Everything you need to know about Airbnb's Apple Watch app

A concise breakdown of Airbnb's new Apple Watch app, including its aims, new features, and design process.

airbnb

 

Airbnb has finally released the long-anticipated Apple Watch app, and we’ve got the breakdown:

What are the app’s main aims?

Its centred around easy, rapid communication between hosts and guests throughout the “whole trip.”

Which new features meet these aims?

Hosts and guests can use the app to receive notifications as well as read messages and respond to messages. Hosts can also accept booking requests straight from the watch. “The new app features Airbnb messaging, which hosts and travellers can use to communicate with each other instantaneously. Hosts can receive a new booking request complete with the traveler’s name and photo, requested dates, and personal message, and decide whether to accept or decline on the spot. Hosts can also initiate and respond to messages, as well as create and save quick, pre-recorded responses to help maintain a healthy response rate”, says the app’s description on iTunes.

How did Airbnb design the app?

“We drew on strips of paper and wrapped them around our wrist,” Airbnb experience design lead Keenan Cummings told Techcrunch. “You have to do whatever you can do to simulate it when the tool’s not quite there yet. You are not on the watch yet, you can’t build a fully interactive prototype and put it on the watch. We had to be scrappy about uploading images, using paper and interviewing hosts and guests.”

“One of this company’s strengths is that discipline and simplification, and another one of those company’s core values is to be a host,” he contined. “That comes up in our design — are we being a good host to our users, are we doing what’s best for them, are they comfortable with the tone of the product? When it’s more abstract and harder to translate, you start to feel in your gut when you’re straying away from what’s best for the user.”

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior
Whitepaper | Mobile

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups
Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people
Whitepaper | Digital Marketing

Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its peopl...

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy
Report | Digital Transformation

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

1m

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource