BehaviorDelegate onMenu on Vivoactive 6 and Venu X1

How is the onMenu method of Ui.BehaviorDelegate triggered on a Vivoactive 6?  On a Vivoactive 5 and prior, it's a long-press on the bottom-right button, but that does not work in either the simulator or on a real Vivoactive 6.  

The same question also for the Venu X1?

Anyone know? Thanks!

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  • See https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/f/discussion/408309/a-note-to-developers-and-the-va6

    It's also mentioned in the va6 announcement.   With the code I mentioned, a friend with a va6 did some testing for me,

    Here's one of my apps in the sim for the va6 were I added the actionMenu logic I mentioned.  The indicator is the line on the right side in the middle, and to trigger things, start at that line and swipe to the left.. 
     

  • Some further context:

    - DCR mentioned in his review of VA6 that there's no longer a button shortcut for opening a context-sensitive menu (i.e. long-press of some button). Clearly this is a big enough change that normie users need to know about it. [Then again, he didn't mention it in his Venu X1 review.]

    - this can be confirmed by looking at what's missing from the manuals for VA6 and Venu X1. The Introduction > Overview section [which explains the buttons and touchscreen] lacks any mention of a menu button / menu button shortcut (unlike past Garmins). In contrast, the manual for FR955 says this for the UP button: "Hold to open the menu"

    (As VA3 only had one physical button, its shortcut for opening the menu was to long-press the touchscreen. Ofc this is a lot closer in spirit to the physical button shortcuts than it is to the action menu indicator, as there's still no onscreen indicator to manipulate, which means the functionality isn't very discoverable)

    - I'm guessing that any future "touch-first" Garmin watch will also lack a menu button shortcut [I called it when VA6 came out and this issue was discussed]. By touch-first I mean Venu/Vivoactive, where the watch UI is basically unusuable without touch, as opposed to 5-button "touch-optional" watches, where you can disable / disregard touch, and 99% of the UI still works.

    As a 5-button Forerunner user and runner, I know more than a couple of runners who have no idea that holding UP is used to open a context-sensitive menu / system settings. So it's not surprising to me that Garmin is trying to get rid of this functionality on touch-first watches, in favour of something that is actually discoverable for the average user [a onscreen indicator which needs to be swiped]

    - You can also verify the lack of onMenu support in simulator.json for the respective device config folders:

    [CIQ_ROOT]\Devices\vivoactive6\simulator.json

    [CIQ_ROOT]\Devices\venux1\simulator.json

    If you look at the keys[] and display.behaviors[] arrays in each of these files, there is no element with behaviour equal to onMenu (unlike every other CIQ watch [*]).

    [*] Except for garminswim2/fr45, which lacks the keys[] array, probably because they only support watchfaces and they don't support on-device settings, meaning CIQ apps can't receive input on those devices.

    - I doubt garmin will get rid of the menu button shortcut on "touch-optional" watches [Forerunner, Fenix, and other 5-button watches], as these watches are supposed to be almost fully functional without the use of touch

    - In classic Garmin fashion, the CIQ VA6 announcement actually says absolutely nothing about lack of onMenu support, it tells you that CIQ apps have a way to programmatically display the VA6's action menu indicator and that you should respond to a left swipe of it by opening an action menu. Ofc an action menu - which typically takes up only the right half of the screen - is not the same as a classic full-screen menu, although some people have mentioned that even the native VA6 UI will *sometimes* open a full-screen menu when the action menu indicator is swiped.

    It's only after devs (including jim_m_58) noticed that onMenu doesn't work in the sim that it was collectively understood that the action menu indicator is the new "universal" way to open a menu on VA6.

    Afaict Garmin still hasn't explicitly documented this, so as usual it's just one of those things everyone is "supposed to know".