watch app - Time and Tempe

Yes, I was vaguely aware of that (and it is annoying, but hey).

After a bit of testing, I think the issue with T+T is due to the way it works as a live display, rather than recording an activity.
For example, if I open the Devices panel in the Android GC app, my watch is listed as Connected and there is a little Sync Now circular arrows button; tapping it initiates a sync.

If I do this whilst in the watch menu, or in the Run app but *before* pressing start, or in T+T, or in Simple Walk (one of your other apps, also *before* pressing start) it will change to 'Syncing', display a progress bar and when the bar goes green (Sync Complete), the Transfer Complete toast will pop up on the watch. You can do this over and over and the toast will pop up again and again.

However, if I tap it after starting an activity (either native Run or Simple Walk), so that the timer is running, the spinner spins but no progress bar appears and eventually it reverts to the Sync Now button state. I have to reset the timer (stop and discard or save) to revert to the pre-start state where syncs work again.

So, it seems like recording an activity, having the timer running, or whatever it means to be in that state, blocks syncs. Since T+T doesn't need to start a timer, it's functional interface is the pre-start state, and hence regular syncs can occur.
I wonder if T+T could start a fake recording and discard upon exit as a workaround? Not sure what the impact is (battery, etc.) of that. I like the T+T interface as it is, and wouldn't want to push extra buttons to get in to and out of it just to avoid this, of course.

It doesn't surprise me you see things are different when recording an activity than when you're not. Again, that's a FW thing...

I'm seeing this same behavior on an app I have written with my 630 and must agree, the "transfer complete" message and beep are extremely annoying. In my case, I've written an app that I use 24/7 to replace a standard watch face, other than when I'm doing an activity. I use http communication to pull data from my house every 5 minutes which isn't possible from a typical watch face (main feature is my face turns red if I leave my garage door open).

Has anybody found any way around or ability to block the message, or more importantly the beep? Short of turning off all beeps? Thankfully it doesn't beep while in "night time" mode.

Interesting note about it not happening while recording an activity as in my running app, I never notice it.

Also interesting about the LPM vs HPM. Too bad it isn't possible use LPM in apps as I use about 1.5% of my battery an hour. Changing my web request from every minute to every 5 only had minimal impact.

Has anybody found any way around or ability to block the message, or more importantly the beep? Short of turning off all beeps? Thankfully it doesn't beep while in "night time" mode.

Also interesting about the LPM vs HPM. Too bad it isn't possible use LPM in apps as I use about 1.5% of my battery an hour. Changing my web request from every minute to every 5 only had minimal impact.

On the first one, again it's a firmware thing. I know that a few months back people in the 23x device forums asked for a change with all these transfer complete toasts and someone from Garmin said the suggestions would be passed on the the platform (FW) people, and it may just be considered really low priority or something.

As far as battery in non-recording watch-apps, one thing to consider is how often you update the screen. For example, in Time and Tempe, I have timer for onUpdate() that only fires once a minute. That uses less battery than doing onUpdate() every second (once a minute - like low power mode in a watchface).

An interesting thing, is I have an app (unpublished) similar to Time and Tempe that gets data from the internet every 10-15 minutes vs the Tempe sensor. Both have the 1 min onUpdate() timer, and the one that does comm is more battery friendly than using a local sensor.

On the first one, again it's a firmware thing.

Doesn't mean there aren't workarounds, your app could start recording an activity, for example. Depends on the battery impact of that whether it would worthwhile or not.

Doesn't mean there aren't workarounds, your app could start recording an activity, for example. Depends on the battery impact of that whether it would worthwhile or not.

I suppose you could do that, but it would be extra overhead, (even if you discrad the session, you'd still get gathering data and writing it to storage) and very specific to the semi-rounds. (I've never seen of heard of this except on the new forerunners) I'd rater have the extra toasts that can be explained, and hopefully will be fixed.

I'd rater have the extra toasts that can be explained, and hopefully will be fixed.

Yes, of course, although that wouldn't solve it for me, since in my case the toasts result from genuine syncs (if my phone is connected).
I'd rather have an option to disable the transfer complete alerts, just like the option that already exists to turn off alerts for Bluetooth connect/disconnects. I can't see that being top of Garmin's to-do list, though...

Yes, of course, although that wouldn't solve it for me, since in my case the toasts result from genuine syncs (if my phone is connected).
I'd rather have an option to disable the transfer complete alerts, just like the option that already exists to turn off alerts for Bluetooth connect/disconnects. I can't see that being top of Garmin's to-do list, though...

I agree. I'd like to be able to disable those messages completely. I'm not sure I ever would want to see one of those messages, even when it truly is transferring a workout. It's not like i'm ever go do anything based on that message, so it effectively gives me zero useful information.

Is there an appropriate way to communicate requests like this to the Garmin CIQ team?

The place to report/discuss this is the device forum for your watch as it's not even related to Connect IQ or my app. As I've said, it's a firmware thing. It was discussed there maybe 6 months back and someone from Garmin said they'd pass it on the the FW group.

Hi Jim,

here are some of my thoughts to that app:

- You store the min and max values already of the current day. Is it possible to show also the last got value (we would need an indicator how old this value is). Let's say I started this app 2 hours ago and got a fine value from Tempe. Can you show this value together with a little number 120 which expresses the minutes?

- You wrote that the app updates just every minute to save power. Does this mean that we have to wait 2 minutes in maximum to see the first value (if the refresh of the UI just misses the sensor signal we have to wait for another minute)? If so could you change implementation to update UI on sensor signal?

- The settings are hard to understand and I don't know when e. g. the heart rate kicks in. I also don't know what you mean with goal? Is it the step goal? And what happens if there are two settings active like 'Show daily Goal' and 'Show diff from daily goal'. Is there one setting obsolete? I also don't know where Calories are shown up and what the Percent is or where it is depicted. Can you clear things up to settings?

- Some words to the layout ot the app. Everyone like other layouts. In my opinion the app should show the time in larger letters. Furthermore I would show something with bars or arcs like dbrobert. If you like we can discuss a bit or do a scribble.

- Last but not least I have an app in my mind for a long time but didn't found time to implement it: a Sauna app. In europe (as I remember you live in the US, am I right?) it's quiet common to people to visit a sauna. Typically you visit it for a certain amount of time, e. g. 2 or 3 hours. Therefore a timer would be useful. Furthermore the app could track the temp (probably from the internal temp sensor since one has probably not an external sensor in the sauna) and detect whether one is in the sauna or is doing a rest. By doing this detection the app could release laps in the fit file. During the sauna the heart rate would be interesting and also how quick the heart rate recovers during the rest period. This could be analyzed afterwards in GC. These are rough thoughts first. There are certainly more features to implement.

Imo your app could be a good basis for implementing such a sauna app. If you like you could provide me your code or we could develop the app together.