Oceanic Plus is the top diving app for the Watch Ultra, which has been thoroughly examined by Apple.
Owners of the Apple Watch Ultra can start using it as a recreational dive computer today by downloading the company’s new dive app, Oceanic Plus.
The Oceanic Plus app is designed to function as a fully functional dive computer. Nevertheless, depending on your dive skill, certification, and objectives, what you consider fully featured may change. Recreational divers, or more casual divers, are this app’s primary target market.
The Depth app on the Watch Ultra already provides information on water temperature and depth. The same information is shown on Oceanic Plus, but if you want to take scuba diving seriously, you need more. To prevent users from getting decompression sickness, the app has a no-decompression timer that lets you set limits on how long and how deep you can dive.
Bright, color-coded indicators are displayed on the user interface (UI) to let you know when it’s okay to stop, slow down, or dive deeper. Considering that typical dive computers can be challenging to understand, especially for beginners, it appears that the user interface was a major concern for the developers.
Gearing up dives
A dive planner is available on the app, allowing you to see the tide and current conditions for the day. You can set a surface time for your return as well. You will be given a brief post-dive summary report once you exit the water that will, among other things, show how deep you dove. Downloading the iPhone app will give you a more detailed report, including the precise speed you dove at as well as a record of any nearby wildlife you may have spotted. The iPhone app “needs a little bit of work,” according to some reports because of some “graphic inconsistencies” like text misalignments.
Vibrations from the planner’s notifications are strong enough to cut through wetsuits that are 7mm (about 0.27 inches) thick. The announcement claims that haptic feedback was chosen because sound travels farther underwater. It can be challenging to locate a sound notification if you’re diving with someone who uses a dive computer that beeps. Additionally, Oceanic Plus App modifies the Action button so that it can be used while wearing a wetsuit. Oceanic Plus enters a predive screen when the button is pressed just before diving. Your position is marked by pressing mid-dive.
Make sure your Watch Ultra is running watchOS9.1 and is connected to an iPhone 8 or later before downloading the app. However, if you have iOS 16.1 installed, you can use an iPhone SE from the second generation or later. Although Oceanic Plus is completely free, for $9.99 per month, new features like “decompression tracking [and] location planner” can be added. Common dive functions like a timer and a depth indicator are included in the base app.
To reiterate, Oceanic Plus App is better suited for recreational diving. Only 40 meters (130 feet) underwater are supported by the app. Additionally, it is unable to monitor the oxygen level in a scuba tank like other diving computers can.
Other equipment
Since Oceanic Plus was created specifically for the Watch Ultra, we highly doubt that it will be released on any other Apple product. The gadget actually carries WR100 and EN 13319 certifications. The former indicates that the Watch Device is “internationally recognized” as a diving accessory, while the latter indicates that it can withstand depths of up to 100 meters (although Apple advises against going deeper than 40).
According to our research, the Watch Ultra can be more expensive at $800 than standard dive computers, which can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $1500. The Oceanic Plus App establishes a new benchmark for recreational divers given the Watch Ultra’s functionality and more user-friendly interface.
See the list below for the main features that the Oceanic plus app does have. On their website, they have a huge table that lists what is free and what is not.
Shows Depth and Maximum Depth; Compass; and Compass/Heading Lock; Snorkeling/Dive modes;
– Displays Safety Stop and Warning Signs
– Increased rate alerts
Maximum depth alert (per dive planner, or 40m)
– Cold alerts (as per the dive planner or if the temperature is 0°C)
– Displays Last Dive Time, Elapsed Time, and Total Activity Time – Logbook with dive information, GPS location, the total number of dives, longest dive, deepest dive pictures, etc.
– Adds complications to the watch face, such as the time since the last dive and the no-fly time.
– Decompression details (paid)
– NDL, Max Dive Depth, etc. in the dive planner. (paid)
– Tissue placement (paid)
Weather, temperature, tide, and UV forecasts (paid)
We then come to pricing after that. The official price for the paid bits is as follows:
- -$4.99 per day
- -$9.99 per month
- -$79.99 per year
- -$129 per year (Family sharing up to 5 people)
To put it politely, there was quite a bit of “variety” in how Apple and Oceanic disclosed the pricing to the press when this was first announced. Depending on who you spoke to, the numbers changed, and there didn’t seem to be much of a pattern as to whether or not there was any free mode at all. When everything was said and done, however, the choices are actually quite reasonable.
