What's the difference between and app and a widget?

An app is started from menu, a widget is scrolled through directly from watch face with up/down buttons.

An app is started from menu, a widget is scrolled through directly from watch face with up/down buttons.

OK, got it - are developers allowed to create widgets through Connect IQ or only apps?

Developers can do: watchfaces,Datafields(used within activites),Widgets and Apps..
No hardware that supports 3'd party apps and widgets (officialy) yet. (it will come with firmware updates)

Additionally, garmin now calls "activities" from the fenix 2 "apps" on the fenix 3.

It would have been so great if it were possble to put a widget in the page loop of an app or profile. Just like the native navigation functionality.... (I guess that's a memory restriction)

It would have been so great if it were possble to put a widget in the page loop of an app or profile. Just like the native navigation functionality.... (I guess that's a memory restriction)

+1!
(Sorry old thread, I know)
But being able to view and interact with widgets during an activity - like the map view - would be very useful. You can make a data field full screen, but you loose interactivity afaiu.

Alternatively, what happens if the user switches apps during an activity?
Can I start the "running app", and while running, switch to another connect IQ app without loosing the recording, and then switch back to the running app like if nothing happened?

+1!
But being able to view and interact with widgets during an activity - like the map view - would be very useful. You can make a data field full screen, but you loose interactivity afaiu.

Alternatively, what happens if the user switches apps during an activity?
Can I start the "running app", and while running, switch to another connect IQ app without loosing the recording, and then switch back to the running app like if nothing happened?

There are so many things you could do with a data-field-with-a-menu!

Right now, if you switch out of an app with an active activity recording session, the app is stopped and the session is discarded. In the future, the default behavior will be to save the session rather than discard it. The developer still has the opportunity to save the activity in onStop() if they choose.

Many of the constraints we have today are due to memory, so there is a possibility that we'll be able to relax things a little more in the future and allow apps to run in the background as hardware capabilities improve.