Top left button - can be used in watch-app?

I've never seen or heard of a way.  On many devices that button already does a whole bunch of things.

Unfortunately not, as that button is dedicated to turning the backlight on or off, and I guess Garmin doesn't want it used for anything else.

Not just backlight.  Also controls and assistance, as well as a hardware reset/reboot.

jim_m_58 said:

Not just backlight.  Also controls and assistance, as well as a hardware reset/reboot.

Yeah, I'm aware of all of that and, most likely, so is OP.

While we're at it, why not explicitly mention that holding Light will also turn the watch on if it's currently turned off? Or that double-clicking Light will turn the flashlight on/off?

Maybe I should've clarified that a short press of the Light button is dedicated to turning the light on and off.

From context and subtext, OP is likely referring to detecting a short press of that button in CIQ, not a long press (controls), or a very long press (assistance, forced shutdown).

As a counter example, it is certainly possible to for a CIQ device/watch app to respond to a short press of the Start/Stop, Lap/Back, Up, and Down buttons, even though long presses of some of those buttons do other things, either by default or by user configuration.

If someone asked you whether it's possible for a CIQ device app to use the DOWN button, would you then respond that a long press of DOWN has a dedicated function on many watches? Probably not, because nobody mentioned long presses, right? Same as nobody mentioned long presses here (until you did -- implicitly).

To be absolutely clear, my point was that the Light button is unique amongst the buttons in 5-button watches in the sense that a short press of the button has dedicated functionality which cannot be overridden by a Connect IQ device app.

The point is that turning the light on and off is a universal action for (a short press of) the Light button which works the same in every single context (including CIQ apps). In contrast, all the other buttons have context-sensitive actions (for short presses). Up and Down don't always scroll up/down (in the music player, they have other functions). Lap/Back does different things based on the context. Start/Stop also does different things based on the context.

There are other examples of this kind of thing - a button whose short press cannot be detected in CIQ - in some old watches (e.g. Vivoactive 3, FR630) where a *short press* of some button (other than the Light button) cannot be detected by a CIQ app/

e.g.

- Vivoactive 3's single button cannot be used in a CIQ widget app (but it can be used in a device app), because a short press of that button will cause a widget to close (and return the user to the watchface)

- FR630's dedicated menu button cannot be used by any CIQ app, afaik (a short press opens the menu)

The reason I mention this is because sometimes these limitations are not reflected in the simulator, only on the real device; the behaviour of the VA3's single button in a widget is one example, iirc.