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As of WatchOS 9 a WatchKit app can receive alerts via Bluetooth in background. This is really great for my use case.

However, apps running on watchOS 7 or earlier need a special entitlement for this that is not available for most apps and won't be available to mine.

The problem is > 10% of the active user base for this app has an Apple Watch series 2 or earlier. These devices are not compatible with watchOS 8. So raising the minimum target to >= 8 is not ideal.

If I ship the app without changing the target will:

  • the app pass review?
  • And will it work for those on < watchOS 8 (just with bg BLE disabled)?

Here is a message I got on this topic at build validation:

Missing entitlement. The Info.plist for the watchOS app bundle at “--Redacted--” uses the bluetooth-central value for UIBackgroundModes without the com.apple.developer.bluetooth-central-background entitlement signed into the bundle. We encourage you to add the entitlement to the app’s entitlements list, or set the watchOS deployment target to 8.0 or later to use Bluetooth during Background App Refresh.

David Villegas
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  • I would suggest you add the entitlement in your app. Older watches will not search for it and your blé background will not not work. I do not think this can be a cause for reject. New watches always have some capabilities that older do not have and reviewers are using most recent devices. In improbable case it get rejected you can explain to the review team and surely they will approve the app. – Ptit Xav Jan 15 '23 at 09:00

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