Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[BlackOrange]

That would assume that the user started at the start of the route, which isn't always the case.

I could maybe get around that by checking they are near the start when they start the workout. However I would then need to handle the case where they had to deviate around something. A trail that was blocked or closed maybe. That would also confuse a simple implementation.

The main problem with solutions that work most of the time is that I would get justifiable complaints when people use them in the situations when they don't work. If people started 5 miles before the start of the route and the app was showing 1 mile to go when there are actually 6 miles to go then they won't be happy (and it could even be dangerous).

Sorry about that. I will implement it properly sometime. It is top priority when I have finished with watchOS 9 and the Ultra. It was previously joint top with the always on display, but the Ultra seems to have caused navigational improvements to be much more requested recently.

I see your point.
Was not thinking about all the different implications you are describing.

Still think that it’s better to show it wrong for some use cases than not all for everyone. When other infos for distance or time are set in a schedule that could still overwrite the route info. You anyway give already the warning in the metric that this is “an estimate if necessary “ 😉

 

[BlackOrange]

Start your workout with the (Action) button feature.

With the Apple workout app you have now the option to setup a workout that when you start it, it goes into pause and will only start by pressing the action button.

That is exactly what I was always doing at the start of every workout for years. Starting the workout, directly pausing it and un-pausing when I want to start.
Out of obvious reasons this is not ideal and apples new option is much better.

Reasons why I have always done this is to give the watch time to settle in and get proper HR reading what takes for me usually about 1min. And second to start workouts exactly timed like in races what you obviously want to do by pressing buttons not fiddling with touch screens.

Is this a feature you plan to bring to WOD? If that is on the feature list please don’t restrict it to the action button like Apple does but make it also usable with both side buttons 😁

 

[maxsandis]

when will AOD be available?
Can't stand having the app blur and get the little white digital time appear instead, even though when turning my wrist it gets back to the app but takes a second.
I often bike indoors on the trainer and just want to see my data without moving my hands like on my Garmin.

Can't believe Apple is making it so difficult for developers to implement these things. Got the Ultra and the action button and AOD not functional for WOD. Very frustrating.

 

[Mauki]

That would assume that the user started at the start of the route, which isn't always the case.

I could maybe get around that by checking they are near the start when they start the workout. However I would then need to handle the case where they had to deviate around something. A trail that was blocked or closed maybe. That would also confuse a simple implementation.

The main problem with solutions that work most of the time is that I would get justifiable complaints when people use them in the situations when they don't work. If people started 5 miles before the start of the route and the app was showing 1 mile to go when there are actually 6 miles to go then they won't be happy (and it could even be dangerous).

Sorry about that. I will implement it properly sometime. It is top priority when I have finished with watchOS 9 and the Ultra. It was previously joint top with the always on display, but the Ultra seems to have caused navigational improvements to be much more requested recently.

I see the remaining distance differently.
The calculation must be based on the distance. If someone starts several kilometres before, that should not be included in the calculation. With Garmin, Wahoo or Suunto, it doesn't matter where you start, the remaining distance is always displayed correctly:

If you deviate from the route, then of course no remaining distance can be displayed. That is quite simple.

But when you are back on the route, you have the correct remaining distance. I've been using this on my Garmin Fenix for 10 years.
If someone is suddenly irritated because the remaining distance is supposedly not 1 km but 6 km, then they simply haven't understood this function.

 

[cfc]

Start your workout with the (Action) button feature.

With the Apple workout app you have now the option to setup a workout that when you start it, it goes into pause and will only start by pressing the action button.

That is exactly what I was always doing at the start of every workout for years. Starting the workout, directly pausing it and un-pausing when I want to start.
Out of obvious reasons this is not ideal and apples new option is much better.

Reasons why I have always done this is to give the watch time to settle in and get proper HR reading what takes for me usually about 1min. And second to start workouts exactly timed like in races what you obviously want to do by pressing buttons not fiddling with touch screens.

Is this a feature you plan to bring to WOD? If that is on the feature list please don’t restrict it to the action button like Apple does but make it also usable with both side buttons 😁

That sort of thing has been on my to-do list for a while but rarely requested. The Open Workout option with the big start button provides some of those advantages but not all.

The first version of the action button will be as simple as possible (Apple-permitting) but I expect that I will improve the functionality over time.

 

[Mauki]

Unless I'm misunderstanding, both of these features are already part of WorkOutDoors? If you hit the three dots next to "running" and then click "open workout" you get a screen showing you gps and sensor connection with a big green start button. Additionally you can toggle the countdown on and off.

Are you surr about this or did you mean something else?

In Answer 3,402 I read that namely this funtion does not exist.

 

[blackNBUK]

The app doesn’t yet support shortcuts. It is a bit of a moving target because Apple keep changing how they work.

In fact the latest change in the shortcuts area is something they call App Intents and it seems like that system may be necessary for the app to handle the action button on the Ultra. So I may be forced into adding some sort of support for shortcuts just to handle the button.

I don’t know for sure yet because they haven’t published any official documentation, and I am just going by informal stuff on Twitter and blogs. Hopefully they will publish something soon.

One issue is that App Intents is only easily available to apps written in Swift and not those like WOD, which is written in Objective C. I am hoping this won’t be a major issue (like their always on display restrictions) but it will slow me down.

The documentation situation sounds like a bit of a nightmare! Fingers crossed it becomes clearer.

Shortcuts support would be nice to have for me but the app is great as it is. It’s incredible how many new runs and walks I’ve been able to try because I’ve got navigation at a glance!

 

[cfc]

when will AOD be available?
Can't stand having the app blur and get the little white digital time appear instead, even though when turning my wrist it gets back to the app but takes a second.
I often bike indoors on the trainer and just want to see my data without moving my hands like on my Garmin.

Can't believe Apple is making it so difficult for developers to implement these things. Got the Ultra and the action button and AOD not functional for WOD. Very frustrating.

Apple make it easier for developers using their latest coding languages but the problem for me is that WorkOutDoors doesn't use their latest language.

I will investigate further when things calm down, but at this time of year I am usually completely focussed on the new watchOS and the new hardware. And this year is particularly busy because of the Ultra. It has been good for sales but the extra interest has meant that I spend most of my time answering emails etc and not a lot actually coding. This is normal at this time of year, but particularly true this year.

I will hopefully know more in a month or so. I have a plan for AOD that I want to try but won't get a chance for a while.

 

[cfc]

I see the remaining distance differently.
The calculation must be based on the distance. If someone starts several kilometres before, that should not be included in the calculation. With Garmin, Wahoo or Suunto, it doesn't matter where you start, the remaining distance is always displayed correctly:

If you deviate from the route, then of course no remaining distance can be displayed. That is quite simple.

But when you are back on the route, you have the correct remaining distance. I've been using this on my Garmin Fenix for 10 years.
If someone is suddenly irritated because the remaining distance is supposedly not 1 km but 6 km, then they simply haven't understood this function.

I agree, but the simple solution that was proposed did not say this. The suggestion was that I could just subtract the current distance from the total route distance to give the remaining distance. I was saying that this would be fine if you followed the route exactly, but not if you didn't start at the beginning or if you deviated.

What you are describing is what I plan to add.

 

[maxsandis]

Apple make it easier for developers using their latest coding languages but the problem for me is that WorkOutDoors doesn't use their latest language.

I will investigate further when things calm down, but at this time of year I am usually completely focussed on the new watchOS and the new hardware. And this year is particularly busy because of the Ultra. It has been good for sales but the extra interest has meant that I spend most of my time answering emails etc and not a lot actually coding. This is normal at this time of year, but particularly true this year.

I will hopefully know more in a month or so. I have a plan for AOD that I want to try but won't get a chance for a while.

Bummer, as I love all the customization of your App. It was the main reason for me getting the Ultra.
Have you thought of rewriting a simpler App in Swift with Field and Screen customization.

 

[cfc]

Bummer, as I love all the customization of your App. It was the main reason for me getting the Ultra.
Have you thought of rewriting a simpler App in Swift with Field and Screen customization.

It needs SwiftUI, which is even newer than Swift. I plan to rewrite the UI part of the app to use it, but that will take a while.

 

[Akrapovic]

As someone who has worked on a watch app, the fact this is done without SwiftUI is mind-blowing. I found development for the watch impossible until SwiftUI came along. Makes this app even more impressive.

I work exclusively in SwiftUI/Swift.

 

[cfc]

As someone who has worked on a watch app, the fact this is done without SwiftUI is mind-blowing. I found development for the watch impossible until SwiftUI came along. Makes this app even more impressive.

I work exclusively in SwiftUI/Swift.

The old WatchKit approach that I use can be quite limiting at times. I think I read somewhere that SwiftUI was initially specifically designed to replace it for the watch, but when they realised how good it was they made it available on all platforms. I don't know if that is true but it does seem very powerful. My main worry is that it will use too much memory, because watchOS can be very aggressive at killing apps that do that.

I wish that I had written the app in Swift, because Apple have started limiting new frameworks like App Intents to only work with that (which will be a pain with the action button). However I started back in 2016 and Swift was new and quite unstable back then, so I used the tried and tested Objective C. Although the map rendering code is written in a combination of Objective C, C++ and even basic C because I needed to get very low level to make it fast enough to be usable on the series 0, which was the most popular model when I started coding it.

 

[BlackOrange]

That sort of thing has been on my to-do list for a while but rarely requested. The Open Workout option with the big start button provides some of those advantages but not all.

The first version of the action button will be as simple as possible (Apple-permitting) but I expect that I will improve the functionality over time.

Having the big green button in the “Open Workout” is for sure nice.
If now there would be the option to start also with side buttons it would be even better
Guess not so many people using WOD are racing or this feature would be requested more often. The start of packed races and touch screens just don’t get together well. You want to have your fingers on the buttons and just press when the gun goes off.

Just wondering if no one else is “warming” up the HR sensor?
From all of my observations I’m pretty sure that the HR sensor only starts up with the start of a workout and takes often up to a minute and sometimes more to get a first stable reading.
That is different to GPS or other sensors that connect and produce proper data from the time the app starts.

 

[stackcats]

Just upgraded to the Ultra & have noticed that my completed workout maps on the watch show a dark background. I have it set it to vivid (on watch & phone) and that's what is displayed during the workout. Interestingly, when I send the vivid map display from the phone app to the watch when the map is open it changes to vivid. As soon as I click 'done' on the watch and go back the map background is back to dark. First world problem I know but wondering if anyone else has seen that before?

 

[cfc]

Just upgraded to the Ultra & have noticed that my completed workout maps on the watch show a dark background. I have it set it to vivid (on watch & phone) and that's what is displayed during the workout. Interestingly, when I send the vivid map display from the phone app to the watch when the map is open it changes to vivid. As soon as I click 'done' on the watch and go back the map background is back to dark. First world problem I know but wondering if anyone else has seen that before?

The intention is that the workout summary maps are already dark, but maybe if you change the watch map on the iPhone when one is visible then it changes that. This is probably a bug, so I will take a look.

 

[stackcats]

Cool, thank you.

 

[Mauki]

@cfc

Thanks for the explanations on the last pages how long you need to implement some interesting features (AOD, navigation, etc.). There is still some work ahead of you and I am curious what is implemented by the end of the year.

Even if this announcement unfortunately does not make my decision to buy an Apple Watch better.

I've been using a Garmin Fenix 3 for trailrunning for years and switching to an Apple Watch was never really an issue. I have followed the development of the Apple Watch but as an Ultra trailrunner, the Hardware was never an option and the software has been really bad for trailrunners in recent years.

For 4 years I have been following the development of Workoutdoors and this ingenious software is the only reason why an Apple Watch is now in my focus. With the Apple Watch Ultra there is finally a hardware that could replace a Fenix. But the missing features in WOD will give my Fenix a few more months to be with me.

I definitely miss with the Garmin Fenix a heart rate measurement around the clock and during sports, as this still has no measurement on the wrist. Chest strap for heart rate I find cruel. But I will have to live with it.

What the Garmin Fenix definitely can is navigation. Although only with breadcrumb and without map, which is enough for me for years. For this you have turn-by-turn and shows me the remaining distance, altitude, time and ETA and these features are very important for me during long trailruns and in trail competitions.

I am happy when these functions are available in WOD, so that I can then finally replace my Garmin Fenix with an Apple Watch Ultra next year.

Keep up the good work

Those were just my two cents

 

[Miggui]

Hi, new happy ultra user, I wish for the action button the fonction of endind or starting a new interval for running. For the moment I have the double tap shortcut but it is not really ideal.
This and the aod and wod will be perfect !
Thanks for the job

 

[Mauki]

In the absence of AW and WOD, a question about intervals.

Is it possible to run a section, e.g. warm-up, without a set target? So neither distance nor time?

Warmup is actually always 2 KM for me and on my Garmin Fenix I have set it so that I initiate the interval and end the run-in by pressing the lap button. Sometimes the warmup is not exactly 2 km, because I might take a different route during the warmup and then the interval would start too soon.

 

[cfc]

In the absence of AW and WOD, a question about intervals.

Is it possible to run a section, e.g. warm-up, without a set target? So neither distance nor time?

Warmup is actually always 2 KM for me and on my Garmin Fenix I have set it so that I initiate the interval and end the run-in by pressing the lap button. Sometimes the warmup is not exactly 2 km, because I might take a different route during the warmup and then the interval would start too soon.

Yes, just set the duration to "Manual" and then you can start the next interval by using the "New Interval" command.

You can use the Shortcut settings (under Commands) to set do this in response to a gesture (e.g. double-tap, press both side buttons etc) or to appear as an option in the menu that appears when you touch the screen for a second. Or you could configure a "New Interval" button on the screen that is shown during the warm up interval.

 

[Mauki]

Sounds Great 😊

 

[Bacasable]

hI cfc today i will try the schedule option from your app

But i wonder how to pass to next interval, which button or option we have to settle ?

I read your guide, but didn't find answer

Thanks for help

 

[cfc]

hI cfc today i will try the schedule option from your app

But i wonder how to pass to next interval, which button or option we have to settle ?

I read your guide, but didn't find answer

Thanks for help

You can either set a duration for an interval (e.g. distance, time, steps, calories, heart rate etc) or make it "manual", where you need to tell the app when you want to move onto the next interval. To do this you need to use the New Interval command, as explained in the answer to the previous question.

The new interval command will also work for intervals with a non-manual duration. So for example if you are 1.6 miles into a 2 mile interval then you can move on to the next interval by using the command.

There is also a similar "Exit Repeat" command, which moves onto the next interval after a repeat loop. For example if the schedule was "warm up, 5 x (fast, recover), slow, cool down" and you were on the 3rd fast interval then exit repeat would move onto the slow interval.

Note that the New Interval command is also used to manually create intervals for workouts where you are not using a schedule. So for example where you want to split a workout into sections so that you could analyse each section individually afterwards.

 

[muellered]

Yes, I plan to improve the navigation with route following, and turn by turn directions if they are contained in a GPX route.

After that I may look into creating turn by turn directions using an online service. However that would cost money every time it is used so I would probably have to make it an additional purchase in some way. I want to avoid this which is why it is only a possibility.

Offline routing is something that I haven’t really investigated yet, which is why I say that it is unlikely for a while. It was very rarely requested until the last week when Garmin users started considering the app as a result of the Ultra.

This shows the different requirements of Ultra owners from other owners, which I need to bear in mind when deciding what features to add in the future.

Not a Garmin user but been waiting to see when navigation is implemented! that's the only thing that makes me take my phone out of the pocket on hikes (except for taking photos). Would absolutely make this my go-to app for all sport types, now that i recently noticed that i can also have my distance tracked in soccer!