Acknowledged
4 months ago

Make DeviceSettings.isEnhancedReadabilityModeEnabled available for Fenix 7 family of devices

The docs for isEnhancedReadabilityModeEnabled (https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/api-docs/Toybox/System/DeviceSettings.html#isEnhancedReadabilityModeEnabled-var) say that it's not available for fenix 7. `System.DeviceSettings has :isEnhancedReadabilityModeEnabled` returns `false` as well. I checked it for both simulator and the real device running firmware 17.23. 

However, more or less recent fenix 7 firmwares (17.23 included) seem to support "large fonts"/there's a setting in "System > Display > Large Fonts" (that indeed affects the font sizes for standard UI/glances).

As far as I can read it, the documentation for Connect IQ Core Topics (https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/core-topics/user-interface/) tells that isEnhancedReadabilityMode should be available in the above case, but it's not (for Fenix 7). That looks like a bug/inconsistency.

Enhanced Readability Mode

Since API level 4.2.0

Some devices have a new setting that enlarges the sizes of fonts in menus, glances and application pages to enhance readability. To add support for enhanced readability mode, check DeviceSettings.isEnhancedReadabilityMode at runtime to see if you should be using larger fonts. Implementing AppBase.onEnhancedReadabilityModeChanged() will let you know if the setting changed while the app was running.

Just in case, it's also known to work as expected for Forerunner 955 (both simulator and real devices).

I particularly need it to work correctly, because I want to make the glance view of my app to employ different fonts depending on the system setting, so that it would look aligned with the rest of the (standard) glances when Large Fonts are enabled. Just in case, I employ GLANCE_FONT for rendering text on the glance and it looks too small for the case when Large Fonts are enabled, hence I plan to use a bigger font in this case instead, relying on the setting value.

Grigorii Entin
  • 2 months ago

    It looks like this was fixed in firmware 18.14 for fenix 7. Thanks a lot!

  • 5 months ago

    Maybe a better, non-CIQ related example would be the different implementation of map touch behavior in 955/965 vs Fenix. Fenix had 3 modes for the activity touch settings after a certain firmware update: Off, On, Map Only. Around the same time, 955/965 only had On/Off modes, but the behavior for the map screen was changed in response to user complaints: first it followed the activity settings (as you'd expect), but then they changed it follow general settings. Each of these choices annoyed a different segment of users for different reasons and they ended making it the same as Fenix (with an explicit "Map Only" option.)

    All of that is to say, sometimes things are different across models for seemingly no good reason. And sometimes things start out different but end up the same.

  • 5 months ago

    It's not clear what is this? Is this a feature request? A bug report?

    IMO in it's a grey area between "bug report" and "feature request". You could say it's a report of inconsistent behavior across models. Whether it's a true bug or a feature request depends on why the behavior is inconsistent: is it due to an oversight or is it by design / necessity?

    The docs don't explicitly say that *every* 4.2.0 device which supports a large fonts toggle should have isEnhancedReadabilityMode, but it's reasonable to ask why the Fenix 7 family (and Epix 2 ig) have a large fonts toggle but no isEnhancedReadabilityMode, especially given the fact that it's well known that Forerunner 955/965 has similar (but not identical firmware) to Fenix.

    Garmin isn't obligated to implement anything, but it would be interesting to hear whether they would say this is intentional or an oversight. If it's intentional, I'm curious what the rationale is.

    It is kinda hard to believe that a whole family of devices would by left out by accident.

    A slightly different example is that CIQ navigation-related activity info fields are only available for "multisport" devices, even though in recent years, some non-multisport devices support navigation. This seems to be intentional and it's clearer not something that will change. But at least there's some internal logic that can be discerned: "CIQ will only support navigation fields for multisport bc that's the way it used to be, or bc we said so." Or maybe it actually was an oversight (at least at first). Who knows.

    If a bug then where is the bug that needs to be fixed? The documentation? The simulator? The real device? From what I understand currently the documentation, the simulator and the real fenix7 all agree and they say it's not available.

    By that logic, all three should be fixed, assuming Garmin agrees to do so.

  • 5 months ago in reply to flocsy🤠

    My interpretation of the quoted part of the (general) documentation, is that DeviceSettings.isEnhancedReadabilityMode should be available on Fenix 7. Hence it's at the very minimum (general) documentation not matching the firmware. The request is to update the firmware to match the (general) documentation/make isEnhancedReadabilityMode available. The documentation for API should be updated as well, to include Fenix 7 into the list of the supported devices.

  • 5 months ago

    It's not clear what is this? Is this a feature request? A bug report? If a bug then where is the bug that needs to be fixed? The documentation? The simulator? The real device? From what I understand currently the documentation, the simulator and the real fenix7 all agree and they say it's not available.