Apple pulls key Watch feature after finding it could be used to listen in on people's iPhones

'We apologise again for this issue and the inconvenience'

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, speaks during an event at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park on September 12, 2018 in Cupertino, California (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Apple has pulled a key feature from its Watch after finding it could be used to listen in on people.

A bug in the Walkie Talkie app – which allows people to send each other voice messages instantly – allowed people to drop in on their iPhones, the company said.

There is no evidence the bug was used, Apple said, but it had been disabled to ensure it could not be activated before it was fixed.

Walkie Talkie allows two users, each with an Apple Watch and who have accepted an invitation to chat from one another, to send audio clips back and forth using a "push to talk" button on the Watch screen - similar to a traditional walkie talkie.

In a statement, Apple apologised for the bug, which is believed to have been flagged to the company through its own security issue reporting website.

"We were just made aware of a vulnerability related to the Walkie Talkie app on the Apple Watch and have disabled the function as we quickly fix the issue," the company said in a statement.

"We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience and will restore the functionality as soon as possible. Although we are not aware of any use of the vulnerability against a customer and specific conditions and sequences of events are required to exploit it, we take the security and privacy of our customers extremely seriously.

"We concluded that disabling the app was the right course of action as this bug could allow someone to listen through another customer's iPhone without consent. We apologise again for this issue and the inconvenience."

The Walkie Talkie app remains installed on Apple Watch devices, but will not function until the updates containing the fix have been issued by Apple.

Earlier this year, Apple temporarily disabled its Group FaceTime calling feature after a glitch was discovered which in some cases enabled people to listen in on someone they were calling even before the call was answered.

A fix was issued for the bug shortly after it was discovered.

Additional reporting by agencies