” making it exercise via voting in polls, and fulfilling the creature’s “Travel” needs with international news engagement. Thus, by using BuzzFeed’s iPhone app to consume content, users would be keeping BuzzFeed Jr. healthy and happy. But that’s too clever, so instead you get this pointless garbage.

If you really want a virtual pet for your Apple Watch, forget BuzzFeed — Sidekicks is the best one out there right now:

As for BuzzFeed’s BS: