LTE Vivoactive 3 to allow REST calls without phone+GCM

This is an interesting announcement: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/general/adapting-connect-iq-app-to-lte/
REST calls over LTE WITHOUT Garmin Connect Mobile being required to actually implement the server communications! I like that.

Looking ahead, and more broadly, could this mean we'll see the same capability extended to WiFi? The VA3 LTE might be a somewhat limited market due to the Verizon exclusivity, but I'd certainly love to see richer connectivity over WiFi.

jim_m_58 over 6 years ago

Actually, WiFi has been there for a while with things like makeWebRequest. In the sim the toggle for phoneConnected was replaced with a menu called "Connection Type", with both BLE and Wifi, where you can turn them on/off. So you could test things like BLE-off, WiFi-on, and do makeWebRequests. I had a couple of things that would check phoneConnected before doing a makeWebRequest that I had to change, but that was it.

On a real device however, it's a bit harder to test, as wifi isn't really connected that often - only when you're syncing, downloading music, etc. (WiFi has a big impact on battery) In CIQ you can't initiate a wifi connection (I mean connecting to an access point). That process can take a bit of time, so BLE would be faster, but if WiFi is connected already, CIQ apps should use it

mappicus over 6 years ago

Actually, WiFi has been there for a while with things like makeWebRequest...

Great info, thanks Jim. So if a watch is not connected via BLE+GCM it's also not likely to be connected by Wifi, unless it just happens to be running a sync or music download?

jim_m_58 over 6 years ago

Correct. It can use Wifi, but it's unlikely wifi will be connected when an app tries to make a request.