Question About Watch Apps, Regardless of OS

[Jonny Kansas]

Sounds good, curious to hear their response. One thing I would like to see on watches / Android Wear app eventually is the ability to change which app to use under the "Take A Note" setting. Currently Keep is the only option. I have nothing against Keep and have used it to take a few quick voice notes from my watch. It works & it functions (kind of cool to see people's reactions to talking into your watch to take a quick note)..but I like Color Note much better. It would be cool if I could select Color Note as the app I want to use when I tell my watch to take new note. That doesn't seem too difficult to me, but it's probably something that will have to change in the Android Wear app and not just apps like Color Note.

That's an interesting topic. I would think there would be code that could be put in an app like Color Note that would tell android wear that it's meant for a specific task so you can pick it, but maybe android wear itself needs to be opened up to accepting more third-party apps.

Reminds me of the whole "choose default" situation on android and the fact that it was only within the last few years or so that there was a full-on ability to select a default app for sms/mms. Before that, you'd just shut off notifications in the stock app if you decided to go with a third party option.

Again, something that I'm hopeful and confident we'll see as Android Wear matures.

 

[mountainbikermark]

That's an interesting topic. I would think there would be code that could be put in an app like Color Note that would tell android wear that it's meant for a specific task so you can pick it, but maybe android wear itself needs to be opened up to accepting more third-party apps.

Reminds me of the whole "choose default" situation on android and the fact that it was only within the last few years or so that there was a full-on ability to select a default app for sms/mms. Before that, you'd just shut off notifications in the stock app if you decided to go with a third party option.

Again, something that I'm hopeful and confident we'll see as Android Wear matures.

And then KK took away the ability to use multiple messaging apps like I used to do. I preferred the functionality of stock messaging but also the notifications of Handcent. On the G2 and Note4 I had to pick one or the other.
You also hit on my original query. Is it the limitations of the os on the watches that are the hangup or the apps on the phones or something totally different?
I got a canned response from Color Note.
Quote
Thank you for your support request.

The volume of inquiries we receive prevents us from responding to all
requests. To resolve your problem, please first visit the FAQ section (
ColorNote - FAQ on the ColorNote web site. It has
answers to many frequently encountered issues. If you are still
experiencing problems, please email to [email protected]. We
will try our best to get back to you.
If you have a suggestion for enhancing our product or service, we will add
it to our suggestion list and will evaluate it accordingly.

Best regards
ColorNote Team
Unquote
And yes, there are YouTube videos and threads on Android Central about how to use the S totally independently of a phone but until such a time as there are more apps,a better os and other current constraints are eliminated that technology is putting the cart before the horse.

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[Jonny Kansas]

I really just plain don't know enough about how it all works to have a good answer for whether it's an issue with the watch app, phone app, or the companion app.

I know apps install onto the watch itself, but it's unclear to me just how much processing is actually done on the watch vs. being done on the phone with results/etc pushed to the watch.

Like with Accuweather, they pushed a nice little update with some great android wear features, but if you launch accuweather on the watch and haven't opened the app on the phone recently so it could refresh it's data, the watch will only tell you "No Data Available." Kinda defeats the purpose of having the app on the watch if the watch can't call for the app on the phone to refresh and send it the data.

Again though, whether that's a limitation with the app that's on the watch, the app on the phone, or how the AW companion app works as the middle man is a mystery to me.

I mean, the watches obviously have two-way communication over bluetooth, so in theory, there should really be nothing holding a dev up from letting you do more on the watch and seeing the changes on the phone. (or vice versa, but that's less of an issue). Kinda seems like the data stream is relatively one-sided at this point when I think about it that way. The phone seems to push more data more readily to the watch, updating things on a regular basis if the apps are coded right. Whereas the watch seems to only really push data to the phone when you REALLY try, by using voice actions to respond to texts, or tapping "Open on Phone," etc.

 

[mountainbikermark]

I really just plain don't know enough about how it all works to have a good answer for whether it's an issue with the watch app, phone app, or the companion app.

I know apps install onto the watch itself, but it's unclear to me just how much processing is actually done on the watch vs. being done on the phone with results/etc pushed to the watch.

Like with Accuweather, they pushed a nice little update with some great android wear features, but if you launch accuweather on the watch and haven't opened the app on the phone recently so it could refresh it's data, the watch will only tell you "No Data Available." Kinda defeats the purpose of having the app on the watch if the watch can't call for the app on the phone to refresh and send it the data.

Again though, whether that's a limitation with the app that's on the watch, the app on the phone, or how the AW companion app works as the middle man is a mystery to me.

I mean, the watches obviously have two-way communication over bluetooth, so in theory, there should really be nothing holding a dev up from letting you do more on the watch and seeing the changes on the phone. (or vice versa, but that's less of an issue). Kinda seems like the data stream is relatively one-sided at this point when I think about it that way. The phone seems to push more data more readily to the watch, updating things on a regular basis if the apps are coded right. Whereas the watch seems to only really push data to the phone when you REALLY try, by using voice actions to respond to texts, or tapping "Open on Phone," etc.

Without knowing the proper terms I'll use ios and keyboards as a possibility. Keyboards needed to have permission to work in apps and other little checks to tick off once allowed to to work properly. Until io8 Apple didn't give permission to keyboard developers to check off the checks to work right so nobody bothered to develop ios keyboards that worked outside of their app. On my iPad I had a different keyboard but it only worked inside a note writing app, given haven't everything else defaulted to the ios one. It's ironic that Samsung Gear settings show the ability to add other keyboards yet they haven't given anyone else permission to sell them, even taking Flexsy off of their store.
The biggest complaint, in reviews online, I see about apps on both platforms is their inability to work without being tethered to a phone. Mine would be not so much that having my apps stand on their own but would like for more ability to have them perform at least limited function when untethered to their "parent" app on the phone. Like with Color Note I used in the first post. I'd like to be able to edit the list and don't mind if it didn't sync while not connected. It's already like that now. If I edit a list, or whatever, on the phone and I have no data connection it doesn't sync to my tablets and vice versa. I'm not asking for a full blown copy of the CN on my phone though that'd be really nice some day.
Other than Color Note I'm rather content with what my watch can and can't do but wanted to understand how things work a little better. Perhaps one day Power Amp will be available on our watches but for now I just want to scratch delete the milk on my grocery list after I put it in the cart without getting a different app and having to relearn how to use it. Gtasks on the phone will work in conjunction Gear Tasks on the watch, has the edits and all that and syncs via Google tasks in my Gmail account but holy cow it has a big learning curve to get it right and it doesn't show up in the pull down bar of my phone. I pull it down the reminder is there and I can edit it but the little icon next to the Gear connected icon is the only way I remember I've got to go here or there at this time or that sometimes. The little icon will wake my memory enough where I don't need to pull down the bar to see what's going on.

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[Jonny Kansas]

With the exception of your watch, that has it's own data plan and phone number, I think it'll always be limited as far as what these devices can do when not connected to a phone.

There's going to always be a trade-off of available space for apps on the phone for small form factors. As tiny tech progresses, that'll get better, but I think it'll still be limited.

Obviously, something like you would like to see should be feasible right now, but as you get to the point where you're adding more and more functionality, the app is going to grow in size and the limited amount of storage space will run out. I'd like to see one of these things with an sd card slot. Suddenly my little watch can hold 128GB (exaggerating. 32GB would be more than enough for apps and pictures)!? Bring on the biggest, beefiest, richest apps you can!

 

[mountainbikermark]

With the exception of your watch, that has it's own data plan and phone number, I think it'll always be limited as far as what these devices can do when not connected to a phone.

There's going to always be a trade-off of available space for apps on the phone for small form factors. As tiny tech progresses, that'll get better, but I think it'll still be limited.

Obviously, something like you would like to see should be feasible right now, but as you get to the point where you're adding more and more functionality, the app is going to grow in size and the limited amount of storage space will run out. I'd like to see one of these things with an sd card slot. Suddenly my little watch can hold 128GB (exaggerating. 32GB would be more than enough for apps and pictures)!? Bring on the biggest, beefiest, richest apps you can!

The whole point of watches in the beginning was minimize pulling out the phone. I still see that as the goal, thus I don't see a problem with needing a wireless tethered connection for things to work but as I wrote about in the thread I started about a note app that fully syncs back and forth, I still want less reason to pull out my phone. Leaving it at home and being able to communicate via phone or message is just bonus points to me, just like when I first got my Fit getting a text notification, causing the phone to answer a call from the watch, etc was .
A bit of topic but I actually went looking for a Gear Neo which AT&T was out of, the discount they offered both on the S and my bill ( $5 off main bill, $2 off add on data= $3 a month to add it on) caused me to see the one I got as a good enough value to take the plunge. The Neo is a Gear 2 minus its camera and a black plastic body instead of metal. Everything else is the same as the Gear 2 but a C-note cheaper.

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