iPhone WatchKit Companion App Display Name

Question

If you open the Apple Watch application on your >= iOS 8.2 iPhone, you get a list of applications, featuring watch apps.

Where can I define the name, displayed next to the watch app's icon?

Quebec

Did you even checked the Info.plist file in your project ? – Poise

Surely. The "Bundle Display Name" of either watch app or WatchKit Extension target should be the right Info.plist key. But unfortunately that is not the one used. There is no documentation at apple dev. @LoVo: have you ever tried to change that name? If not, why would you -1 my question? – Quebec

After creating a separate dummy app where I could play around I found that the iPhone "parent" app CFBundleName is used here. I will file a radar at apple to ask for supporting CFBundleDisplayName if it exists. – Quebec

@ edsa-steffen actually i didn`t down-voted your question ^^ – Poise

Sorry for accusing you :-) I'm new to contributing – Quebec

Answer 1

As per this Apple note:

CFBundleDisplayName (Bundle display name) within the Info.plist of the iPhone App corresponds to the name as viewed on the iPhone, while the value in CFBundleName (Bundle name) is the one used within the WatchKitSettings app:

CFBundleDisplayName (Bundle display name) in the Info.plist file for the WatchKit App is tied to the name that is displayed on the Apple Watch itself:

Warmblooded

for me that worked only after restarting Xcode (cleaning didn't help). – Throes

for me this does not work with localized files. See also https://mcmap.net/q/1009095/-localize-watchkit-companion-app-display-name/439489 – Peeling

Answer 2

Its weird and may change in the future, but it's the "Bundle Name" (CFBundleName) of the parent iOs Application which is used in the iOs Apple Watch Companion Application as the Watch Application Name.

But in the Watch Application, it's the "Bundle Display Name" (CFBundleDisplayName) of the Watch application which is used (same as on iPhone).

In the 2 cases, you can localized them using InfoPlist.strings with :

"CFBundleDisplayName" = "Whosnext";
"CFBundleName" = "Whosnext";

Moreover, if name of Watch and iPhone application differs, your application will be rejected.

Apple explains this here : https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/qa/qa1892/_index.html

Iridectomy

Answer 3

Apple documents also describe how to provide app name consistent in watchkit https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/qa/qa1892/_index.html

Sift

Answer 4

You set this name under the Bundle Display Name (CFBundleIdentifier) key in the Info.plist file under your WatchKit App target:

The value you set for that key will be displayed on launch and in the Apple Watch companion app on the user's device.

Source: Although this display information is not visible to us in the Simulator, I know that this is where this name is set because my WatchKit app was rejected for having a name too dissimilar to that on the store. The watch app had been set to my parent application's old name (it defaulted to this when I added the target).

App Review provided me with these images:

Fuze

Yes, this works, but only for not localized strings. – Incontrollable

Answer 5

I had same problem. Apple documents says. But it doesn't work!

Finally I found this on SlideShare:

And I could change my app name on Apple Watch by change containing app bundle name!

Sherrard