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Spectator messaging battery impact with connected phone?

7393243
over 2 years ago

Hello,

Though I use an Edge 830 when cycling, I like to activate LiveTrack via my FR 945 LTE so that I can receive Spectator Messages. In this situation my watch is connected to my phone. My understanding, though, is that my watch is still relying on its own cellular radio to send messages. So is there any difference in battery impact when using my 945 LTE with a connected phone vs not? Any insights from experience would be appreciated. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    I had assumed when connected to a phone that it used the phones connection for all of the “LiveTrack” and associated features (Live Event Share, Spectator Messaging, etc…).

    I can’t speak to the above for certain (all noted features using phone connection when available) but I often just use LiveTrack with my phone connected and note little extra battery drain than an activity without LiveTrack.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to nord0296

    I had assumed the same, until I had spectator messaging on with LTE off on my watch and didn’t get any messages until i toggled LTE back on! I think it uses the phone GPS and data for live track, but spectator messaging needs to get funneled through their LTE service, which forces the watch to actually have LTE radios on during the workout. Ugh!

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 7393243

    Strange indeed!  Glad you noted already trying that and seeing the outcome.

    I had also based my assumption on the fact that the 955 (I think?) supports all of the same "Live" features but has no LTE... so just "assumed" (bad thing to do) that they had support for these mechanisms over their BLE interface.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to nord0296

    That was my hope! Alas it’s not the case at least not yet. Maybe the two codebases will get harmonized soon. In the meantime I think we’re stuck with this suboptimal use of battery resources. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 7393243

    Rejoice! The latest beta adds exactly this ability: 

    • Added Spectator Messaging over Bluetooth (New Feature) - Spectators can now send you messages over your phone’s Bluetooth connection in addition to LTE.