Vivoactive 3 Touch Screen Issue

Hi,

some of my users reported this problem today and I just finished simulating the scenario myself.

After firmware update 5.20 the the touch screen is entirely disabled when an activity session is started.
By entirely disabling I mean the menu won't open by pressing the center of the screen and the swipe and back gesture also stop working.

My code maps the events to the OnMenu, OnBack and OnSwipe.

After the problem manifests, the touchscreen is also disabled in the watch shortcuts menu (hold start key for 3 seconds)

Let me know if you need some additional information.

I will be glad to help.

Cheers,

Robinson

jim_m_58 over 6 years ago

Brandon, there's a thread about this is the va3 forum too. (I linked to your post)

Maybe in the sim, if SPORT_SWIMMING is used and the app is recording, the touch screen should be disabled? That way a developer can catch it early.

Brandon.ConnectIQ over 6 years ago

Yeah, I agree that we should match device behavior. There's still a little opening for discussion about what we want device behavior to be. Once that's been settled, I'll create a ticket to change sim behavior accordingly.

mallon over 6 years ago

First off, I want to apologize for the lack of communication about this change. We had a discussion with the device team today about this, and here's how things shake out:
Touch screens on our wearables function pretty terribly when wet
The vivoactive HR had its screen disabled in swimming activities for this reason
The vivoactive 3 was also supposed to have its screen disabled in swimming activities, but it wasn't when released; this change fixes the oversight
This should be the generally expected behavior on touch screen devices
As it stands, the swimming activities are designed to save the activity and exit when you press the button, and that's all. You could technically circumvent this by using some non-swimming activity type within a connect IQ app, but I know that's not ideal for several reasons.

For those of you with apps that are affected by this change (and setting aside our poor communication on the issue), are things workable as they are now, or is it critical for you to have access to the touch screen inputs?

After starting a workout, this issue makes it so that users can't exit my app without running completely through a workout or shutting down their watch and restarting. So I will need to release an update to fix this. Am I going to be able to use the touch screen if I call 'pause' on the swimming activity? If that's the case then I may be able to just do that when my users want to access the menu during a workout.

SwimmAngie over 6 years ago

I never had any issues with the touchscreen going wonky while using my 3rd party swim app. In fact, I actually need the touchscreen to advance to my next set if I finish way too early for the interval. I like that mypro app coached my workout, tracked my heart rate and I could edit time and yardage in the Connect app. These are a few things the native Garmin swim app is lacking. )Along with a drill or kick option where distance could be manually entered.) Make the disabling of the touchscreen during swimming a setting you could toggle on or off. That way everyone is happy.

Brandon.ConnectIQ over 6 years ago

mallon There isn't currently a way to pause a swimming activity on VA3 that I'm aware of--the only control available is the button on the side of the device, which stops and saves the current activity before leaving the app.

SwimmAngie That's good feedback. I like the idea of offering the option, so I'll offer that as a suggestion.

aledthomas79 over 6 years ago

The native pool app pauses the activity on a button press, then you can save by holding the button down or quick press again to resume, this could be implemented by app developers the same way or as a double press to save if holding the button down is too hard to detect in connect iq, this way the behaviour would match the users expected behaviour from the native app, and the touch screen is not needed

SwimmAngie over 6 years ago

It is now a month later and I haven't seen this issue resolved. Is it being actively worked on or should I start looking at a different device that is better suited for my fave, MySwimPro app? I am so tired of having to completely restart my device if I happen to end my workout early because Garmin decided to disable the touchscreen during ALL swim activity and not just for their native app. Any progress on leaving that option to the user settings?

live2ride-ride2live over 6 years ago

from my home screen (time) my scrolling won't work. I can't get to steps using the side scrolling device or using the face swiping motion.

dpfulg over 6 years ago

Same issue here with scrolling from the home screen...

Anyone able to fix this?

djarway4 over 3 years ago in reply to Brandon.ConnectIQ

The issue I am having with the Vivioactive 3 touchscreen is that once an activity is started, the screen locks up. It is very random, but when it happens, the watch is not useable until hours to days to weeks later. For example, i go out for a run and start the GPS. I stop it at the end. Then it locks up. I cannot save, delete, scroll the screens. I can start and stop the activity that I am currently on. I can sometimes access the main screen, but cannot access the functions that come up. The watch does seem to still synch with Garmin Connect with counting steps. I have to usually wait until the watch completely drains of battery energy and then recharge it. That sometimes works. I just purchased the Vivioactive 4 due to these frustrations.