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Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features
- Thread starter cfc
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Do you mean the ability to configure what is spoken for each alert? That is on my list of features to add but not high up at the moment (although it will be higher after your request).
One of the reasons I am keen to add it is because it would provide a step towards allowing the app to be translated into other languages. The main difficulty with translation is the small screen, which makes finding words that fit quite difficult. However the voice alerts are not constrained by that and so would be easier to implement. As a result I would probably look to allowing configuration of the voice alerts at the same time as I translate them.
But probably not in the near future. Sorry.
When I do running intervals with WOD I get spoken countdowns to start and end of interval ie doing 1km repeats I think I get a spoken warning of 100m to go. Also get spoken pace alerts if outside the set pace.
All of that is configurable, some info here http://www.workoutdoors.net/Workout.html
Yes, the app has very comprehensive alerts for intervals, all of which can be spoken. Sorry - I thought you were asking if you could configure exactly what is spoken for each alert, which is not possible yet.
You can configure which metrics are spoken (and/or displayed) for each alert though.
Nice, thank you :3
And the last question (btw it's not so important, I can use both "WorkOutDoors" and "Intervals" apps).
Is it possible to add indoor activity options (or just add a "custom activity" field with configurable options) someday in the future? I mean, yep, it doesn't really stacks so well with the app's name and 80% of it's functionality, but it'll be pretty neat to have an option to use in-app intervals (with sound alerts for time passed, kcal burned and so on) for stationary bicycle or indoor aerobic exercises with my drunken bear during the cold-cold russian winter days.
And the last question (btw it's not so important, I can use both "WorkOutDoors" and "Intervals" apps).
Is it possible to add indoor activity options (or just add a "custom activity" field with configurable options) someday in the future? I mean, yep, it doesn't really stacks so well with the app's name and 80% of it's functionality, but it'll be pretty neat to have an option to use in-app intervals (with sound alerts for time passed, kcal burned and so on) for stationary bicycle or indoor aerobic exercises with my drunken bear during the cold-cold russian winter days.
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I added indoor activities last year and you can create intervals for them as well, just as you describe.
I must admit that the fact that the app now does indoor workouts as well makes me slightly regret calling it WorkOutDoors. Initially the main USP of the app was the vector map (which is still unique) but nowadays the large number of features and the extreme customisation possibilities are more important to a lot of users.
I still like the name but I often wonder if it puts people off who want an app for indoor workouts, especially when so many of us are now indoors for most of the day.
I made the first screen as simple as possible for routine runs with just 4 fields showing, and just leave it on there now the pace issue is fixed in the beta.
Thanks. It is too late to change it and I still like the play on words so I will stick with it. It was 3 years ago and at the time I never really expected the app to take off so I wasn't thinking forward enough!
I agree, don't change the name. It's a great play on words and the app's functionality speaks for itself.
I've been using the app for five months now, I love the customization. I have been going through every setting looking for a specific feature which I haven't been able to locate, and I even searched this thread for guidance, so if I missed it somewhere I apologize in advance.
I have several interval schedules set up for weekly runs with different times (sprint/walk sets). Each week is different, similar to a C25K schedule, but with my own times. Is there an alert setting to notify me of halfway through the interval? I know there are time alerts in five minute increments, but what I'm looking for is just a halfway notification for each of my run schedules. Depending on my mood or whatever, I will occasionally want to run in a random direction and I'd love to have a halfway notification to turn around and simply return the way I originated. For example, I have one run schedule for a total of 44 minutes (5-minute warm up, 34-minute run/walk broken down to 2- and 3-minute sets, and a 5-minute cool down), can there be a half way alert at the 22-minute mark for the entire interval schedule?
Again, I've been through every setting I could find. The closest one I could find is the time duration alert in 5-minute increments, so for the one above I could set either a 20- or 25-minute alert, but it's just not as perfect as I'd like it to be.
Everything else is perfect for me, a hell of a workout app on the Watch.
I've been using the app for five months now, I love the customization. I have been going through every setting looking for a specific feature which I haven't been able to locate, and I even searched this thread for guidance, so if I missed it somewhere I apologize in advance.
I have several interval schedules set up for weekly runs with different times (sprint/walk sets). Each week is different, similar to a C25K schedule, but with my own times. Is there an alert setting to notify me of halfway through the interval? I know there are time alerts in five minute increments, but what I'm looking for is just a halfway notification for each of my run schedules. Depending on my mood or whatever, I will occasionally want to run in a random direction and I'd love to have a halfway notification to turn around and simply return the way I originated. For example, I have one run schedule for a total of 44 minutes (5-minute warm up, 34-minute run/walk broken down to 2- and 3-minute sets, and a 5-minute cool down), can there be a half way alert at the 22-minute mark for the entire interval schedule?
Again, I've been through every setting I could find. The closest one I could find is the time duration alert in 5-minute increments, so for the one above I could set either a 20- or 25-minute alert, but it's just not as perfect as I'd like it to be.
Everything else is perfect for me, a hell of a workout app on the Watch.
There is currently no way to get an alert at the halfway point of an entire schedule. You can configure alerts for the halfway point (or quarter points) of individual intervals within a schedule, but not yet for the whole schedule. Sorry about that.
It wouldn't be difficult for the example that you give, where all the intervals are time-based. However where the intervals are a mix of times and distances then it would get a bit more complex, involving estimates based on average pace. Even then it is not as easy as it sounds because it could not use your average pace for a "slow" interval to predict a future "fast" interval.
However the app already does those sort of calculations for the current "estimated time/distance remaining" metrics, so I could use those calculations to determine the halfway point of mixed time/distance schedules.
If it also has to handle calorie or step based intervals then things would get more complex because the app would need to use average burn rates and cadences in order to estimate the times of future intervals. And some interval types would make it impossible to determine the halfway point (e.g. intervals that are ended manually or end when your heart rate is above or below a specified limit).
So you can see that it would be easy for the app to generate a halfway alert for some schedules, harder for mixed schedules, and impossible for a few schedules. I will have a think about what to do.
In your example you may be able to set a halfway alert for the middle interval if you have an interval that is halfway through the schedule.
Glad you like the app!
Thanks again, just bought your app ^_^
I hope that you will not repeat the fate of other devs, who suddenly began to limit the functionality of their really good apps and use a subscription-based business model. I mean, it's clear to me, that devs can't keep developing and updating their apps forever for free, but with that high level of your service, kindness and responsiveness I'll better donate to you or pay for an app again, instead of watching it slowly dying and turning into an insatiable monster.
Thanks for buying the app!
I am considering a subscription model in the future, but not for a while. Almost certainly not this year. If I do then it would only be for new features because I would never charge again for existing features. The main reason is because there are several features with ongoing costs that I cannot afford to include without some sort of subscription.
For example I am often asked if I could add topographic features to the map such as contours and hill shading (I was asked twice today!). However I already pay for every map tile downloaded by users and the current business model would not extend to including topographic tiles as well, so I would need to cover that in some way.
The same thing applies for satellite maps, turn-by-turn navigation, weather data etc. I could only afford to add these features with a subscription.
However I know that subscriptions put people off buying the app, so I do not plan on adding one any time soon. I hope that the fact I am even considering it does not put people off - I am just trying to be open about it. As I say the existing features would never be added to the subscription. It would only be for new features if I did go for it.
As an aside I have actually coded up contours / hill shading and satellite maps, and often use them in the app myself, but cannot afford to include them in the release version of the app. Sorry!
Great app (although it's really overpowered for me), but would you consider adding following options?
Remote control
It's very useful if you're working with your friend/coach, who can monitor all your current vital parameters right on your iPhone. It can be placed in a "Workouts" tab on iPhone and marked as "Active" and "Paused".
Default schedule for exercises
It's more faster to just tap once an exercise button on my Apple Watch and instantly start a pre-selected schedule (if I use it really often), without going to "3 dots -> Use a custom schedule -> Schedule" every time. There is no point to use a workout without a pre-defined schedule (that's what this app is all about - customisation), so that big "exercise" button is not functional (for me) at all.
Separate screen for music and exercise controls
(like it's done in default "Workouts" and "Intervals Pro" apps, it looks more simple and cleaner).
I think that it's more convenient to swipe a screen and touch a big button instead of trying to catch a little "music control" or "end/pause an exercise" buttons and wait for a really loooong 1 second. (I'm a little scared to hard press my watch even to go to settings, lol).
+ configurable color/name options for intervals
+ option to skip that fancy and scary warning at the start of an exercise (hey, I'm not launching a rocket, it's just a simple workout)
(I noticed, that for some reason "WorkOutDoors" had no compilation for "Infograph" face and caused a bug, that was preventing AW from saving workouts for all my activity apps. I had to reinstall it and now it's work flawlessly. I wondering why that could even happened? I had no issues with my AW before. Idk how to reproduce this bug and I hope I'll not forget to check my Xcode console log next time).
Remote control
It's very useful if you're working with your friend/coach, who can monitor all your current vital parameters right on your iPhone. It can be placed in a "Workouts" tab on iPhone and marked as "Active" and "Paused".
Default schedule for exercises
It's more faster to just tap once an exercise button on my Apple Watch and instantly start a pre-selected schedule (if I use it really often), without going to "3 dots -> Use a custom schedule -> Schedule" every time. There is no point to use a workout without a pre-defined schedule (that's what this app is all about - customisation), so that big "exercise" button is not functional (for me) at all.
Separate screen for music and exercise controls
(like it's done in default "Workouts" and "Intervals Pro" apps, it looks more simple and cleaner).
I think that it's more convenient to swipe a screen and touch a big button instead of trying to catch a little "music control" or "end/pause an exercise" buttons and wait for a really loooong 1 second. (I'm a little scared to hard press my watch even to go to settings, lol).
+ configurable color/name options for intervals
+ option to skip that fancy and scary warning at the start of an exercise (hey, I'm not launching a rocket, it's just a simple workout)
(I noticed, that for some reason "WorkOutDoors" had no compilation for "Infograph" face and caused a bug, that was preventing AW from saving workouts for all my activity apps. I had to reinstall it and now it's work flawlessly. I wondering why that could even happened? I had no issues with my AW before. Idk how to reproduce this bug and I hope I'll not forget to check my Xcode console log next time).
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Thanks for the feedback. Glad you like the app!
I do plan to add workout status metrics on the iPhone at some point. In fact I want to make it so that the app can run with or without a watch as well as with or without an iPhone. That would open up a much bigger userbase of iPhone owners that do not own watches. I will try to do it properly though because there is a lot of competition out there!
I disagree that there is no point to start a workout without a schedule, but I can see that it would be nice to have a faster procedure to start a schedule.
You can configure the app to show the Now Playing screen in response to whatever gesture you wish. To do this press the watch screen hard and tap Settings then Commands then Shortcuts. Then pick a gesture (e.g. left swipe) and associate it with the Now Playing command. That will mean that left swiping the screen will cause the now playing screen to appear.
You can switch off the countdown at the start of a workout by pressing the screen hard and tapping Settings and the More and then disabling the"Show 3-2-1 Countdown" switch.
I have never heard of a complication issue causing problems. It sounds like an issue with watchOS that was fixed by re-install of the app (which is often a fix for strange watchOS issues that are not fixed by a reboot).
Thanks again for the feedback!
„You can configure the app to show the Now Playing screen in response to whatever gesture you wish. To do this press the watch screen hard and tap Settings then Commands then Shortcuts. Then pick a gesture (e.g. left swipe) and associate it with the Now Playing command. That will mean that left swiping the screen will cause the now playing screen to appear.“
Thats exactly what I meant when talking about that the app is not intuitive ... and all this on the screen of the watch.
Thats exactly what I meant when talking about that the app is not intuitive ... and all this on the screen of the watch.
The size of the screen on the watch is always going to make it hard to be intuitive. There just isn’t the room for lots of fully descriptive buttons. So the more features you have then the less intuitive some of them end up being.
Apple’s Workout app and many other existing apps already provide relatively simple workout functionality, so I decided to provide a more complex app, along the lines of dedicated sports smart watches.
To be honest I expected more people to complain that it was too complex, but the majority of users seem to enjoy looking through all the settings to find out what the app can do. However I realise that some people do not. They haven’t got the time to do that and if the particular feature they want is not front and centre for them then they are not happy, which is understandable. Maybe the app is not for them.
The shortcuts feature, whilst admittedly not being intuitive is actually very useful at minimising the need to look through the settings. You only need to go into them once, during which you can associate a feature with a gesture, so that it is easy to access in the future. I could have made it so the Now Playing screen always appears when you swipe left by default, but that would mean that you could not swipe back and forth between screens. Or I could have made it an option on the menu that appears when you press hard, but there are other options on that which are more important to most users (e.g. pause/resume).
By making the appearance of the Now Playing screen a “command” it means that the user can control how to display it: by swiping; by double/triple/quadruple tapping; by pressing the side button; by being a button on the screen; by being a button on the hard press menu etc. It is their choice. If they use it a lot then they can make it a more accessible gesture than if they do not.
I realise that is not as easy for the user as restricting them to use a certain gesture to display the Now Playing screen, but it is a lot more flexible. There is always a trade-off between simplicity and flexibility. Apple prioritises simplicity and WorkOutDoors prioritises flexibility.
I for one would happily subscribe for those additional features. As an ageing technophobe, I think the app is reasonably intuitive to use and I very much appreciate the flexibility it gives me.
I don't know if a waypoint alert would fall into the subscription bracket, but it would be a real bonus to have that alongside the off route alert that already exists - especially for someone who does a lot of night running...
Thanks for the great work you doing.