Yep, bad stabilization (or none at all), no waterproofing without a housing, poor dynamic range, interpolated upscaled 1080p pretending to be 4K, no GPS, voice control, slower frame rates, no cloud uploading, no touch LCD (or a poorly implemented one), no zoom, no countdown timer, fewer manual controls, less durability, bad audio, poor customer service, and very few with a watch app.
Get what you want, but there is no competition to the HERO7 Black.
I get that there are a few people who want to be able to control their GoPro camera with their Apple watch. Maybe if enough people leave feedback in the correct location (
https://gopro.com/feedback) instead of on a member to member community forum, and if GoPro has a profitable year, then they might direct some resources to bringing the app back.
The simple fact is this. Very few people used the watch app. It cost GoPro money and resources to keep it updated and available (including customer service support). Gopro has had several years in which they have not only not made any money, they have lost millions (during the time the app was available). They had to make cuts. Along with downsizing and eliminating product groups and departments, resources where shifted to concentrate on only a few key things: camera development, the mobile apps, and cloud service.
There was nothing nefarious about it. GoPro is a big brand name but a relatively small company. With less than a thousand employees world wide (from sales and engineering development to warehouse and custodial duties), it would be silly for GoPro to waste any time or effort on something with little demand.
No, it has nothing to do with the Smart Remote. No, keeping the watch app updated and functioning properly is not as simple as writing a few lines of code. No, GoPro didn't remove the app because they don't care or because of some conspiracy theory. And no, GoPro is not some money hungry company trying to nickel and dime their customers for every last penny.
Currently, the watch app is not available. Will it return? Possibly, if smartwatch sales go up and people show a big enough interest to justify it AND if GoPro actually makes money this year instead of losing money like they have the past few years.
