Show­time has inte­grat­ed hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy into a mobile video ad for its dra­ma series “Home­land”. That’s the same tech­nol­o­gy Apple is incor­po­rat­ing into Apple Watch to pro­vide taps on the wrist to give turn-by-turn direc­tions. The Show­time video is a more enter­tain­ing appli­ca­tion of the tech­nol­o­gy, but it also makes some­thing of a win for Android because iPhones don’t have the tech­nol­o­gy to play videos with tac­tile feed­back. In oth­er words, “Home­land” fans with iPhones will miss out on the com­plete expe­ri­ence.

One of the fea­tures in the new Apple Watch that got the crowd excit­ed after Tim Cook’s iPhone 6 announce­ment is a tech­nol­o­gy known as hap­tic, which enables the device to vibrate when, for exam­ple, dol­ing out turn-by-turn direc­tions. It is per­haps iron­ic then that Show­time has released what it calls the first ever hap­ti­cal­ly enabled mobile video for the fourth sea­son of its series “Home­land”, which debuts Octo­ber 5, but only view­ers with Android devices will get the full effect.

The “Home­land” video is avail­able on the network’s Show­time Any­time app for select Android devices in the “Com­ing Soon” sec­tion, as well as by click­ing on a ban­ner with­in Slate’s app.

A Show­time rep says the hap­tic video is not avail­able for iPhones because “iPhones do not have this tech­nol­o­gy.”

Accord­ing to Show­time, once users install an update for the Show­time app, the video will offer a “mul­ti-lay­ered sen­so­ry expe­ri­ence” through the use of tac­tile feed­back. In oth­er words, as fans watch the trail­er on their mobile devices, they expe­ri­ence “nuanced hap­tic effects,” which, Show­time says, “[build] sus­pense and [immerse] view­ers.”

Indeed, view­ers feel vibra­tions when a bomb explodes and glass breaks. The device emits a buzzing sen­sa­tion that builds with stronger vibra­tions as ten­sion mounts. The vibra­tions com­ple­ment the music, which has much the same ten­sion-height­en­ing effect.

Show­time says it is the first to inte­grate this tech­nol­o­gy in mobile adver­tis­ing and notes the inter­ac­tive ele­ment encour­ages deep­er fan engage­ment and recall with paid media.

And while it is unclear whether Show­time is actu­al­ly the first, Leslie Hall, pres­i­dent of dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing agency Iced Media, said it’s cer­tain­ly a great exam­ple of a video with hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy.

“Often­times brands race to become first-movers just for the sake of being first, but that’s not the case here,” Hall said. “This exe­cu­tion is seam­less in its abil­i­ty to lever­age emerg­ing tech­nol­o­gy in a way that real­ly cre­ates val­ue for the user. It’s the right tech­nol­o­gy at the right time for the right audi­ence.”

In addi­tion, Hall said she thinks the tech­nol­o­gy will inspire view­ers to watch the trail­er all the way through “because peo­ple love to try out new tech­nol­o­gy, espe­cial­ly when it’s sim­ple to use, like it is here.”

She also said the video does a great job of har­ness­ing the excite­ment of the show in a unique way.

“The video real­ly cap­tures the thrill of watch­ing ‘Home­land’ through the trail­er,” Hall said. “It’s also great that Show­time chose to adopt this tech­nol­o­gy for a pro­gram that has such high affin­i­ty already [because] it’s a great way to fuel antic­i­pa­tion for the upcom­ing sea­son.”

In addi­tion, because it debuted before the Apple Watch and the latter’s more prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion of hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy, Hall said, “Show­time did a great job to launch their cam­paign before hap­tic is wide­spread, allow­ing them a nice first-mover moment to cre­ate addi­tion­al buzz for their new sea­son.”

She also calls this a win for Android because “ ‘Home­land’ fans with iPhones can’t enjoy the fun.”

Per Google Play, as of Sep­tem­ber 25, the Show­time Any­time app has 1 to 5 mil­lion down­loads, while Slate has 100,000 to 500,000.

Accord­ing to the Show­time rep, “Home­land” reach­es 7 mil­lion total week­ly view­ers.

The sea­son 3 finale of “Home­land” in Decem­ber 2013 had 7.1 mil­lion view­ers across all plat­forms, which was up from 6.6 mil­lion view­ers for the sea­son 3 pre­miere in Sep­tem­ber.

As of Sep­tem­ber 25, a com­pa­ra­ble Sea­son 4 trail­er minus hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy has about 181,000 views on YouTube.

What do you think about the Home­land trail­er and the future of hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy?