Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[MitzEclipse]

Hi @cfc many people seem to be very positive about your WorkOutdoors app - congrats!

When navigating from maps via my phone to the watch on Apple Maps or Google Maps, I expected a much better experience - eg to see the map in addition to the distance to next turn, etc. I just see the text directions which is pretty hard to see at a glance when on a bicycle.

My simple use case is navigating to different addresses I am not familiar with. Does the WorkOutdoors app navigate to a specific address to show turn-by-turn directions, distance to turn, and recalculate if I make the wrong turn? (rather than a set route or open route?)

 

[Francis_le_varois]

If the trainer only allows one bluetooth connection and you need that for the iPhone app then WOD cannot get the power data.

I may investigate adding the ability to control devices in the future but you are the first person to ask for it, so it probably won't be for a long time. Sorry.

Thanks for the answer.

I saw effectively the trainer can not deal with 2 connections at the same time.

So maybe one day you will have enough requests to consider mine to have power control through wod.

 

[Mauki]

My simple use case is navigating to different addresses I am not familiar with. Does the WorkOutdoors app navigate to a specific address to show turn-by-turn directions, distance to turn, and recalculate if I make the wrong turn? (rather than a set route or open route?)

turn-by-turn will coming soon when you import a gpx file with turn-by-turn notes.

But navigating to an adress with rerouting I think will never come.
I don't think WOD wants to become a navigation app. There is not the claim of the app

 

[MrAcid]

Hi @cfc many people seem to be very positive about your WorkOutdoors app - congrats!

When navigating from maps via my phone to the watch on Apple Maps or Google Maps, I expected a much better experience - eg to see the map in addition to the distance to next turn, etc. I just see the text directions which is pretty hard to see at a glance when on a bicycle.

My simple use case is navigating to different addresses I am not familiar with. Does the WorkOutdoors app navigate to a specific address to show turn-by-turn directions, distance to turn, and recalculate if I make the wrong turn? (rather than a set route or open route?)

WorkOutDoors is the wrong app for that use-case.

 

[cfc]

Hi @cfc many people seem to be very positive about your WorkOutdoors app - congrats!

When navigating from maps via my phone to the watch on Apple Maps or Google Maps, I expected a much better experience - eg to see the map in addition to the distance to next turn, etc. I just see the text directions which is pretty hard to see at a glance when on a bicycle.

My simple use case is navigating to different addresses I am not familiar with. Does the WorkOutdoors app navigate to a specific address to show turn-by-turn directions, distance to turn, and recalculate if I make the wrong turn? (rather than a set route or open route?)

As others have said it sounds like you need an improved Apple Maps or Google Maps, rather than a workout app like WOD. Turn by turn is in my plans (initially only if the directions are in the GPX file as @Mauki says) but routing to an address is unlikely, certainly in the short to medium term.

 

[noel18]

Hello cfc,

currently I use a shortcut to start WOD on the Ultra. When doing so, I also turn off the AOD in the script. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to automatically re-enable the AOD at the end of a WOD workout.

Until WOD supports AOD, perhaps a WOD option that automatically turns off AOD before a workout and turns it back on after a workout would be helpful. This feature would also work on all watches with AOD and would still be useful when WOD supports AOD.

Thank you very much for your effort.

There is an automation when switching to or from the Fitness focus profile. The automation will run anytime a workout is started and stopped, regardless of which app it is. This may or may not work for your needs though. This is how I run my automations.

 

[ilco]

Hello, is it possible to add Trailforks trails on the map in a way or another with the current app?

For exemple is it possible to add custom POI, or to add path with different colors on the map ?

 

[cfc]

Hello, is it possible to add Trailforks trails on the map in a way or another with the current app?

For exemple is it possible to add custom POI, or to add path with different colors on the map ?

If Trailforks allows you to export GPX files then you should be able to load them into the app and display them on top of the map. The route colours are varying shades of purple to indicate gradient, from red for steep uphill through to blue for steep downhill. Any waypoints in the GPX file are shown as icons.

 

[Akrapovic]

https://www.trailforks.com/help/view/25/

According to this, Trailforks can export GPX.

 

[Southernguy]

Bro @cfc a huge thanks from me too! Took my ultra with me to Cornwall last week and your app was invaluable. Used it daily for long hikes and exporting all trails maps into it was just awesome! You made my week even better. Still trying to work out of alltrails is the best to use for routes or if anyone else has other worthy suggestions they’d be most welcome!

 

[Mauki]

Still trying to work out of alltrails is the best to use for routes or if anyone else has other worthy suggestions they’d be most welcome!

Komoot is the best Platform.

Komoot now has over 8 million registered users and, depending on the season, over 4.5 million monthly active users. This makes komoot by far the largest outdoor platform in DACH, with Outdooractive (1 million registered users) and Bikemap (2 million registered users) as other relevant players.

 

[Southernguy]

Komoot is the best Platform.

Komoot now has over 8 million registered users and, depending on the season, over 4.5 million monthly active users. This makes komoot by far the largest outdoor platform in DACH, with Outdooractive (1 million registered users) and Bikemap (2 million registered users) as other relevant players.

Awesome thanks so much! Will check it out now.

 

[Mauki]

Does anyone here do Kernwerk?

What sport do you use to track your workouts?

 

[jbaranick]

I useful map option for routes with lots of crossing paths is to be able to hide or fade the parts of the route that are further ahead or behind than a certain distance.

Also, being able to change the color of the arrow on the track differently from the tail could help when the track loops.

 

[jbaranick]

Have you considered supporting TCX import? They contain turn-by-turn information.

 

[Starrtech2000]

Does WOD have a feature that notifies you if you’ve begun moving but haven’t resumed the workout on the Watch? My Garmin bike computer and watches nag at me repeatedly if I’ve paused the workout and started to go again and not resumed the workout.

Today, I missed recording most of a bike ride on my watch with WOD because I must have paused it at some point and not resumed it…. Fortunately I still got it on my Garmin bike computer.

 

[Starrtech2000]

I have to pay for every map tile that is downloaded, so I won't be offering whole countries with the current business model of a one-off payment. That sort of ability would require a subscription and I don't want to add that.

You can download a few hundred square km in one go, which is enough for most activities, and there is nothing to stop you doing that as many times as you like, but I can't afford to make it easy to download very large areas like countries. Sorry about that. It would also take a very long time to transfer whole countries to the watch!

I think this brings up the point that you have many opportunities to charge for in app purchases that many of us would like.

I’d pay a good chunk of money just to be able to download large maps and I think every Garmin use would too because we are used to having those built in.

 

[kave]

Is it possible to read out and display the temperature sensors of the watch? Just tried swimming with it and it displays water temp fine when under water.

 

[Mauki]

I think this brings up the point that you have many opportunities to charge for in app purchases that many of us would like.

I’d pay a good chunk of money just to be able to download large maps and I think every Garmin use would too because we are used to having those built in.

I don‘t need large maps and I don‘t want to pay 😛

 

[blackNBUK]

As you are looking at the navigation features of WOD I’d like to suggest another feature. The latest Garmin beta has added the distance to the next fork in the path, even when you don’t have a route loaded. Can you use your map data to produce something similar?

That would have been really handy for me over the weekend! We made the classic mistake of wandering along and chatting, and missed the turn we wanted to make. A subtle alert and bit of haptics when we got close to each fork would have been really nice!

 

[desimaniac]

The problem isn't the cost of the maps but the cost of hosting them. OpenStreetMap data is free but I need to use a company to host the data and supply it to the app on demand. They also convert the data into the vector tiles so the app can only request what it needs.

You added ThunderForest maps for topo maps. Mapbox also has an Outdoors map set. Was that an option you considered adding too?

Thanks in advance.

 

[cfc]

Have you considered supporting TCX import? They contain turn-by-turn information.

I will investigate when I look into TBT.

 

[cfc]

Does WOD have a feature that notifies you if you’ve begun moving but haven’t resumed the workout on the Watch? My Garmin bike computer and watches nag at me repeatedly if I’ve paused the workout and started to go again and not resumed the workout.

Today, I missed recording most of a bike ride on my watch with WOD because I must have paused it at some point and not resumed it…. Fortunately I still got it on my Garmin bike computer.

This is on my To-Do list. As is switching GPS off when paused, which would prevent it. Both will probably be optional in the future.

 

[cfc]

I think this brings up the point that you have many opportunities to charge for in app purchases that many of us would like.

I’d pay a good chunk of money just to be able to download large maps and I think every Garmin use would too because we are used to having those built in.

My worry is that just having an in-app purchase would deter some people from buying the app, because it already has the initial cost. In retrospect I know that many users would like it, but I know that I am always slightly suspicious of apps with in-app purchases, expecting that "the good stuff" would only be available if you pay more.

At the moment the Thunderforest topo maps are relatively new to the app, so they are not the default. I plan to make them the default when I am sure my rendering code for them is stable enough (and so far so good). They have a different payment model than Mapbox, which would give more flexibility for larger downloads. So when they are the default then I can revisit the download sizes. I plan to look into this after I have supported the always on display and improved the navigation (which are still my main priorities).

 

[cfc]

Is it possible to read out and display the temperature sensors of the watch? Just tried swimming with it and it displays water temp fine when under water.

I don't think that (or body temperature) are available to third party apps yet, but I am not certain about that. I didn't see it when looking at the changes in watchOS 9 but I may have missed it. I will look again in case at some time.