Apple has been working on Apple Watch support on Android smartphones for three years: Report

Apple spent several years trying to bring support for its Apple Watch to an Android smartphone, the company reportedly said in its response to a US Department of Justice (DoJ) lawsuit filed against the company on Wednesday. Previous reports have shed some light on the company’s efforts to bring support for its smartwatches to phones running Google’s smartphone operating system, but this is the first confirmation from Apple that the company previously wanted to launch an Apple Watch that runs on android phones.

The company’s response (through 9to5Mac) to the US Department of Justice lawsuit said the company had considered supporting the Apple Watch on Android phones. Due to technical limitations discovered over a period of three years, the company decided to abandon its plans to extend support for its smartwatches beyond the iPhone.

The 88-page US DoJ case accuses Apple of violating US antitrust laws (federal and state), including allegedly reducing the quality of cross-platform messaging (iMessage exclusivity), reducing the functionality of non-Apple smartwatches (limiting the Apple Watch to the iPhone), suppressing cloud streaming for iOS games and blocking third-party apps from offering Apple Pay’s tap payment feature.

Apple told the publication that the lawsuit “threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in highly competitive markets,” adding that it plans to “vigorously defend itself” against the US Justice Department’s lawsuit, which it says is “wrong on the facts and the law”.

Last year, Bloomberg reported that Apple engineers have been “deeply involved” in an effort called “Project Fennel” that aims to port both the Apple Watch and the company’s Health app to Android smartphones. The project was canceled when work was nearing completion to allow the wearable to continue driving Apple’s iPhone sales, according to the report.