Serious update for Ambit3 users

Saketo Nemo

https://www.suunto.com/en-us/Content-pages/digital-service-transition/?platform=hootsuite

freeheeler

freeheeler

@Saketo-Nemo
but what’s not clearly stated here is: will movescount webservice (the new renamed one) be compatible with SA and S9ers? My assumption would be yes as there will only be SuuntoLink and this should serve all watches in my understanding.

amasidlover

So it looks like good news unless you use structured workouts on Ambit3 (which I do a couple of times a week), in which case you lose the ability to create / change them at some point not far after December 18th. Or unless you use the Movescount web facilities for analysing training, in which case you lose those next summer.

Given that Suunto have explicitly stated they won’t add structured interval creation to SuuntoApp, the only possibility is if they’re going to add import of workouts from 3rd Party Services e.g. TrainingPeaks.

freeheeler

@amasidlover
what I understand they keep key functions from MC for Ambit/Traverse, for me this includes structured workouts.
But this will not come to S-line. Maybe this will be done with “new benefits from partner ecosystems”?

amasidlover

@TELE-HO I’m looking specifically at this: “enable key functionality (including watch settings, routes and sport mode customization) for Ambit (1, 2 and 3)” - I suppose it could be read as they might keep structured workouts, but firstly, they don’t explicitly say that and secondly, to do so they’d have to write a whole new web based structured workout creator. I’m struggling to see them writing a whole new, fairly sophisticated, bit of functionality into ‘legacy Movescount’ - particularly given that they’ve ruled out doing it for S9 owners in SuuntoApp and the pace of the rest of their development.

freeheeler

@amasidlover
I’m not sure if they rewrite it or if they just cleanout things… it is not stated clear either if analysis in MC will be possible and if MC web will become SA’s desktop version, which I would absolutely vote for!

amasidlover

@TELE-HO "We will no longer call it Movescount and its role in our services will be to enable key functionality (including watch settings, routes and sport mode customization) for Ambit (1, 2 and 3) and Traverse family watches only. "

I’d interpret that as it will only be for changing settings on older watches and nothing else.

freeheeler

@amasidlover
this could be right…
I mean basically, it’s really really good news for my relatives and friends using Ambit (and for myself as I still have A3PS). But I hope Suunto does not want us to use SA without their own official web service.
Yes there are alternatives or “partners”.
But I don’t understand why it should not be possible to put up a web end with all the parameters and improvements that are being done right now for SA?!

amasidlover

@TELE-HO Sadly I’ve had to become quite cynical about sports tech - when it comes to hardware I only buy stuff that has all the features I need already present (and don’t rely on promises of future updates) and when it comes to cloud based analysis/storage I make sure I have an offline backup of all my workouts and one eye on what else is out there.

I’ve moved analysis software a number of times now after ‘updates’ from the supplying company…

But this is the first time I’ve had a supplier threaten to take away functionality from a hardware device I already own, that’s a new low…

sartoric

enable key functionality (including watch […] )

Well … Maybe SW it’s a Key Functionality.
Settings are part of the “including” section of the sentence imho

freeheeler

@sartoric said in Serious update for Ambit3 users:

Maybe SW it’s a Key Functionality

Suunto Web?

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@amasidlover noone is threatening you. On the contrary they are offering development and value added spending resources on this.

To be honest here, all SW connected devices , from Nexus phones to iphones eventually have apps not being able to run on them. Its not the first company nor the last todo so.
Or you windows XP machine.

amasidlover

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Sorry, I didn’t intend to use ‘threaten’ in an aggressive sense, simply in the sense that it looks like something bad may happen; e.g. it was threatening to rain…

I would disagree with your analogy though; as far as I’m concerned, structured intervals are an existing feature of the watch, if I have no way to configure them then that takes away a feature of the watch.

If I were complaining that the Ambit3 wasn’t getting new ‘apps’ like the “sleep quality assessment” then I would totally agree that would be an unreasonable complaint - and would be like asking for the latest Adobe Photoshop to run on a Windows XP computer.

Anyway, its currently not clear what’s going to happen on structured workouts… I have emailed Suunto Support and maybe I will get a definitive answer.

Janfi

@TELE-HO @amasidlover @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos IMHO, we have another case study in communication fail, at least for some FAQ in the forum. The only thing we learned is that our A3/traverse watches will probably work in the future. But nothing more (OK, it is a first step to appease us).

Is SA will add full support for A3 ? We don’t know…
What will be the future web service (if something is really proposed next to SA) ? We don’t know (except that something will maintain key features)
What happens after 18/12/19 if you need to change your phone ? We don’t know, except that the movescount app will not be on Google play (.apk backup done !). So without SA support, A3 users always needs a computer to setup a workout…

It seems not complicated, one year after basic support : is full support is planned ? Yes or no. Dev team, top management or who you want implicated in Vaanta already know about it, but after this statement the user community still don’t know nothing…

An optimistic note : 18/12/19 is one year after the real last SA update which bring A3 basic support, and will be the MC App shutdown date. For this birthday, we will have SA 5.0 with full A3 support

Prenj

Finally some news. Still not enough but that’s something we got used to with suunto already I guess.

To sum it up for ambits:

movescount app will be removed from app stores from December 18
movescount web will be crippled to offer just settings, sport mode customization and routes
Suuntolink will replace moveslink and will be used to sync our moves to Suunto App and settings from movescount web

What remains unclear:

Will ambit3 get proper support in Suunto app or will it just retain current features (sync, GPS update, notifications and moves analysis/sharing) - meaning no changing settings, no route-Poi load/create/edit in SA?
structured workouts are movescount app feature - will suunto move that to movescount web or we lose this important feature?

I welcome the decision to keep movescount web as it is really a cornerstone of the whole ecosystem of ambits. I understand that they want to transfer as many users of movescount with spartans and 9 to SA as possible. That’s probably the reason for removing Movescount app from app stores. But still I think it would be better to let ambit3 users download and use movescount app until they make SA more A3 friendly. People are changing their phones quite often these days. Why would you force them to use unfinished app (for ambits at least)? Make it right and then let us transfer to SA completely and stress free.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Prenj there is a thing to think about. At some point (and already happening) the MC app wont work due to iOS / Android updates.

Also from what I read I dont see why the “new” mc wont have activity analysis. Imo they will shutdown things like social

freeheeler

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos
so you see a chance that future MC will be the web end to SA?
In my opinion it’s the only logical step if SuuntoLink connects MC but also SA…

Prenj

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Serious update for Ambit3 users:

@Prenj there is a thing to think about. At some point (and already happening) the MC app wont work due to iOS / Android updates.

Also from what I read I dont see why the “new” mc wont have activity analysis. Imo they will shutdown things like social

Well if they keep analysis that would be great, but I didn’t get this impression from reading the statement. I hope you are right as I find Movescount analysis much better than the one in SA.

What about apps? Any updates on this?

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@TELE-HO I dont know my friend to answer this because in these decisions my task is to collect feedback.