[ConnectIQ Feature Request] Fallback to mobile device for location

Former Member over 9 years ago

There's a lot of apps that use location information to provide data, apps like weather or tidal info etc.

Users want these apps to work when they're indoors or otherwise in locations that make a GPS lock difficult. Mobile operating systems have gotten pretty good at providing location information without GPS locks, because of cell phone towers, wifi harvesting and various other voodoo.

It seems that it would be pretty easy to add location lookups to the Garmin Connect application that runs on phones and have devices like the Fenix fallback to that when trying to find location if GPS quality is poor.

Interested to know what you guys think, it would certainly make the apps I'm working on at the moment work a little better.

Cheers
-Rob

jim_m_58 over 9 years ago

If an app required GPS and GPS is not available, I think it is a good user experience to tell the user that GPS isn't available. A number of Garmin devices set their time using GPS, and when that happens, the watch actually tells the user to make sure they are in a location where GPS is available.

Or, as I suggested, if GPS isn't available, let the user know you are using the last saved location.

BTW, with Garmin and reasonable access to GPS data, I don't think I'd ever seen it off more than maybe 30 feet, and most times, much less than that.

Former Member over 9 years ago

Most widgets don't need GPS - they just need location information.

It's lovely that these watches and devices have GPS built in and don't have to be tethered to something like a phone to get location information, there's a lot of great benefits there, however I feel like blindly insisting that this is the only source of location information available is just counter productive and while we could discuss the purity of GPS only, I bet that the guy sitting next to me in the office with his Apple watch can get a location fix indoors. It's pretty crappy that I can sit next to that guy with a Fenix 3, the flagship Garmin smart-watch product and have it ask me to go outside to update the weather/whatever.

It seems like making a small change to enable this feature would be the best of both worlds - I don't look like an idiot sat next to the Applewatch-guy while indoors and I get superior and non-tethered location information while out and about....

Brandon.ConnectIQ over 9 years ago

We were just discussing this a day or two ago, and I think there's a case for having some sort of automatic fallback to get location information via GCM if a connection to GCM is available.

A good use case is when you're indoors--you can't assume that the last known position is valid, and there's no GPS available, but if the phone is able to provide location information for something like a weather report, that's usually good enough.

I had already intended to file a ticket for this, but hadn't gotten to it. I'll do it now. :)

Nikeow over 9 years ago

Second, on what planet is it a good user experience to ask the user to change location in order for their app to work - especially when there's a decent source of location information freely available?

With all due respect. Seems to me that's planet Jim. Old school where things Are tethered and people actually have to walk outdoors to see what the weathers like.

In fact, even Garmin is pretty screwed up in terms of the GPS fix for getting the watch to be set up initially where u really need to get outdoors to set the time. I mean, come on. I buy the watch indoors in a mall, the guy is trying to teach me how to set it up and what an idiot he will look like trying to me why he needs to bring me out to the parking lot, 4 storeys down, 200m to get outside to the open sky.

Now that's not good user experience as well in my books.

jim_m_58 over 9 years ago

With all due respect, on my planet, we don't put training wheels on a sports car! We design the sports car so it doesn't need them! :)

With IP based location services (like a tablet that doesn't use a cell network or have GPS), I've seen my own location off by 10 miles and in another city... What good would that do me in an watch app? I think I'd rather use my last known "good location".

If you get location info from a mobile, what might the "quality" be, and how is that measured? With GPS, you KNOW the quality of the signal!

Maybe the best solution is if CIQ had a way to provide the last known valid GPS location until a new valid position is known, be that an hour or a 2 days later, as looking at what a random mobile provides (with cell, without cell, with GPS, without GPS and without a "quality" indicator) could be worse.

Former Member over 9 years ago

If you get location info from a mobile, what might the "quality" be, and how is that measured? With GPS, you KNOW the quality of the signal!

Maybe the best solution is if CIQ had a way to provide the last known valid GPS location until a new valid position is known, be that an hour or a 2 days later, as looking at what a random mobile provides (with cell, without cell, with GPS, without GPS and without a "quality" indicator) could be worse.

Taking the Android API as an example, the Location Manager seems to provide you with information that would address the concerns you've outlined - the developer can tell exactly which provider has given you the fix (GPS, AGPS, Cell-ID, WIFI) as well as the level of accuracy, you can get SNR info for GPS etc, lots of data there if you want to use it. There's more discussion of location strategies in the documentation that I think also informs the discussion.

I've seen my own location off by 10 miles and in another city... What good would that do me in an watch app? I think I'd rather use my last known "good location".

The nice thing about features is that they should be optional. If your applications are better without it I doubt you'll be forced to use it, I expect this will just be exposed to the developer as another fix type (like ONESHOT), perhaps with some extra metadata being passed in the position callback.

A Rick over 1 year ago in reply to julienvm

I know this is a bit old but tool like https://whatismylocation.org/ can provide additional information and may be also using a VPN could help see the difference between you actual and isp provided ip address