In an alternate timeline you could have used an Apple Watch with your Android phone

If you want to use one of the new Apple Watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2 wearables that Apple announced in September 2023, or indeed any of those that came earlier, you're going to need to own an iPhone. Or switch from Android, for that matter. Apple would take either of those things, but that might not always have been the plan.

A new report claims that Apple was at one time working to find a way to make the Apple Watch and accompanying iPhone Health app compatible with Androdi phones the world over. The project even had a codename - Project Fennel - but it never saw the light of day.

That's according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett, writing in a lengthy post discussing the way Apple works in relation to its plans to change the way healthcare works. The Apple Watch is a key aspect of that, and it's said that Apple was keen to bring it and its potentially lifesaving features to all who wanted it. Regardless of what they had in their pocket.

However, the same report says that plans to bring the Apple Watch to the world of Android were ultimately canned over business considerations. Those considerations, it seems, boiled down to the simple fact that allowing Android users to use the Apple Watch meant that it would no longer be such an important part of the iPhone-owning experience. In short, Apple worried that people wouldn't buy an iPhone if they could just use the latest Apple Watch with the Android phone they already owned.