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Apps Running with the AW2
- Thread starter dallison13
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Luigi, glad to hear you're feeling better and back out there running. Not sure if you're still using the Nike app, but if so, I've found a workaround that helps me quite a bit. When I originally started to use the two side buttons to stop a run, I turned off the watch option that uses those two buttons to take a picture of the screen. I recently turned it back on & now I use it to record exactly what my run looked like when I end it.
The Nike app is still my favorite running app and it works great except that my runs crash when I get to the screen where I can save the run or resume my workout. I have to restart the app & then I can save the run. this works great, but it always adda a few seconds onto my run. Now, with the picture I just said, I can go back in & edit the run to remove the extra few seconds. So far, it's worked great for me.
Thank you for your concern mk313. I'm pausing with 2-button click just like you mentioned, but today it crashed right after saving. It really bugs me since Workouts App works great, but I'm with nike running since 2010.
Also it breaks my nerdy heart that Apple has so buggy app - the only third party app that is pre-installed on AW Nike Edition. So it should be gold standard, not x-times crashing weirdo.
Also it breaks my nerdy heart that Apple has so buggy app - the only third party app that is pre-installed on AW Nike Edition. So it should be gold standard, not x-times crashing weirdo.
@Bob190 , I noticed on the Strava forum that you mentioned that you've been using the Strava app exclusively lately. I stopped using it for a long time but am considering it again. Here is why and I'd like yours and other's thoughts.
I dont like that the native workout app smooths my run gps data. Honestly, that is a huge issue for me. It's so excessive that it's annoying. As for running, it's about the only gripe I have. Sure the Workout app itself is basic, but I personally dont mind using RunGap or Healthfit to get my data elsewhere. Not a huge inconvenience to me.
I never have liked that Strava on the AW2 or 3 only gives you digits to the tenth (like 3.2 miles, instead of 3.21), or that it's almost December and Strava is approaching version 25 and still has no side button pause or doesn't write the workout route to Healthkit. What the hell are they adding in the updates? Bug fixes?
This week, I'm compelled to look at ismoothrun again and Strava to give them both another shot. Everything else, for running at least, seems like a missed effort. Has anyone else compared the gps routing and accuracy vs the built in app recently? The built in app is accurate on distance, but the route is garbage.
Nike is NOT an option. Garbage app.
I do like Workoutdoors, but will probably only ever use it for walking or hiking.
Fire away ladies and gents.
I dont like that the native workout app smooths my run gps data. Honestly, that is a huge issue for me. It's so excessive that it's annoying. As for running, it's about the only gripe I have. Sure the Workout app itself is basic, but I personally dont mind using RunGap or Healthfit to get my data elsewhere. Not a huge inconvenience to me.
I never have liked that Strava on the AW2 or 3 only gives you digits to the tenth (like 3.2 miles, instead of 3.21), or that it's almost December and Strava is approaching version 25 and still has no side button pause or doesn't write the workout route to Healthkit. What the hell are they adding in the updates? Bug fixes?
This week, I'm compelled to look at ismoothrun again and Strava to give them both another shot. Everything else, for running at least, seems like a missed effort. Has anyone else compared the gps routing and accuracy vs the built in app recently? The built in app is accurate on distance, but the route is garbage.
Nike is NOT an option. Garbage app.
I do like Workoutdoors, but will probably only ever use it for walking or hiking.
Fire away ladies and gents.
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It is nice that there are a variety of running apps available on the Apple Watch so that everyone can find the one that works best for them.
I agree. Although I think Nike falls in the category of keeping your proprietary data like the workout app used to be. Doesn’t play well with others. Also the crashes are bad app design. Personally I’ll pass. I’ve long since moved my Nike runs elsewhere. Glad it works for you though.
Strava seems to be very stable now. It just seems to work for me without any issues.
I think they finally fixed the annoying bug that would auto pause your run when you raised your wrist occasionally, at least I haven't noticed it in a while. I really like their implementation of auto pause as it always seems to work and I never have to worry about it not pausing like some other apps.
Voice feedback works well, although it is very basic. I wish they would allow you to configure the intervals beyond just at the mile or kilometer mark.
I have gone back to using a chest strap for HR, which seems to work well, especially now since you can get 1 and 2 minute recovery data after a run. I never felt confident that the HR data I was getting with the builtin optical HR monitor was accurate.
One other big positive for Strava is that I can actually read the screen while running. While the layout is basic, it is also very visible. I ran a 5K on Thanksgiving Day and had no problem glancing at it occasionally to check my pace.
Also like that the data goes directly to Strava without the need for a 3rd party app and that it always seems to sync without issue unlike the Workout app that wouldn't sync about 1 out of every 5 runs or so.
No smoothing of the GPS data, which I am fine with.
I also don't get why Strava only goes to the tenths for distance. But that seems to be a Strava thing as my uploads from my Garmin 520 are the same.
I hope they add more features in the future like live segments now that the AW3 has LTE.
Really liking the AW3 with the ability to stream all of my music, plus the entire Apple Music library. Happy not to have to wait forever to sync a playlist any longer.
I've got about a month under my belt using iSmoothRun. I almost love it. Here are some quick points (good and bad)
1. Good - The AW app works exactly how I feel a running app should work ... as in it's basically a display for the main iPhone app. Keeps everything simple and never crashes.
2. Good - Running on a treadmill seems much more accurate than the NRC+ app(s) ... at least the pace on iSR is pretty consistent with the pace on the various treadmills I use. Also, if I slow down the treadmill speed, the pace on iSR slows down as well, which I can't always say is the case with NRC and Workout. NOTE - I set it on "Watch Only" when I run on a treadmill as I was having auto-pause issues when using "Watch + Phone".
3. Bad - Auto-pause takes too long to initiate. I have it set to the lowest (5 sec) and if I hit a traffic light at the wrong moment, I end up having 4 seconds added to my time, which isn't that big of a deal. NRC seemed to initiate auto-pause after about 2 seconds, which, to me, is more manageable.
4. Bad - No watch audio feedback. When I run on the treadmill, it's hard to feel the vibration, so I often miss my mile splits. With NRC, the watch provides audio feedback, but for whatever reason, iSR doesn't. Note that when I run with both the watch and the iPhone, the iPhone provides audio feedback, so my outdoor runs are fine.
5. Bad - Maybe I can't figure it out, but you can't set the "cues" to be anything other than "every mile" when on "Watch only". When I bring use "Watch+iPhone", I set the cues for every 0.25 miles.
6. Great - iSR exports to lots of different places. I have it set to export to SmashRun and Nike.
1. Good - The AW app works exactly how I feel a running app should work ... as in it's basically a display for the main iPhone app. Keeps everything simple and never crashes.
2. Good - Running on a treadmill seems much more accurate than the NRC+ app(s) ... at least the pace on iSR is pretty consistent with the pace on the various treadmills I use. Also, if I slow down the treadmill speed, the pace on iSR slows down as well, which I can't always say is the case with NRC and Workout. NOTE - I set it on "Watch Only" when I run on a treadmill as I was having auto-pause issues when using "Watch + Phone".
3. Bad - Auto-pause takes too long to initiate. I have it set to the lowest (5 sec) and if I hit a traffic light at the wrong moment, I end up having 4 seconds added to my time, which isn't that big of a deal. NRC seemed to initiate auto-pause after about 2 seconds, which, to me, is more manageable.
4. Bad - No watch audio feedback. When I run on the treadmill, it's hard to feel the vibration, so I often miss my mile splits. With NRC, the watch provides audio feedback, but for whatever reason, iSR doesn't. Note that when I run with both the watch and the iPhone, the iPhone provides audio feedback, so my outdoor runs are fine.
5. Bad - Maybe I can't figure it out, but you can't set the "cues" to be anything other than "every mile" when on "Watch only". When I bring use "Watch+iPhone", I set the cues for every 0.25 miles.
6. Great - iSR exports to lots of different places. I have it set to export to SmashRun and Nike.
In respect of Strava altrought the app is very responsive postprocesing data is very jigged. For example average pace or average heart rate have a lot of spikes( no smoothing) altrought i m running steadily. I never had this problem with nike app but i have a problem with nike responsiveness. ismoothrun is lagging with functions (no voice feedback, no compilation, more data fields on screen, app updates are very rare etc)
Nike also does a lot of post-processing and smoothing. The data for any app would look the same (without post-processing) since all are using the same sensors on the watch. The Apple Workout app and Nike smooth the data, and Nike also down samples the data to 10 second intervals.
Strava doesn't do any post-processing of the data.
Agree with you on iSmoothRun .. lots of potential, lots of promises, but very little delivered. The developer a few months ago now said that the WatchOS 4 app would have all the functionality of the phone app. Every release since then has only been for "bug fixes" with no new functionality.
Ran a 10k contest on Sunday, it had completely stopped measuring my avg pace which messed up my running strategy. Had frozen at 3'50" and never changed. After finishing it didn't have any heart rate record, no tempo for every kms(in nike app it actually had). So yeah, they did the impossible - they finally forced me to use Activities app. gg wp.
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That sucks! I had a similar issue last week. Fortunately it wasn’t a race but I did a 5 miler Friday and while the time was right, it didn’t record any data at all aside from the time. I also made the move the the workouts app. I’ll probably give Nike another chance once they update the app, but I am getting used to the workouts app.
I ran a half marathon this past Saturday. I started NRC on my phone and all was fine and dandy until about mile 12. For some reason the NRC on the watch restarted and when it came back on, was said I was at mile 11.3 while the phone still said 12. Once I finished the marathon, I had two separate workouts. The one on my phone was 13.89 miles and the watch was 12.9 miles. Not sure why this happened.
You answered your own question in the second sentence.
The NRC app has gotten so bad it's comical. Nike seems to be more interested in marketing their apparel than making a solid app and website. Now it's just buggy, slow, and totally unreliable. I kept making excuses for staying with NRC until I finally gave up using the app. Now, I use another app and import my runs into NRC (as well as other websites) so that I can keep earning my badges. One day I'll get to Volt.
What app?You answered your own question in the second sentence.
The NRC app has gotten so bad it's comical. Nike seems to be more interested in marketing their apparel than making a solid app and website. Now it's just buggy, slow, and totally unreliable. I kept making excuses for staying with NRC until I finally gave up using the app. Now, I use another app and import my runs into NRC (as well as other websites) so that I can keep earning my badges. One day I'll get to Volt.
I use iSmoothRun. It's very basic, but it works consistently and you can export your runs to a lot of different platforms, including Nike. It's a one-time purchase at $4.
If you'd rather use the stock Workout app, there are apps that can export/share the data (including GPS) to other platforms. I had previously used RunGap to export my data to various platforms as well. The $2/3 mo. IAP allows you to share to more platforms, but the free app might be able to export to your platform of choice.
I use SmashRun.com to keep track of my runs. I also have legacy data on Nike that I want to keep up to date. So I run with iSR and when I'm done, I export to smashrun and Nike. Easy-peasy.
Thanks for such a detailed review of iSmoothRun. I've had my eye on that app, but was hesitant to try yet another app to replace the dumpster fire that the Nike app has become. (I've tried several, and keep coming back to NRC even though I know I shouldn't.)
So, does this mean iSmoothRun doesn't work as a standalone app on the Watch? The iPhone is doing the heavy lifting?
This is the part I'm most interested in. When it exports to Nike, do the miles show up in the Nike+ app and website? I've been using Nike+ since the 2006 launch, and have logged nearly 30,000 miles. I'd like to continue to add to that total. But the NRC app itself is just so terrible on the Apple Watch. (What makes the situation especially frustrating is that I — like many others in this thread — own the Nike-branded version of the watch.)
You know that NRC is abusing you. You should leave. I kept giving NRC another shot and every time I was disappointed. I finally gave up and haven't looked back.
Nope, iSR can operate in Watch-only mode. You can leave the phone at home, provided you have a S2 or S3 with GPS. I'm not sure if the S0/S1 can work in Watch-only mode outdoors using the pedometer to estimate distance.
I personally run outdoors with my iPhone with me all the time. So for me, all I need the AW to do is to be a "display" unit for what the iPhone app is doing. And that's all I really wanted the NRC apps to do, but Nike can't code. Oh well.
This too was the most important thing for me when I left NRC. I have data going back to 2011 with Nike. Any app that I switched to had to have the ability to export to the Nike servers. iSR does it automatically in the app. Just provide iSR your Nike login credentials and you can set it to export your data right after the run, or you can do it manually whenever you want. It's a little buggy sometimes, but ultimately it goes through.
All the information that NRC can display comes across. You get the GPS map, the splits, HR, elevation. Other stuff comes through too, like the indication for Treadmill and your shoes (although that caused NRC to crash on me a couple of times).
I would have preferred using the stock AW app, but it's a little more cumbersome to export runs out of Workout into other platforms. I have used RunGap to get access to the Workout tcx files, but to get them into Nike, you need to use the txc-to-Nike website and who knows how long that will stay working.
Another promising app is called HealthFit. I read a little about it and it seems like it does the same things that RunGap does, at least for exporting data to other platforms. I think HealthFit can export to Nike directly.
Not to defend the Nike Run club because I'm currently using the native Workouts app & manually importing my runs into NRC, a I've been using it since 2006, so I'm reluctant to leave, but they have had some of the best running apps (and the worst) over the years.
Their initial watch app was fantastic & it worked great for me every day right up until they released the new version alongside watch os 4. From there it's been terrible. The same thing happened with the phone app several times. If I didn't have such a long history with them, I would probably move to someone else, but I feel pretty locked in at the moment & I'm sure I'll move back to the NRC watch app once they release an update that works again.
Their initial watch app was fantastic & it worked great for me every day right up until they released the new version alongside watch os 4. From there it's been terrible. The same thing happened with the phone app several times. If I didn't have such a long history with them, I would probably move to someone else, but I feel pretty locked in at the moment & I'm sure I'll move back to the NRC watch app once they release an update that works again.
Great conversation out there, I'm also a long term user of nike+, since 2010.
I switched to the Workouts built-in app just like you all suggested. But the overall feeling is kinda mediocre, because now app is not crashing, but the Music app does! Yesterday during 40 min workout it crashed 3 times. I have a theory that it's Apple's fault that NRC is so crappy and crashes. The watch just sends memory warning to the app that is the best candidate to kill(so 3rd party like NRC is perfect for watchOS). Yesterday I had no 3rd party app that used much memory, so it killed the most 'convenient' for user(losing music is bad, but it's better than losing a workout).
By the way, Music app is a nightmare. Changing song takes about 4-5 seconds, stopping 3-4. WTF?? Come on, this device is more powerful than iPhone 4...
I even jumped to the crash logs for Watch, but it won't show me though. But I can see tons of crashes for nike watch app for syncing workouts with app on iPhone.
I switched to the Workouts built-in app just like you all suggested. But the overall feeling is kinda mediocre, because now app is not crashing, but the Music app does! Yesterday during 40 min workout it crashed 3 times. I have a theory that it's Apple's fault that NRC is so crappy and crashes. The watch just sends memory warning to the app that is the best candidate to kill(so 3rd party like NRC is perfect for watchOS). Yesterday I had no 3rd party app that used much memory, so it killed the most 'convenient' for user(losing music is bad, but it's better than losing a workout).
By the way, Music app is a nightmare. Changing song takes about 4-5 seconds, stopping 3-4. WTF?? Come on, this device is more powerful than iPhone 4...
I even jumped to the crash logs for Watch, but it won't show me though. But I can see tons of crashes for nike watch app for syncing workouts with app on iPhone.
Not that I use it anymore but the Nike app just got an update.
I’m still sticking to Apple workout app and using RunGap to send to Strava. Works fine for my use case.
I’m still sticking to Apple workout app and using RunGap to send to Strava. Works fine for my use case.
Thanks for answering all of my questions with very detailed information. You're absolutely correct about Nike abusing its NRC users, especially those of us who in paid $400 to use the app on a Nike-branded Apple Watch. I had problems with the watch-and-app combo from the moment I got it a year ago, and opened multiple support cases with both Apple and Nike. The saddest thing was, the support reps I spoke to at each company blamed the other for the issues.
Anyway, you (and a few other posts I've read about iSmoothRun) have persuaded me to give that app a shot. (I might also look into HealthFit.)
I'll be keeping an eye on the reviews for this latest version, as I have for previous versions. I stopped updating the app, though, two versions ago. That one is fairly stable (though clunky) for shorter workouts, but it crashes most of the time on double-digit mileage. So, basically, it ruins my longer weekend workouts.
Incidentally, I'm convinced that Nike and/or Apple have been deleting a large majority of the one-star reviews. I check the reviews every day or two, and have seen some pretty harsh reviews disappear.
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Thanks for the heads up. I'm updating it now. I hope the snow holds off here, so I can test it out tomorrow. I'll post my experience here once I get out there with the app.