Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[cubodado]

When you were struggling to end the workout what screen were you displaying when it didn't seem to recognise the long touch?

Since every time I pause I also get a screenshot I have the screen on the last pause I did before trying to end thd workout. The screen didn’t change after if not for updated position or time. I also sent the .wkt file.

 

[Mitch8]

I had the same one time. Then i have to the App and open again. Since that time it works.

 

[SisyphusMD]

As @Mitch8 says this sounds like a permissions issue where the app does not have the permission to save the distance information.

To check this go to the Settings app on the iPhone and select Privacy / Health / WorkOutDoors. Make sure that every health setting is enabled (you may need to scroll down to turn them all on).

If they are all enabled then you may be experiencing a rare bug with iOS/watchOS where the watch seems to lose the permission. To fix this switch all of the permissions off, then reboot both the iPhone and the watch, and then switch them all on again. This procedure nudges iOS into sending them to the watch again.

Thanks. Will give this procedure a shot since all permissions are on.

The interesting thing is that all my runs have no issues, and have the distance and pace included in Apple health, including runs on the same day as the affected walks. Only my walks don’t. And even with the walks, only walks in the last 2 days since the app update are affected.

Are there separate permissions for walking vs running distance/pace? Just trying to understand how a permissions issue gives this pattern of behavior.

 

[cfc]

Thanks. Will give this procedure a shot since all permissions are on.

The interesting thing is that all my runs have no issues, and have the distance and pace included in Apple health, including runs on the same day as the affected walks. Only my walks don’t. And even with the walks, only walks in the last 2 days since the app update are affected.

Are there separate permissions for walking vs running distance/pace? Just trying to understand how a permissions issue gives this pattern of behavior.

That is strange. In theory walking and running distances are controlled by the same permission. However it is still worth doing the unset / reboot / reset procedure in case they are handled separately somewhere behind the scenes in Apple's code. I don't know why watchOS / iOS occasionally lose permissions, but that procedure fixes it and so may help here.

If that doesn't work then please could you send the wkt files for those workouts to info@workoutdoors.net. To do this tap the Export button 3 times quickly. All my test hikes and walks have distances, so it would be useful to see what is different about your walks.

 

[jdee2wheels]

Such a great app and I'm happy you added the tip jar to latest release...made it easy for me to contribute.

Not sure if I missed this somewhere in the thread, but is AOD working with the developer betas of watchOS10? I can't seem to get AOD to work, so figured it might not be ready for watchOS10 yet. Cheers!

 

[SisyphusMD]

That is strange. In theory walking and running distances are controlled by the same permission. However it is still worth doing the unset / reboot / reset procedure in case they are handled separately somewhere behind the scenes in Apple's code. I don't know why watchOS / iOS occasionally lose permissions, but that procedure fixes it and so may help here.

If that doesn't work then please could you send the wkt files for those workouts to info@workoutdoors.net. To do this tap the Export button 3 times quickly. All my test hikes and walks have distances, so it would be useful to see what is different about your walks.

Will do! Will get a chance to test it tonight. Really appreciate how responsive you’ve been, will do my best to stop bothering you! 😅

 

[rcursor]

I understand what you are saying but I think it is debatable. I tend to think of positive values as ahead and negative values as behind. I know that lower times are usually better, but maybe not in this case where it is a relative time rather than an absolute one.

I get this pointed out maybe once a year so it seems that most people are happy with the way it is, but if enough people want it changed then I am happy to do that. It would need plenty of requests though because changing it could confuse a lot of existing users.

Thank you!

Another thing I observed, when using target, is that the yellow dot on the map, does not follow the route. My feeling is that it is show just at some point in front or behind you, but in a straight line I would say.
Am I correct? Is it on the plan to make it appear over the path you are following?

Thanks,

 

[cfc]

Such a great app and I'm happy you added the tip jar to latest release...made it easy for me to contribute.

Not sure if I missed this somewhere in the thread, but is AOD working with the developer betas of watchOS10? I can't seem to get AOD to work, so figured it might not be ready for watchOS10 yet. Cheers!

It should work fine on the watchOS 10 beta. Is the watch app up to date (v5.1)? Apple usually don't update the watch app when you update the iPhone app, which is very annoying. To check go to the Settings on the watch app and tap More and then scroll down to the bottom.

If the watch app is not v5.1 then please go to the App Store app on the watch and install it from there. If it is not yet available then you may need to wait a while before it gets through Apple's systems.

If the watch app is v5.1 then please check if you have low power mode on, because that disables the always on display. There is an option in Apple’s Settings app on the watch where you can enable low power mode during workouts, so please check that. It is in the Workout screen at the bottom of the main screen. If it is enabled then a yellow circle appears at the top of the screen when in a workout.

If none of that explains it then please try rebooting the watch, as that often fixes strange problems.

Many thanks for tipping!

 

[cfc]

Thank you!

Another thing I observed, when using target, is that the yellow dot on the map, does not follow the route. My feeling is that it is show just at some point in front or behind you, but in a straight line I would say.
Am I correct? Is it on the plan to make it appear over the path you are following?

Thanks,

The yellow target dot is shown on your breadcrumb trail if it is behind you, but is extended out in the direction you are moving if it is ahead.

In theory if you are displaying a route and are currently on that route then the app could use the route instead of projecting ahead. However that would require it to know whereabouts you are on the route, which it currently does not know.

This should be possible after I have made the navigation improvements that are now top of my to-do list, because they will involve the app following your position on the route. However I can't yet say if I will implement it as part of those improvements. If I had to guess then probably not in the first version, but maybe after that.

 

[rcursor]

The yellow target dot is shown on your breadcrumb trail if it is behind you, but is extended out in the direction you are moving if it is ahead.

In theory if you are displaying a route and are currently on that route then the app could use the route instead of projecting ahead. However that would require it to know whereabouts you are on the route, which it currently does not know.

This should be possible after I have made the navigation improvements that are now top of my to-do list, because they will involve the app following your position on the route. However I can't yet say if I will implement it as part of those improvements. If I had to guess then probably not in the first version, but maybe after that.

Thank you very much!

 

[jdee2wheels]

It should work fine on the watchOS 10 beta. Is the watch app up to date (v5.1)? Apple usually don't update the watch app when you update the iPhone app, which is very annoying. To check go to the Settings on the watch app and tap More and then scroll down to the bottom.

If the watch app is not v5.1 then please go to the App Store app on the watch and install it from there. If it is not yet available then you may need to wait a while before it gets through Apple's systems.

If the watch app is v5.1 then please check if you have low power mode on, because that disables the always on display. There is an option in Apple’s Settings app on the watch where you can enable low power mode during workouts, so please check that. It is in the Workout screen at the bottom of the main screen. If it is enabled then a yellow circle appears at the top of the screen when in a workout.

If none of that explains it then please try rebooting the watch, as that often fixes strange problems.

Many thanks for tipping!

Yep, the low power setting was toggled on in the Apple workouts app section. I don't think I would have discovered that setting without some guidance! Thanks!

 

[aldo82]

Thank you for the latest update. It’s great and your app keeps me with AW for fitness rather than buying a Garmin!

I like that it’s possible to turn off AOD per workout type but when it’s off the clock now is tiny. I can’t even read it! Any way to get the old clock back? I’m on the latest watchOS beta, not sure if it’s related to that? Thanks!

 

[MitzEclipse]

Just came to post to say thank you for AOD - noticed it on my latest app update. Works great! Any one have any experience on any additional battery drain as a result of AOD?

 

[23MONTERO]

Good evening! Do you plan at some point to put some kind of statistics or data on battery consumption in training?
Something like it indicates with elevation, pace... GPS signal....
It would be nice to have some information about it in the final summary of the workout.
The app is awesome... and with the latest update, apart from the AOD, I've noticed some very subtle interface changes, but it turns out to be much nicer.

Thank you!

 

[Lars34]

Congrats on the release Ian! I gave a tip, since I like this app so much!


Will you be able to reuse your SwiftUI code for a bike computer mode, since that API will be available in new watchOS and iOS?

 

[SisyphusMD]

Will do! Will get a chance to test it tonight. Really appreciate how responsive you’ve been, will do my best to stop bothering you! 😅

Hi again! I did the privilege reset procedure, but unfortunately still had the same issue tonight. The run had no issue getting the data to Apple, but the walk has no distance, and consequently no pace. You can see in the screenshot here, all the runs have distance, but the walks have no distance, so instead their times are listed. Would you like me to send you any files or do anything to help test something with this? The problem doesn’t really cause me any issue, so if it’s too much work to look into this, no pressure or anything.

 

[rcursor]

Hi @cfc
Would it be possible to implement pause and resume on activities via Action button for the Ultra? Would be easiest than screen touch in my opinion. If yes, is on your routemap for next developments?

Thanks,

 

[mgmooij]

Hi @cfc
Would it be possible to implement pause and resume on activities via Action button for the Ultra? Would be easiest than screen touch in my opinion. If yes, is on your routemap for next developments?

Thanks,

This is already possible, via Settings, Commands, Shortcut Gestures you can set the action button to “pause/resume”

 

[cfc]

Hi again! I did the privilege reset procedure, but unfortunately still had the same issue tonight. The run had no issue getting the data to Apple, but the walk has no distance, and consequently no pace. You can see in the screenshot here, all the runs have distance, but the walks have no distance, so instead their times are listed. Would you like me to send you any files or do anything to help test something with this? The problem doesn’t really cause me any issue, so if it’s too much work to look into this, no pressure or anything.

View attachment 2257111

That is odd. Please could you send the wkt files for those workouts to info@workoutdoors.net. To do this tap the Export button 3 times quickly. All my test hikes and walks have distances, so it would be useful to see what is different about your walks.

 

[gtjeta]

Sorry about that. There are strange problems when swimming with the watchOS 10 beta that I had to work around. In the past watchOS would provide the app with distance estimates and also an event for each lap. However the watchOS 10 beta does not provide the swimming distance estimates for some reason. So I had to change the app to calculate the distance from the lap events (num laps * pool length).

If the release version of watchOS 10 still has the same issue then I will save these distances back to Apple's Health system. However if it is a bug that they fix then that would result in double distances.

So I plan to see what the situation is with the release version of watchOS 10 and then save the distances if necessary.

In my last few swims I noticed the app tends to get stuck at a given distance, while the lap counter goes on. When you save the distance it seems to be the frozen value, while the WOD summary jumps from this value to the correct one, calculated as you said (num laps * pool length). In Apple workouts app it does work correctly. Maybe providing the possibility to use either Apple distance meter or your (safer) implementation both along the swim and at the summary would be nice.

I have another problem with swims, I have way high calorie estimations, specially in breaststroke, with low heart rate. This problem is also present in the stock app. Could it be possible that you implement a pure heart rate based calorie calculation (maybe independent of the workout type), so that we may select it for certain (or all) workout types, avoiding the erroneous Apple one?

 

[ratinahat]

I had a fantastic surprise when I was out running today when I saw the AOD display.

All my running at the moment is Maffetone training so I’m struggling with the lack of colour highlighting for high and low heart rates in the new release.

Is anyone else having this issue? I used to be able to look at the watch face and based on the colour of the BPM section I would know if I was over or under target heart rate range.

 

[cfc]

In my last few swims I noticed the app tends to get stuck at a given distance, while the lap counter goes on. When you save the distance it seems to be the frozen value, while the WOD summary jumps from this value to the correct one, calculated as you said (num laps * pool length). In Apple workouts app it does work correctly. Maybe providing the possibility to use either Apple distance meter or your (safer) implementation both along the swim and at the summary would be nice.

I have another problem with swims, I have way high calorie estimations, specially in breaststroke, with low heart rate. This problem is also present in the stock app. Could it be possible that you implement a pure heart rate based calorie calculation (maybe independent of the workout type), so that we may select it for certain (or all) workout types, avoiding the erroneous Apple one?

The swimming does seem slightly broken with watchOS 10 beta. Sorry about that. I am waiting until the release version before I decide what to do about it.

I don't have any plans to allow Apple's calorie calculations to be over-ridden. Sorry. Maybe one day but it is very rarely requested.

 

[cfc]

I had a fantastic surprise when I was out running today when I saw the AOD display.

All my running at the moment is Maffetone training so I’m struggling with the lack of colour highlighting for high and low heart rates in the new release.

Is anyone else having this issue? I used to be able to look at the watch face and based on the colour of the BPM section I would know if I was over or under target heart rate range.

Sorry about the lack of colour highlighting. I missed it in the rewrite. I will make sure that it is in the next version, which will be a bug fix release for exactly those sort of issues. It will probably be available in a couple of weeks or so, which will allow for time to fix any issues when running the release version of watchOS 10.

 

[ratinahat]

Sorry about the lack of colour highlighting. I missed it in the rewrite. I will make sure that it is in the next version, which will be a bug fix release for exactly those sort of issues. It will probably be available in a couple of weeks or so, which will allow for time to fix any issues when running the release version of watchOS 10.

That’s amazing - thank you. You and your product are keeping me from moving to a garmin watch as your app is so complete - without WO the Apple Watch is almost useless to me. Keep up the great work! Have sent you a tip as I use WO so much and it has transformed my running!

 

[iamasmith]

I have to say Ian, well done indeed. Refactoring, no rewriting the UI to Swift UI and having no feature regressions is so admirable. Seen so many mobile apps do something like this with a relaunch and being really feature deprive so my hat is off to you.
Also, it must make you feel much better in terms of being able to maintain this very much loved app.