Wear OS on Iphone

luca760101

I know that in order for our Suunto 7 to receive notifications from phone apps, the Wear Os app must always be open. It would not be possible to ask Google to develop an App that works in background as many apps do, so that you don’t always have to keep the app open and therefore also optimize the battery consumption of the Iphone. I don’t know if the same thing also happens for Android phones.

@luca760101 It has to be open to be running, true. But it doesn’t have to be open in the foreground, i.e. sitting on your screen. So, it is running in the foreground handling not only notifications, but also apps data connectivity channeled via Bluetooth, data updates to various Google services like Play and Assistant, and so on.

Not sure if Google can do anything beyond that given iOS inherent limitations for third party apps.

On Android, it’s a completely different story altogether.

Bulkan

I use iPhone and don’t have to much trouble to keep receiving notifications.

Yes, sometimes the watch ask me to open WearOS but not too many times. Not daily

luca760101

@Bulkan said in Wear OS on Iphone:

I use iPhone and don’t have to much trouble to keep receiving notifications.
Yes, sometimes the watch ask me to open WearOS but not too many times. Not daily

Yes, even if the app is open, I have no problems receiving notifications, even if, sometimes, the watch disconnects. But it happens that, by mistake, you close the app on the phone and therefore you do not receive notifications. Many apps developed for Iphone, manage to communicate with connected peripherals even if they are not open in the foreground working in the backgroud, this was my request …

@luca760101 And we are here telling you that’s exactly what has been done already. Don’t believe me? Here’s my iPhone battery report:

Notice screen vs background activity time. Clearly, most of the time WearOS is happily working in the background. And when it doesn’t, it’s because it’s either hasn’t been started at all, or some part of its process or helper services has crashed, and iOS killed it. So, it needs to be opened again. Now, I don’t know any app that does background processing but has never been opened. I know quite a few that would stop data flows too when something goes south…

The problem here isn’t the ability to process data and events in the background. It’s the fact that WearOS app is buggy as hell and runs under a very limited OS. That being said, what I’m seeing now, after being a few years away from WearOS and iOS combo is a significant improvement…

Bulkan

@luca760101 oh yes, You want push notifications with wearOS. But it depends of wearOS. I get it now.

luca760101

@NickK

Thanks first of all for your answer, but I don’t think I explained myself well.

My battery consumption on Iphone is even lower than yours, but I was not referring to the excessive battery consumption on the phone as regards the ability to have notifications if the WearOS app is not opened, or closed by mistake. Of course there are apps that work in the background with IOS even if they are never opened. This was my request …

@luca760101 said in Wear OS on Iphone:

Of course there are apps that work in the background with IOS even if they are never opened.

What are those?

The only thing that works without an app being opened ever opened are push notifications because these are delivered by the iOS itself, when a notification is received from Apple push notification service. Perhaps there are some other edge cases where a BT handler for the device might be registered and offer some semblance of communication between device and iPhone without the app being opened.

But WearOS is a complex animal. It does far more than just notifications or call management, with background data transfer, Assistant stuff, and the like. I’m not sure it would be easy for Google to change things. Nor do I think they care. After all, they haven’t bothered to really solve watch connectivity issues to begin with.

luca760101

@NickK

In fact, I think there is no interest in developing an app that is truly functional for both Google and Apple