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Is there a way for me to turn off that the watch face turns off when I turn the watch away.

8234368
6 days ago

I am currently developing an app and I want the user to use the buttons to perform an action. This has to be done pretty regularly, but right now whenever I turn away the watch face it turns off and the first button clicks turns the watch face on, or if I turn it to me I have to wait till the screen is on until I click.

Is there a way for me to configure my app in a way to force the screen to stay on or is there a setting the user can configure to achieve this behavior. For reference my current watch is a vivoactive 5.

  • 0 5 days ago

    That could be a vivoactive5 thing, as when I test on fr965, then my watch-app stays on all the time, the only thing that changes when I gesture that I don't look at the watch is that the screen becomes darker (but still visible)

    You might as well ask about it in the vivoactive5 forum.

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to FlowState

    I don't have AOD enabled on the fr965. Besides I think AOD only changes how the watch face behaves, not the watch-apps.

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to flocsy🤠
    flocsy🤠 said:
    Besides I think AOD only changes how the watch face behaves, not the watch-apps.

    Well, I don't own a Garmin AMOLED watch but the support article I linked clearly says:

    You can enable Always On mode for smartwatch mode (Not During Activity/General Use) or when doing timed activities (During Activity).

    So right off the bat, I don't think it's correct to say that enabling AOD only changes how the watch face behaves. If that were true, there would be no need to have two different options (General Use and During Activity). The case where the user returns to the watchface during an activity is such a tiny edge case, considering there's no default shortcut to do so on many watches, most users don't know how to do it, and even if they do it, they will spend a tiny fraction of their activity time looking at the watch face.

    Yes, that support article also starts out by specifically referring to "keep[ing] the watch face data visible", so it's kind of self-contradictory (unless of course you interpret "watch face" to mean the literal face of the watch, as in anything that's displayed on the watch at any time]. That could be chalked up to the usual lazy Garmin writing.

    The vivoactive 5 manual also talks about turning the display off in general (not just when the watch face is displayed):

    https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-5D183A14-BB43-4A9B-B441-5F824214CE40/EN-US/GUID-8ECEF6B4-5257-44E9-BB09-778836BBF700.html

    To minimize burn-in, the vívoactive® 5 display turns off after the selected timeout (Customizing the Display Settings). You can turn your wrist toward your body, tap the touchscreen, or press a button to wake the watch.

    [The FR965 manual says something similar.]

    And other users have talked about turning off AOD for activities, including one user whose complaint is that they can only turn off AOD for all activities and not just one activity. I will assume that the support article, the existence of a separate "AOD During Activity" setting, and the various discussions about turning off AOD for activities are not just all a huge mistake.

    Perhaps AOD for activities is already enabled by default on FR965 which is why you may mistakenly believe that no such option exists (or that AOD only ever applies to watch faces)? This would also explain why users talk about turning off AOD for activities, rather than turning it on.

    [1/2]

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to FlowState

    [I know that CIQ apps are not the same as built-in activities, but I also know that general use != "watchface only". Also, in some cases CIQ apps are treated similarly to built-in activities - read on. We can also say that CIQ device apps which record an activity are treated differently than CIQ device apps which do not record an activity - for FR955, the latter will be terminated if you return to the watchface while it's running, but the former will continue to run in the "background".]

    Now for the million dollar question:

    - Which of the AOD settings, if any, apply to Connect IQ device apps: General Use or During Activity?

    Bonus question:

    - Does it matter whether the CIQ device app in question records an activity?

    We know that for FR955, the other settings (Gesture, Backlight) under Settings > System > Display > During Activity apply to CIQ apps which record an activity, but not CIQ device apps which do *not* record an activity. For CIQ apps which do not record an activity, General Use settings apply.

    My guess, without owning an FR965, but knowing how the other display options work for FR955 (MIP):

    - Connect IQ device apps which do not record an activity should follow the General Use AOD setting

    - Connect IQ device apps which do record an activity should follow the During Activity AOD setting

    flocsy🤠 said:
    I don't have AOD enabled on the fr965.

    Then I can only assume / guess that:

    1) you have AOD enabled during activities, by default (as I guessed above), which may be why you think AOD is only relevant for watch faces

    2a) you rarely use / test device apps which don't record an activity (or when you do use or test them, you are constantly pressing buttons), which is why you don't notice that having AOD disabled for general use also disables AOD for device apps which don't record an activity

    2b) if 2a) is wrong, maybe AOD is always enabled for device apps, or maybe the AOD during activity setting also applies to device apps which don't record an activity

    idk

    [2/2]

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to FlowState

    I checked it now again. Until now I had General: AOD off, During activity: AOD on. Now I disabled it during activity as well, and then tested with my own Hiker App, and it behaves exactly as with During activity: on. I can always see the screen, but when I don't look at it it becomes slightly darker. I'd say the MIP equivalent is that the background light is turned off, but since this is AMOLED it's obviously not a background light but the brightness of the screen.

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to FlowState
    FlowState said:
    2a) you rarely use / test device apps which don't record an activity

    Interesting. I tested now Wordle Plus, and it does turn off the screen based on the General use AOD setting.

    So maybe there is a bug (or at least confusion in the differences how different AMOLED devices work)? Otherwise I can't explain why Hiker App behaves the same way regardless of both the General use and the During activity AOD setting in fr965/

  • 0 5 days ago

    However all this is (while interesting) off-topic, as the OP is about watchfaces, not watch-apps. Or maybe not. It mentions watch face and app. Go figure...