Widget: BLE remote control for Insta360 One R 360° Action Cam

[updated 2023-04-05]

A widget to remote control (via Bluetooth) Insta360's One R & X cameras.

https://apps.garmin.com/en-EN/apps/bb53f4bb-6c8c-4369-bca9-84cc09b25526

Also available as a data-field for touch based Edge device

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/f0cdaa9c-5733-4748-ba66-1c7a3b008922

Insta360 Remote Control

Features:

  • Start / Stop Recording
  • Select  video or photo shooting mode (Standard, HDR, Time-lapse, 24-25-30 fps, etc).
  • Send GPS telemetry to the camera to be stored in the video file.
  • Add a "Highlight" marker in the video file (not available in the DF).
  • Add a "Track That" marker  in the video file(not available in the DF).
  • Last state is saved, so will resume where it was if the widget exits or was disconnected.

Known limitation & issues:

  • Users have reported that this widget also works with the One X, X2 & X3, but the menus for the various shooting modes are only the ones available one the One R
  • Same goes with the 4K & 1inch module of the One R: only the shooting modes for the 360° module are availbale
  • The widget will auto exit after some time (depending on your device). This is a limitation from Garmin.If you have a newr watch (starting with Fenix 7) you can use the widget as an app, and it won't exit,
  • The widget can be launched from within one of Garmin's official activity (but not if you are in Glance mode) by pressing & holding the back button.
  • There is no countdown / delay option
  • While the widget is active, if the recording is started or stopped from the camera, the widget will react accordingly but will not know in which mode the camera is in.
  • When starting the widget, if it indicates that the camera is still recording and it's not the case, got to the menu and re-select a shooting mode. This will reset the widget.

This thread is to discuss problems with the widget and also possible future functionality.

Have fun!

Greg

  • Exactly what I need. Thank you very much. 

  • Thanks for the app Greg.

    I tried change the record settings using the app but looks that is locked on 5.7k30 I changed on camera but the app layer up to the 5.7k30. 

    When start recording a press the screen and entered in a menu with "stop" "highlight" and "track" pushed track then the screen turn back to the recording first page. Is it right or should send a message saying that is tracking?

  • Before starting the recording, you need to go into the widget's menu (long press on the middle left button on a Fenix) and select the mode you want to record in.

  • Hi Greg,

    I have been using the app, super useful for controlling the camera when is far from my hands. The only problem that I have been suffering, is that the GPS tracking isn't working. I don`t know why, my activity was recorded perfectly in the Garmin app, but the camera hasn't recorded any gps tracking.

    I started recording via the insta360 remote, then pressed the "start/stop" in the menu and pressed "track".

    Have I missed something that I should do?

    Also, in the app, this green icon that looks like a "wifi" signal, didn't show up on my screen.

  • The "track" function is not for GPS tracing ;-) it's an old feature from the One R era, for auto-reframing someone that you're pointing your camera too... check the documentation for a "track that" function, depending on your camera model.

    For GPS tracing, you need to first make sure that GPS is active. Long press the menu button (on Fenix) and go to the last option. You should eventually have 3 green chevrons. Once you transferred you recording to your phone or PC, you need to look 5-10s into the footage to have the stats.

    Have a look at this video to activate the GPS

    FhJtFHusms

  • My bad...hehe now is ready to go! Thanks

  • you have to hold down the menu button to gett the shooting modes but I can confirm they work with an insta360 x3 and garmin fenix 7x (All updated to recent update as of this writing)

  • Is there a way to use this as a data field in a garmin activity. Also, I just found out the native insta360 app allows this data to directly be applied to a video as an overlay AND it seperately does activity pairing with garmin activities. Now if we could just get both at the same time

  • Insta360 has indeed released a new functionality alongside the Ace series of cameras that enables you to overlay data on video via Garmin connect. This is a welcome addition.

    Technically, I could build a data field for remote control, but the user interface would be abysmal. To start a recording, you would need to go to menu > connect la fields > insta360 remote > start (or stop).

    On an Fenix or Epix you can achieve the same by starting your activity then  long press on the back button to get to the widget and start recording.

  • Hello & thanks for such a great app. I installed it on my EpixPro and connected it to an Insta360X3 - but sometimes the screen flickers on the Insta plus there's nothing on the display. If you have the time to debug this, i can record or send you some logs ;-)