IQ splash screen – is it really necessary?

What a waste of time and space to have to go through the IQ splash screen every time one starts up an app. – Especially when the app is something that you only want to glance at for a few moments such as Big Weather.

Isn't there any way to disable this frustrating and repetitive feature.

ruperthawkes over 9 years ago

Yes that is BigWeathers loading screen.

Do we need the IQ logo/splash screen? Probably not, talk to Garmin as I have no control over it, it's the way the firmware was written by Farmin

Cagger30 over 9 years ago

Well don't imagine they will listen to me. I'm just a customer - of multiple devices

Brandon.ConnectIQ over 9 years ago

The 'IQ' loading icon does serve a a couple of purposes--it indicates that the app is loading, and gives you a moment to move on to the next widget before the current widget loads. Otherwise, when you swipe to a widget you would have to wait for it to load before moving to the next.

If apps loaded instantaneously, this wouldn't be an issue because you'd be able to flip through the widgets as fast as you like without any problems. Unfortunately, apps take a few moments to load. Just keep in mind that these devices are very low-power devices with limited memory and processing power, so we have to build in some mechanisms to keep the device responsive. The trade off, in this case, is that you get to see a little icon for a couple of seconds before you can use your app. :)

The fenix 3 does a little better than the vivoactive and displays the name of the widget being loaded on the screen with the loading icon. I think it would make a lot of sense if we allowed developers to provide a loading icon instead of the 'IQ' icon for a little better user experience. I'll submit a request for this feature and see what happens.

ruperthawkes over 9 years ago

Thanks make sense. So only the epix and va show the icon and by iq icon you mean the launcher icon.png?

Also what size should I make it for each device?

Cagger30 over 9 years ago

The 'IQ' loading icon does serve a a couple of purposes--it indicates that the app is loading, and gives you a moment to move on to the next widget before the current widget loads. Otherwise, when you swipe to a widget you would have to wait for it to load before moving to the next.

If apps loaded instantaneously, this wouldn't be an issue because you'd be able to flip through the widgets as fast as you like without any problems. Unfortunately, apps take a few moments to load. Just keep in mind that these devices are very low-power devices with limited memory and processing power, so we have to build in some mechanisms to keep the device responsive. The trade off, in this case, is that you get to see a little icon for a couple of seconds before you can use your app. :)

The fenix 3 does a little better than the vivoactive and displays the name of the widget being loaded on the screen with the loading icon. I think it would make a lot of sense if we allowed developers to provide a loading icon instead of the 'IQ' icon for a little better user experience. I'll submit a request for this feature and see what happens.

I would just like to say that this is probably the first time on this forum that I have seen somebody from Garmin or who is involved in the Garmin development process post on a thread and engage with Garmin customers in such a positive and empathetic way.

This is so informative and so customer-facing and your post is enormously appreciated even though I am just an end-user and not involved in any kind of development at all.

I really don't understand why Garmin doesn't engage directly with this forum on all the issues which are constantly being raised. One sees so much criticism of Garman on this forum and yet a little contact and acknowledgement from Garmin staff would make all the difference and would create a collaborative Garmin/customer effort to resolve problems and also to come up with new ideas.

Former Member over 9 years ago

Thanks make sense. So only the epix and va show the icon and by iq icon you mean the launcher icon.png?

Also what size should I make it for each device?

If the devices make a change to show the user icon, they will definitely use the same launcher icon that is used for Apps. The sizes of these icons on each device can be found in the devices.xml file in the SDK. I recommend creating a launcher icon for all app types even if the devices aren't showing them right now. Depending on UI decisions, there is potential for these being used for all possible app types. (For instance, they could be shown in menus when selecting Watch Faces or Data fields in addition to the potential widget use case discussed here.)

ruperthawkes over 9 years ago

Brian,

so I should have a resources file per device and put a launcher icon in each one? If I only did that (for the moment) for just the VA and left a launcher icon in the main resources file whch one would be used for the VA? The main one or the VA specific one?

I think it would be a grat idea to add a sample app that shows how to structure the device specific resources stuff. ta

TOSHI_TNE over 9 years ago

The 'IQ' loading icon does serve a a couple of purposes--it indicates that the app is loading, and gives you a moment to move on to the next widget before the current widget loads. Otherwise, when you swipe to a widget you would have to wait for it to load before moving to the next.

If apps loaded instantaneously, this wouldn't be an issue because you'd be able to flip through the widgets as fast as you like without any problems. Unfortunately, apps take a few moments to load. Just keep in mind that these devices are very low-power devices with limited memory and processing power, so we have to build in some mechanisms to keep the device responsive. The trade off, in this case, is that you get to see a little icon for a couple of seconds before you can use your app. :)

The fenix 3 does a little better than the vivoactive and displays the name of the widget being loaded on the screen with the loading icon. I think it would make a lot of sense if we allowed developers to provide a loading icon instead of the 'IQ' icon for a little better user experience. I'll submit a request for this feature and see what happens.

I have a fenix 3 and the default apps load instantly, except for the ones that use the BT connection which sometimes say "waiting for data". What's the difference between them and for example garmins world time app that does show IQ loading icon?
Also will it be possible to code watch faces that behave in the same way (Not running IQ, second hand always visible) the default watch face does?

jim_m_58 over 9 years ago

I have a fenix 3 and the default apps load instantly, except for the ones that use the BT connection which sometimes say "waiting for data". What's the difference between them and for example garmins world time app that does show IQ loading icon?
Also will it be possible to code watch faces that behave in the same way (Not running IQ, second hand always visible) the default watch face does?

The difference is that native widgets don't use Connect IQ. And as dar as display seconds, if you search this forum, it's explained. Basicly, the native watchface runs in a special mode.

See this post:

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?174527-Watchface-with-Seconds&p=455494#post455494

TOSHI_TNE over 9 years ago

The difference is that native widgets don't use Connect IQ. And as dar as display seconds, if you search this forum, it's explained. Basicly, the native watchface runs in a special mode.

See this post:

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?174527-Watchface-with-Seconds&p=455494#post455494

That's precisely why I was asking.