Instant showing widget

Former Member over 8 years ago

Hey,

I just started working on a widget for my Vivoactive HR. So far, I managed to build the widget with a minimal amount of code, hoping it would show immediately upon opening (It's just a simple world clock). All was working well, until I uploaded it onto my Vivoactive HR.

When I open the widget, it first shows the name and icon and only after a second or so it continues to the actual view.

Would there be any way to 'instantaneously' show the widget instead of this splashscreen? Similar as the other default widgets, like heart rate and step counter?

Best regards,
Ronald

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

On the va-hr (and many other watches), CIQ widgets do this, while native widgets don't. It's done by the FW and not CIQ and there's no way to change it.

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

IIRC, this was originally done so the user could move though the widget loop and see what widget they were on without starting the connect IQ VM for each.

Former Member over 8 years ago

Thanks for your replies, although somewhat disappointing :(

But I would assume there is no way around this delay, there is no special permission I could active to start the widget without delay? I think this would be a great opportunity to allow some widgets to be skipped but also adds the possibility to create widgets which will start immediately, if the user permits it...

travis.vitek over 8 years ago

But I would assume there is no way around this delay, there is no special permission I could active to start the widget without delay?

Aside from using a different device, there is nothing you can do.

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

Out of the CIQ watches I've used, it's there on the vivoactive, va-hr, and Fenix 5.

The one I've seen that doesn't have it is the fr 230.

Brandon.ConnectIQ over 8 years ago

There has been some talk about removing this delay as hardware improves, but nothing concrete has been decided. Without the delay, the user is forced to wait for an app to load before moving to the next widget in the loop. We decided a small delay prior to loading to give the user a chance to scroll quickly through the loop is a better overall experience.

ch1bo over 7 years ago

Hey,

although this being my first post, this issue is actually what took me here!

I wanted to ask how big of a delay / drawback these widget app starts actually are? It appears to me that start times of widgets are usually far below the delay period forced upon them via this mechanism. What currently happens (for me at least) is that I am holding off that ~1 second before continuing to identify the connectiq widget by its start screen, not the displayed text.

After all, developers should aim for quick (<100ms) first renders and postpone any longer loading (>=1s) anyway, right? IMO the "small delay" should rather be used as a deadline - after which the App is terminated (if it has not yet rendered) and further scrolling is possible!?

Love the SDK else so far, good job guys!

jim_m_58 over 7 years ago

This is something that varies by device. On the fr23x for example, the widgets start right away. On some devices, that name and/or icon shows for a short period. (on an f5, you barely see it)

If you are new to widgets, another thing to consider is the widget timeout - when the widget is running, how long before it times out and goes back to the watch face. Initially, on the vivoactive, it was 10 seconds (I've not checked in a while), and on some, it can be a couple minutes. On the Approach S60 today, it's 30 seconds. This can come into play if you're starting up GPS or doing comm.

Both the startup and timeout are controlled by the firmware, and not connect IQ.

Former Member over 6 years ago

There has been some talk about removing this delay as hardware improves, but nothing concrete has been decided. Without the delay, the user is forced to wait for an app to load before moving to the next widget in the loop. We decided a small delay prior to loading to give the user a chance to scroll quickly through the loop is a better overall experience.

On my 5 plus the delay is short, but still annoying. Even as I scroll through my widgets, by the time the delay screen is presented my widget view is shown before you can scroll to the next widget. So in this case, you can't quickly scroll through my widget without seeing both the delay and main view first. This hurts the user experience for faster devices like the 5 plus. Just my 2 cents.