apple watch walkie talkie app not

NOTE: I was surprised when I read about Apple disabling Walkie Talkie this morning. Walkie Talkie is something my Wife and I use on a semi-regular basis.

As soon as I read about this, I sent mail to my Wife so she did not get frustrated trying to contact me via Walkie Talkie until Apple resolves the issue.

Part of me is wondering if this is in anyway related to the Safari redirection Zoom conferencing bug Apple just addressed. Not that Safari is involved, but that maybe some underlying technology was also being used by Walkie Talking in iOS or watchOS (which are derived from macOS). Or it is just a coincidence (which does happen some times).

deggie wrote:

It is a different weakness involving FaceTime, there is no Safari technology at all on the Watch. Hope you get it back soon.

I was thinking deeper, such as an operating system core technology that might be used by multiple networking services.

It was an idle thought, and not something I really need to know the answer to. Besides a good conspiracy theory often comes from a random coincidence 😀

As BobHarris said above, it is the fact that Apple disabled the Walkie-Talkie due to privacy concerns.

They probably have their walkie talkie turned off. You can make yourself unavailable by swiping up on the watch face and tapping the walkie-talkie icon. This is probably what is happening.

Apple found a serious privacy bug, and disabled the service for now.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/10/apple-disables-walkie-talkie-app-due-to-vulnerability-that-could-allow-iphone-eavesdropping/

It is the same for everyone. See the article for more information.

https://www.techcentral.ie/apple-temporarily-disables-walkie-talkie-on-apple-watch-over-eavesdropping-concerns/

It is a different weakness involving FaceTime, there is no Safari technology at all on the Watch. Hope you get it back soon.