Zeyphersan
Banned
Ha, interesting question... FaceTime only?
Yeah, I do wonder about that. I've always expected the lamest outcome.. even though the watch has a cell antenna it's not truly standalone. Still requiring syncing with a phone etc.. at which point I guess they could just route all the calls through software?
We can look to cellular iPads for this. Technically the answer is, yes they get their own number (since the phone companies HAVE to assign a number to give it even a data line, because that's how their systems work) but it's not a number you can call. If you call my iPad's "number" nothing happens. Actually I haven't tried that, I will after this post. But it won't ring, that's for sure.
The way around this is Wi-Fi calling. I DO have Wi-Fi calling set up on all my Apple Devices, including my Watch, so they all "borrow" my phone's number. So let's say I throw my phone in the ocean. As long as my Mac, iPad, and Watch are on Wi-Fi, if you call my number they will all still ring, since it's being routed from AT&T over that Wi-Fi connection. This even works with my cellular iPad when NOT on Wi-Fi since it still has an internet connection. If you call my number and I have my iPad out and about but not my phone, it'll still ring and I can still answer it (iOS routes it as a "FaceTime call" in order to handle it on a system level but AT&T don't care and neither do I).
Now there was someone in the other thread with inside knowledge saying Apple is trying to ditch all this and have it so you CAN actually put your number on multiple devices simultaneously and is making the big carriers adopt all that stuff in the background to support it. So Wi-Fi calling setup would not longer be necessary, since your Watch (or iPad or whatever) can just have your phone number.
Of course even if that doesn't happen the current system still works exactly as you'd expect, and would work on a cellular watch in much the same way. Apple built this system like two years ago.
Edit: called my iPads number, just got the error voice saying this number is not accepting calls as I expected
