[Feature Request] WiFi API

+1 for Wi-FI API support!

The possibilities:

- Action cameras connection
- Direct internet access for apps
- domotics apps
- etc, etc etc

+1 for the Wifi API :)

I appreciate all of the interest in this feature!

I can tell you that in the short- to medium-term, this likely won't be added to the API. I had mentioned in a previous response that we prefer to offload WiFi to a phone since it's already go a full WiFi stack and has a lot more processing power to draw upon. Our Connect IQ devices are limited in both memory and processing power, plus we're very sensitive to battery life (and the things that can heavily impact battery--radio activity of any kind, such as WiFi, will be a large draw on the battery) so we have to be careful about which features we choose to include.

This isn't to discourage your enthusiasm, though. We want to hear from developers so we can understand what you folks want. I just can't promise we'll be able to meet every request, at least not right away. ;) As with some of the other features we've chosen to not implement for now, as battery technology improves and our device hardware improves, we may decide that the addition of WiFi to the API is a viable option. For now, it's not. :(

Thanks!

+1

+1 for wifi API

The scenarios I have in mind but are blocked by not having this feature are:

1. GoPro connectivity: I want to be able start/stop/record the camera without the phone
2. Home automation: I want to go out for a run with my watch without carrying my keys and be able to unlock the door just by having the watch connect to wifi

I understand your point of view, but users often conflate apps and the device, both blaming app authors for issues that are firmware bugs and blaming Garmin for app crashes due to poorly coded apps. The typical user isn't always aware of the impact apps may be having.

We've seen cases where customers were happy last week, but this week their device is unstable or burning through battery and now they're unhappy with the device. For example, they may have installed an Application that mimics a watch face, which never enters low power mode so uses significantly more battery. As far as they are aware, they're not doing anything new--it's just a custom watch face.

Since we already have a nice, well-developed WiFi stack on the phone, which most people are connecting to anyway, that's the direction we've decided to stick with for now. It may change in the future.

I understand your point of view, but users often conflate apps and the device, both blaming app authors for issues that are firmware bugs and blaming Garmin for app crashes due to poorly coded apps. The typical user isn't always aware of the impact apps may be having.

We've seen cases where customers were happy last week, but this week their device is unstable or burning through battery and now they're unhappy with the device. For example, they may have installed an Application that mimics a watch face, which never enters low power mode so uses significantly more battery. As far as they are aware, they're not doing anything new--it's just a custom watch face.

Hmmm. Well, I didn't do anything 'new', and the update to 6.50 killed the battery life of my F3 - it's now under 2 days without running any CIQ code at all. And several of the Garmin-provided CIQ apps crash and lose stuff, even before the update to 6.50. So seems to me if the real issue is concern over app quality, the first focus for Garmin should be getting together the tools necessary to implement quality....

One thing I as a user was completely unprepared for, given the marketing material, is that CIQ apps are second class citizens: it's not possible to build apps to extend the functionality in ways comparable to the Garmin native apps. This is very unfortunate, and a very different direction than any other smartwatch vendor has taken wrt third party programming. Funny thing about that: I have a complete collection of smartwatches - Android, iOS, Pebbles, Tizen, Microsoft - and the Garmins (F3 and VA) seem to be the least stable of the bunch, along with having the least third party apps, and the CIQ platform is the only platform that severely constrains the capabilities of third party apps. Something's not working with the strategy.

I'm also interested on a HTTPCONNECT implementation to make http queries over the WIFI without any need of third party apps (nor Android nor iOS) to bridge the requests to Internet...

At least put a setting to the watch to be able to connect to WiFi routers wtihout using Express on PC. We should be able to input the password ourselves on the watch or simple via QSS...
I'm a Linux user and don't want to install Win + Exp. to add WiFi to the Fenix 3.

Having WIFI configured we should be able to connect to any web service without Garmin connect... the sky would be the limit...