Persistent notification on watch to jump to Locus Map for Wear

virtualdj shared this idea ago

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I think that after starting a new track recording from the Locus Map for Android Wear the app should create a persistent notification so that you "remember" and know that it's still opened/recording.

For example, if I start recording:

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and then go back to the watchface view of my watch and check the notifications screen I get:

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In my opinion the app should instead work like Google Fit, i.e. display a counter with the track time. If I tap on the notification, then Locus Map main activity should appear to add a waypoint, pause or stop/exit.

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virtualdj ●

With Locus Map for Wear v1.1.2 there's a persistent notification when enabling the heart sensor recording which, when tapped, takes to Locus Map.

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Maybe you can do the same thing when recording without the heart sensor.

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Milan Cejnar ●

That would certainly be possible, also content of the notification could be a little better (e.g. your Google Fit example).

On the other hand the persistent notification (background service) is not technically necessary if not using HRM and that might save some battery because it enables the application without ambient mode on to completely turn itself off. With notification the application would still be running in the background, counting time, communicating from time to time.

Most battery drain is probably caused by the display alone but I haven't really measured the difference with/without running service so in the mean time I have chosen more conservative battery saving option, even though it might be a bit confusing now with the service and notification only showing with HRM.

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virtualdj ●

That's fair, battery drain is important and if you measured that it was substantially greater with the notification then it's not a problem.

But on the other hand the notification allows you to open another app (e.g. to reply to a message) and then go back to Locus faster instead of picking it up from the drawer (which requires the press of the physical button on my TicWatch).

And if you will consider a standalone version of Locus Wear the notification will be necessary I think, because you will have to keep the app running to retrieve the position from the GPS continuosly (as Google Fit does). At the moment the app just communicate with the smartphone, so it can disconnect and re-connect when needed.

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