Part of the beauty of ordering Domino's online or with the mobile app is that it doesn’t require putting on real people clothes and you don’t actually have to talk to anyone over the phone (however you can talk to “Dom,” the official e-voice of Domino's). But the coolest feature is real-time updates regarding each step of your order, complete with an animated pizza maker and oven. Not only do you get to indulge in lethargy and pizza, but you get assurance every step of the way that there are no hiccups: unless of course you suffer from indigestion. 

Recently, Domino's upped its digital game yet again by allowing customers to track their order from the moment it is placed, to the time for carry out or delivery, using the Apple (News - Alert) Watch. In doing, the tech-first company has become the first U.S. pizza chain to embrace wearable technology, and its scarcely explored potential for e-commerce.

The app, being called Domino's Glance, allows Apple Watch users to swipe up from the watch face, and instantly check on their order. Logistically, this isn’t terribly different than the real-time updates the company already provides through its website and app. Still, instantaneous updates activated by the simple swipe of a watch face take pizza tracking to a new level of haste. More importantly, it’s a golden opportunity to look up from your watch after being asked the time to say “it’s pizza time,” and actually have contextual evidence that is in fact “pizza time.” 

At the end of the day, the app is not exactly revolutionary in and of itself. You’re basically just getting updates on your Domino's order in watch format. However, it illustrates an area where the Apple Watch really shines, alerts and notifications, and it applies these strong suits in the realm of e-commerce. In addition to improving customer service for businesses such as Domino's by keepings hungry consumers up to date, this type of use case serves as a great reminder to developers that a smartwatch is in fact a “watch” and not necessarily a multi-faceted computing device that we should expect to be able to do everything. If you keep this in mind, many possibilities arise: automatic reminders that you need to fill a prescription, your dry cleaning needs to be picked up, the cake you ordered for the wedding is ready to go, your electric bill needs to be paid, etc. It’s the equivalent of a personal secretary attached to your wrist.

An app that tells you when your pizza is ready is just one perfect example of how smartwatches should be used. And if you like pizza as much as I do, this is one of the few apps you’ll ever need.