Live location S+ app

[Ze Stuart]

@Nikolai-Simonov Magnificent.

[Sebastian Wagner 0]

Wow, Great work @Nikolai-Simonov

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

This is pretty awesome! Considering it’s developed outside of Suunto and by using your own server infrastructure - it’ll most likely be a paid S+ app. Do you have any pricing strategy already?

[seanvk]

This is great to hear @Nikolai-Simonov. I would definitely use this feature.

[Nikolai Simonov]

@Łukasz-Szmigiel Yep, it’s developing outside. It’s a good question about the monetization. I’m trying to keep it free as much as possible, and some features don’t need any infrastructure, e.g., the Feature I’m currently working on is sending SOS messages on Android phones. It doesn’t require any infrastructure.

It uses tiny data packets (only 15B for the location message), so it will be relatively inexpensive to maintain this infrastructure for real-time tracking. If we store it, it would be a bit expensive, but there are many things to consider. I guess that some extra features could be subscription-based or something.

anyway, thanx for a reasonable question.

[HoBart]

@Nikolai-Simonov said in Live location S+ app:

Hi Suunto community!

I’m excited to share a video with technical demo of a SuuntoPlus app I’m currently working on. This app is designed for live tracking: the geolocation data from Suunto watches is transmitted via a connected phone to a remote server and then made available through a web app.

This method was chosen because, unfortunately, Suunto watches don’t have radio modules for WAN connectivity. However, this option is far more energy-efficient, using significantly less power than sharing geolocation via the phone’s GNSS module.

I started this project after hearing some unfortunate news where having even approximate last-known coordinates of a lost person could have made the search much easier. Therefore, the primary goal of this app is safety. In future iterations, I plan to add an SOS button and possibly crash detection.

For now, here’s the demo, and I’d love to hear your feedback and comments!

Very cool. I‘m thrilled that there is finally someone who takes care of this. If you manage to implement Crash detection I can stop looking at garmin watches and stay with a beautiful Suunto watch.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Nikolai-Simonov Do you need any help with documentation etc? I had done some experiments with the s+ and ble in the past.

[treizeXiii]

@Nikolai-Simonov
Thank you ! This is so great ! I’ve asked this functionnality in every survey Suunto sent.

Are the locations (and consequently the course, the start, the end of the course) sent to a remote server (outside Suunto scope) ? If yes, who is in charge ? How long does the date stay on the server ?

If you need user test/feedback, do not hesitate.

Regard

X3

[the_ultraman]

I’m looking forward to it. Because I usually train alone in the mountains and in a possible bad situation I have nothing to do. It looks good at first glance. A web map using Google Maps would be better.

[Sascha Domres]

@Nikolai-Simonov Hi, is there any news? How is the development going? This is a function that I miss very much. By the way, Coros has already implemented this really well. I find the live location in the mobile phone very helpful for orientation. Even if this requires a data connection, this is super helpful… Hope your project works out.

[Emile]

Hello @Nikolai-Simonov, do you plan to open source it at some point? I guess this would accelerate the developement thanks to contributors
Have you thought about using https://www.traccar.org/ as a backend server? This an open source GPS tracking platform with many interesting features like live tracking, alerting, a REST API to interact with, etc…

[Nikolai Simonov]

Hello Community!
Sorry for the silence; there were some personal issues, such as moving, changing jobs, etc.
Now everything is well.

And I’m bringing some updates about the plans:
Currently, it’s working within the MVP boundaries.

I’ve asked Suunto how I can provide an app for the testers, and currently, there is no way I’m able to install it only from the development machine. It’s quite disappointing because it drastically limit the possibility of testing outside.

However, recently, I realized that I can actually try to publish an app. but restrict access for testing purposes on the smartphone side. (like a testing account or smth.)

Also, there’s a knowing issue on the watch side. I’m still trying to figure out a smooth way to reconnect the watch to the phone if the connection is lost. Unfortunately, SDK doesn’t allow us to handle this thing manually. An issue like this would be annoying, but it still is.

Anyway, I’ll prepare the infrastructure, and it should be done this weekend; after that, I’ll send the SuuntoPlus app to the Suunto store.

Because it’s a process, they have a manual review, etc. It took time. I don’t know how much exactly, no guesses.

After that, I’ll share the app here. At first, it will be an Android downloadable APK because it’s much easier; lately if everything goes smoothly, I’ll share the iOS app as well.

[Nikolai Simonov]

@Emile Hi! Yep, this is in my plans, but not at the first stages of development. At least after the MVP or smth.

about the traccar, it’s not really suits my needs.
and currently BE side works pretty well and data efficient (it’s cruccial for mobile environment), on geo package costs 13byte.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Nikolai-Simonov hey I think if the app is OS some people that have the VS studio plugins could test.

[SANDORN]

@Nikolai-Simonov Hi Nikolai, I am eagerly waiting for a solution like yours. Sadly we have iOS devices but hopefully you can provide your app soon after the Android version. Thank you for your effort to give this option to our Suunto what is already available for Garmin users.