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

  • Hi, I installed V0.9.24 and the control of the Insta360 x4 works with the Stand-By function

  • I don't have an X4 to work on, so it won't be in the near future. In the meantime you can set manually the  camera to whatever resolution & frame rate you want, and then use the standby mode of the widget to start the recording.

  • Thanks for the feedback!

  • Hi mate,

    Thanks for the app!

    I have recently buy a Insta 360 Ace Pro and as you have stated it does not work with it. 

    However I'm hoping that you will be able to make it work, even we have to pay, as it is very handy to use your watch (mine is f7pro) instead of phone or the remote developed by Insta.

    Take care and all the best! 

  • To be able to do other development, I really need the device to do it. And I'm not planning on buying each and every device that Insta360 sells ;-)

  • Greg - thanks for this! Using on 255 Music for X4. Able to use the widget, as a widget, but unable to access it in from the back button while recording a workout. Tried every other option I could think of too, but to no avail. Thoughts? 

  • I think that unfortunately it's a limitation of the Forrunner series (or a feature of the Fenix)...

  • Hi. Thanks for the app. I am trying to use it on a Venu 3 and a insta X3. I scan from the insta for a remote but it is not finding it. The watch seems to be connected to the camera, but when press start/stop, nothing happens. When start from the camera, it is showing the counter on the watch, but can not stop it from the watch. Any idea? Thanks

  • There is no pairing process, so it's normal that the camera won't find the watch. The watch is connecting directly to the first camera it finds. However it's strange that camera won't accept the commands from the watch, but the watch reacts the the state of the camera. Can you please try rebooting the watch and selecting one of the video modes such as 5.7k/30 ?

  • I tryed rebooting the watch, re-instaling the app, checked that the camera has the latest firmware, changing different video modes, but it does the same, when pressing Start, just freezes on "starting" and nothing happens. Then press stop and freezes in "stopping". They weird thing is that if I start recording from the camera, it shows on the watch that is recording and for how long has been recording. But then if i try to stop it from thw watch, nothing happens.