Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[spacemnspiff]

I don't know if this has been already asked, how can one pause a run while wearing gloves during runs in the cold weather? I cannot simultaneously press crown and power button with a glove and also cannot press on the screen, because the watch is under the sleeve. What options do we have?

I routinely come across traffic lights that takes 10-15 seconds for to cross, pause helps me with tracking more accurately.

 

[msackey]

I don't know if this has been already asked, how can one pause a run while wearing gloves during runs in the cold weather? I cannot simultaneously press crown and power button with a glove and also cannot press on the screen, because the watch is under the sleeve. What options do we have?

I routinely come across traffic lights that takes 10-15 seconds for to cross, pause helps me with tracking more accurately.

Not having the appropriate number of physical buttons has been a problem for me on Apple Watch Series until the Ultra came along. That seemed to have solve the problem for me.

 

[cfc]

@cfc, have you considered perhaps setting up a donation fund specifically to purchase power sensors so you can debug how they do/don't work with your app? Might be worth considering?

Thanks for the suggestion but it wouldn't feel right doing that. I have been looking into hiring them, or maybe going into stockist stores and offering them money to use their sensors in store.

However it does seem that the latest version of the beta is a lot more stable. I need to go through my emails and determine how many people are still having problems with it, and what models they are using, because I know that several testers who had problems with the release version have been fine with the beta. There are still some issues, but not as many, so I need to clarify what the current situation is.

At the moment though I am trying to work out why the action button stops working after the watch is rebooted.

 

[cfc]

I don't know if this has been already asked, how can one pause a run while wearing gloves during runs in the cold weather? I cannot simultaneously press crown and power button with a glove and also cannot press on the screen, because the watch is under the sleeve. What options do we have?

I routinely come across traffic lights that takes 10-15 seconds for to cross, pause helps me with tracking more accurately.

You could enable auto-pause in the Pausing settings.

Or maybe set up the Shake gesture to pause/resume. I don't know how reliable that is for something like pausing though. I tend to recommend it for less important commands like speaking a set of metrics.

 

[Mibra]

Hello, I love the app but what would be a great relief is the automatic assignment of external sensors. I have 3 bikes and all 3 sensors are paired but I have to manually select the sensor EVERY TIME. Would it be possible for the app to automatically select the active sensor and ignore the others?

 

[nippyjun]

how's the work on always on display progressing?

 

[msackey]

Thanks for the suggestion but it wouldn't feel right doing that. I have been looking into hiring them, or maybe going into stockist stores and offering them money to use their sensors in store.

I can imagine how it may not feel right: perhaps because you're asking for money to develop a stable feature which then once (or if) implemented, the app is still for-pay. I guess I don't disagree but somehow it feels like it's also possible to do without it feeling wrong? Well, I'm not a developer so I can't speak to the intricacies of app development, payment, obligations and what not.

 

[cfc]

Hello, I love the app but what would be a great relief is the automatic assignment of external sensors. I have 3 bikes and all 3 sensors are paired but I have to manually select the sensor EVERY TIME. Would it be possible for the app to automatically select the active sensor and ignore the others?

I will probably allow that in the future but it isn't high on my list at the moment. Sorry.

 

[cfc]

how's the work on always on display progressing?

Slowly. My main focus at the moment is the action button. I am trying to work out why rebooting the watch is breaking it.

 

[spacemnspiff]

You could enable auto-pause in the Pausing settings.

Or maybe set up the Shake gesture to pause/resume. I don't know how reliable that is for something like pausing though. I tend to recommend it for less important commands like speaking a set of metrics.

I will try that and see if it works well. Does Apple's auto-pause work well?

Not having the appropriate number of physical buttons has been a problem for me on Apple Watch Series until the Ultra came along. That seemed to have solve the problem for me.

Thx. I have the S7 watch, not looking to change that anytime soon.

 

[cfc]

I will try that and see if it works well. Does Apple's auto-pause work well?

Thx. I have the S7 watch, not looking to change that anytime soon.

No auto-pause is perfect but Apple's is pretty good, which is why it is the default in WOD.

 

[NME42]

No auto-pause is perfect but Apple's is pretty good, which is why it is the default in WOD.

+1. Auto-pause on Garmin was bad, on AW it works great.

 

[msackey]

+1. Auto-pause on Garmin was bad, on AW it works great.

Although my experience with that on the Garmin was from the mid-2000s to around 2018, yes, auto-pause on Garmin Forerunners was awful. I stopped using it after trying it out. It was a useless feature.

 

[Akrapovic]

Apples auto pause is good, but if you upload to Strava then it does an additional bit of processing and removes time you weren't moving (and lists the time as Moving Time), which can trim the auto-paused sequences further.

 

[NME42]

Although my experience with that on the Garmin was from the mid-2000s to around 2018, yes, auto-pause on Garmin Forerunners was awful. I stopped using it after trying it out. It was a useless feature.

Yes, their problem was that the algorithm was solely based on GPS data and no sensors in play. And it takes a while to recognize that movement has stopped or proceeded solely on GPS data.

 

[JMor74]

Is there any possibility to have touchscreen disabled with physical button navigation? I’ve had more than 1 long distance workout shutdown because I must have hit the screen by mistake. I apologize if this has been addressed already - just thinking with the extra button on the ultra that it may be possible

 

[leescottdavis]

Is there any possibility to have touchscreen disabled with physical button navigation? I’ve had more than 1 long distance workout shutdown because I must have hit the screen by mistake. I apologize if this has been addressed already - just thinking with the extra button on the ultra that it may be possible

AW Ultra allows this through the Action button

 

[cfc]

Is there any possibility to have touchscreen disabled with physical button navigation? I’ve had more than 1 long distance workout shutdown because I must have hit the screen by mistake. I apologize if this has been addressed already - just thinking with the extra button on the ultra that it may be possible

You can configure pressing both the side buttons at the same time to do what you want, and the next version will allow the same for the action button (and the action button + side button combined press) for the Ultra.

It is also worth rebooting your watch in case the app is actually crashing. This is very rare, so if it is happening repeatedly then it could be that the watch needs rebooting.

 

[Miggui]

Hi, with the ultra, which settings are the most sensite for the distance and pace ? ( Apple, gps, pedometer, health ?)
Thanks for your feedbacks 😉

 

[cfc]

Hi, with the ultra, which settings are the most sensite for the distance and pace ? ( Apple, gps, pedometer, health ?)
Thanks for your feedbacks 😉

This is difficult to answer because there are so many variables. For distance (and average pace) the app defaults to Apple's calibrated distances because they are consistent and will work anywhere (even in tunnels etc). However they do rely on the calibration being good (which it usually is) and can occasionally struggle over very rough terrain where your stride length is inconsistent (although this is much rarer than might be expected).

The Ultra has a better GPS than previous watches because it is dual band and possibly also because it uses its own GPS even when a phone is connected. However it doesn't matter how good your GPS is if you are in a tunnel. So, as I say, it depends on the situation.

In terms of the current pace (not average pace, which is dependent upon distance) then the Pedometer has been the best in the past, and that is therefore the default. However it may be that the Health option is better for running now because that uses the new Running Pace metric in watchOS 9. However I haven't had enough feedback on that yet, so the app will continue to default to the Pedometer. The GPS option is definitely the worst and should only be used if necessary.

Hope that helps.

 

[Miggui]

Thanks Ian for the reply. I will test health so.

 

[zach471]

Just wanted to post an update of my hiking experience today. 6:33 elapsed time, 5:45 activity time, in low power mode, following an imported route and I had 71% battery at the end.

Pretty impressive stuff. Easily could have made this hike in full power mode.

 

[jon08]

On the last few hikes I noticed WOD no longer shows my battery % during workout. It does show it in the menu prior to workout. What happened?

Also, it seems WOD no longer reports discrepancy between Apple’s pedometer and WOD’s distance after
the workout??

 

[cfc]

On the last few hikes I noticed WOD no longer shows my battery % during workout. It does show it in the menu prior to workout. What happened?

Also, it seems WOD no longer reports discrepancy between Apple’s pedometer and WOD’s distance after
the workout??

Did you double tap in the area at the top of the screen where the battery is usually shown? That will show/hide it. You can also control it in the map settings.

Where were you seeing the distance discrepancy being shown? It should still be available for a workout in the right hand tab in the iPhone app. If that is not titled "GPS" (run workouts now show power for that tab by default) then change it to show the GPS and you should be able to see the GPS Distance metric.

 

[jon08]

Did you double tap in the area at the top of the screen where the battery is usually shown? That will show/hide it. You can also control it in the map settings.

Where were you seeing the distance discrepancy being shown? It should still be available for a workout in the right hand tab in the iPhone app. If that is not titled "GPS" (run workouts now show power for that tab by default) then change it to show the GPS and you should be able to see the GPS Distance metric.

If I double tap the screen it goes into full screen mode - and yes, in full screen mode I can toggle between battery percentage on/off by double tapping. But it doesn’t show % when I go back to metrics mode.

As for distance discrepancy: previously it always showed the note “gps distance is xx shorter …” at the bottom of the workout on WOD for iPhone when you had the Pace tab selected. Now it no longer shows it - at first I was happy because I thought Apple fixed something in watchOS 9 and iOS 16, but no. In the Fitness app the distance is still off between pedometer and GPS though now WOD for some reason doesn’t show it anymore. I checked the GPS tab you mentioned, but it never showed it there in the first place.