Acknowledged
4 months ago

Feature Request: Allow CIQ 4.0 "super apps" to exist only as glances (and not icons in the activity/app launcher)

Background:

In CIQ 4.0 devices, native apps have the ability to exist only in the glance list, and not in the activity/app launcher. There are many of examples of this, such as the steps glance and HR glance.

In general a native app has at least 3 combinations of "launcher modes":

- glance list only

- activity/app launcher only

- glance list and activity/app launcher (this seems rare)

(I'll ignore other launcher modes like the controls menu, hot keys, settings menu, and watchface complications)

However, CIQ 4.0 device apps / widgets ("super apps") only have the following 2 combos:

- activity / app launcher only

- glance list and activity/app launcher

Feature Request:

As a CIQ developer, I would like to be able to implement an app which is only available from the glance list, and not the app launcher, for the following reasons:

- it's an app meant primarily to provide "glanceable" information that can be quickly accessed by the end user. It doesn't make sense for this app icon to clutter up the activity/app launcher,

- native apps can do this, so why not CIQ apps?

As a user who recently upgraded from 945 LTE to 955 myself, I found it disconcerting that my favorite CIQ widgets now appear in the activity list by default. I know that I can remove them manually, but that's an extra step. I realize that this behavior is intentional, though. Maybe a compromise would be to add a new flag to the manifest which specifies that a super app should not appear in the activity/app list by default?

I also noticed that some CIQ widgets (which were originally created prior to the introduction of super apps) actually have *less* functionality in the activity list as opposed to the glance list. This is because the newly implemented glance view provides information that isn't present in the activity list or when actually "opening" the app.

e.g. Battery Graph: https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/923cd514-fe15-476c-855e-26846d2007ec#0

When I first install this widget, the glance shows me my current battery level, but when I initially open the app, all I get is a message saying that battery information is still being gathered. To be fair, this is a temporary situation but it seems like an example of an app which makes more sense to live in the glance list rather than the activity/app list.

FlowState
Parents
  • over 1 year ago

    Remember, it's always been the case where native apps can do things differently than CIQ app.

    Yeah I know. Remember, I have been here for years and I have seen you say this multiple times. I think I was clear that:

    - I know that native apps can do more than CIQ apps in this regard (it's the basis for my feature request)

    - In this case, I would like CIQ apps to be a bit closer to native apps, in order to improve the user experience

    Also, you can edit the activity loop on the watch itself to remove something you don't want there. On a touch device like the 965. youcan press the icon in the activity loop and able to do things like set as a favorite, reorder and remove.

    Yeah, I think I made it clear that I know the user can remove apps from the activity list or glance loop. Did you read what I wrote?

    Did you just get your first CIQ 4 device?

    Yeah, I think I sort of mentioned that:

    "As a user who recently upgraded from 945 LTE to 955 myself,"

    "When I upgraded to 955 (my first 4.0 watch),"

    You also won't see much (if any) discussion about this in the forums and it's been this way for years

    I'm aware of both of these things. Just because something has been a certain way for years and nobody complained, doesn't mean it can't be improved.

    People complained for years that all resource strings (including strings only used for settings) impact app memory. Years after the initial complaint, Garmin actually added a "settings" scope for resources.

    Every time someone asks for an improvement, you have one or more of the following responses:

    - it's been this way for years

    - nobody is asking for this

    - people have asked for this for years but it's never happened

    By this logic, nobody should ask for anything.

Comment
  • over 1 year ago

    Remember, it's always been the case where native apps can do things differently than CIQ app.

    Yeah I know. Remember, I have been here for years and I have seen you say this multiple times. I think I was clear that:

    - I know that native apps can do more than CIQ apps in this regard (it's the basis for my feature request)

    - In this case, I would like CIQ apps to be a bit closer to native apps, in order to improve the user experience

    Also, you can edit the activity loop on the watch itself to remove something you don't want there. On a touch device like the 965. youcan press the icon in the activity loop and able to do things like set as a favorite, reorder and remove.

    Yeah, I think I made it clear that I know the user can remove apps from the activity list or glance loop. Did you read what I wrote?

    Did you just get your first CIQ 4 device?

    Yeah, I think I sort of mentioned that:

    "As a user who recently upgraded from 945 LTE to 955 myself,"

    "When I upgraded to 955 (my first 4.0 watch),"

    You also won't see much (if any) discussion about this in the forums and it's been this way for years

    I'm aware of both of these things. Just because something has been a certain way for years and nobody complained, doesn't mean it can't be improved.

    People complained for years that all resource strings (including strings only used for settings) impact app memory. Years after the initial complaint, Garmin actually added a "settings" scope for resources.

    Every time someone asks for an improvement, you have one or more of the following responses:

    - it's been this way for years

    - nobody is asking for this

    - people have asked for this for years but it's never happened

    By this logic, nobody should ask for anything.

Children
No Data