Under Review
over 1 year ago

[BUG] If user goes to watch face/glance carousel from activity app, the app exits (session is saved, etc)

When running an activity app on an Epix 2 device (and possibly Fenix 7 and others with the same/similar code base), if the user accesses the watch face/glances then the activity is stopped. The result of this stoppage is similar to that of a crash or a call to System.exit() in that the activity session is saved (and immediately shows up on Connect) and the state of the app is lost. However, the watch OS appears to "think" that the activity as been "suspended" similar to how the functionality should work because if the user presses the START button again from the watch face, the same activity is immediately displayed (without the user choosing from the activity list). But although the activity was "resumed", the app is in the initial state as if the user started the activity from scratch.

This does NOT happen on the Fenix 6 or any other watches one or more generations old. On those devices, going back to the watch face or glance/widget list simply puts the activity app in the background and keeps it running. And when you press START the activity continues on.

The workaround for this is to capture the MENU behaviour and not allow the user to view the watch face or glances but that limits the user's ability to view info/data the may wish to see in detail (sleep, body battery, weather, etc).

Hardware details: Epix 2, FW10.44 (also occurs on 10.43, 9.37, 9.36, 9.33)

dbrobert
Parents
  • over 1 year ago

    That false app implementation works fine on the Fenix 6 though.

    This one does not work on my F7 and starts fresh after viewing the watchface: apps.garmin.com/.../51606451-57e2-4f99-9420-2ba5a80b5df6

    But would not be the first time Garmin changed something without telling developers how it's done right, if you know how please make a short description, I can sent the developers of those apps that don't do it right (or are simply blocking that feature be cause it does not work on the newer watches).

Comment
  • over 1 year ago

    That false app implementation works fine on the Fenix 6 though.

    This one does not work on my F7 and starts fresh after viewing the watchface: apps.garmin.com/.../51606451-57e2-4f99-9420-2ba5a80b5df6

    But would not be the first time Garmin changed something without telling developers how it's done right, if you know how please make a short description, I can sent the developers of those apps that don't do it right (or are simply blocking that feature be cause it does not work on the newer watches).

Children
  • over 1 year ago in reply to KrapfenKringel

    This is not a problem because of what developers are doing in their code; I am a developer of a couple of activity apps. The same code base for my various projects works fine on the older devices (as has been stated) but does NOT work properly on the Epix 2 or Fenix 7. There is no way (currently) for developers to know that the user has gone to the watch face/glance carousel via the MENU button. The only thing a developer can do is trap that keypress and restrict use of it. But then users can't access their preferred watch face or any of the glances. Both options for a developer are a lose situation.