Optimize syncing between S9P and app

[Simon]

When accessing and editing the sport modes configuration inside the app, the watch first needs to be synced. This happens IMO far more often than actually needed - or at least, as a software developer, I guess, this could be optimized. From a user’s point of view, all the syncing and waiting for the process to complete, can be a bit tedious.

I think, syncing should only happen in 2 or 3 cases:

1. Obviously, when the watch has recorded a new activity.
2. Also obviously, after the watch configuration, e.g. sport modes or routes, have been changed in the app. Sport modes should be cached in the app, and not fetched from the watch whenever the sport modes are accessed in the app. An occasional refresh is okay, but syncing every time, is not optimal.
3. When GPS data is outdated, e.g. when GPS satellite data is older than 30 days… This sync can also update other things like time and date if needed.

Well, it works as it is and I’m happy with the S9P. But there’s room for improvement, which probably isn’t much work, but brings a huge plus for user experience

Cheers

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Simon At lest in the Android app it works as you describe.

1. Not so obvius. We also sync activity data.
2. We dont sync them. We do an API call to see if the cache is invalid.
3. GPS data is outdated pretty much every 20h. We do not update those more often and we just do an API call with checksums.

There are some improvements coming in the next 4.59.x Android app for BT over all Suunto connected devices.

[Simon]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Thank you for the explanation! I’m using the Android app. Maybe it’s only on my setup - Samsung Galaxy S7 with the current app, but syncing - especially when editing sport modes, is - phew - slow and syncing happens all the time! Maybe the S7 doesn’t have the fastest BT on board, but it doesn’t feel like a quick cache validation.

About GPS data: Sure, GPS data is outdated even after only 1 h, but is an update every 20 h beneficial vs doing it every 20 days in the real world… Do you know details about that or did Suunto run tests? For example, Coros has an update interval of 20-30 days AFAIK, and getting a GPS fix is also very fast when starting an activity there. If there’s hardly a difference, this would be an easy tweak

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Simon I think gps data do not expire for a couple of days but having the latest prediction for each day is super beneficial. The sony chip relies heavily on agps.

About the sport mode editing and sync yeah. That is slow.

That said keep in mind we have 2 sync modes.

1. Background sync that is for new activities and agps checks
2. Full sync that iterates over all. That can be slow and that is what the user usually sees.

Your s7 galaxy should become faster at syncing with the 4.59.x version as we have tested and increased the MTU size for BT. Beta version coming up in eta 2 weeks.

[Simon]

Yay, sounds good!!

[Egika]

I am with the OP. Going into sport mode customization always includes some waiting time (at least for iOS).
I think this is because sport mode customization is a part of the watch sync/details screen. Whenever I open it, it starts a full sync (ok, according to Dimitrios it is a series of API calls - still they take quite some time…).

I have mentioned this in many surveys already. I would also prefer this to work like the routing, where you already start doing things and syncing is taking place meanwhile…

[freeheeler]

@Egika said in Optimize syncing between S9P and app:

some waiting time (at least for iOS)

same for Android

[suzzlo]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Optimize syncing between S9P and app:

Beta version coming up in eta 2 weeks.

just on time for S9PP? (just kidding )

[suzzlo]

I don’t know id there is a way to only sync want has changed…
I mean, routes, POIs, activities…
I never add/change POIs, so could it be an option to have a timestamp, with last change? I mean, when the sync has closed complete, we could update watch and app with this timestamp, and in the nexts sync, compare this 2 timestamps… are equal? no sync needed, move to next step of sync…

I all feel that this process takes “long” (nothing really serious) but also we need to be carefull and not compare with other technologies. BT is not WIFI : “Bluetooth is used when speed is not our concern and low bandwidth is allocated to it. Wifi provides high bandwidth as the speed of internet is an important factor”

https://techdifferences.com/difference-between-bluetooth-and-wifi.html

[freeheeler]

@suzzlo
from SA I can imagine that it is possible to push only what’s new.
from the watch there’s always something new because of the health features. sync is triggered by SA as I understand and it runs thru a process.

I played a bit with it just before. If you remain in SA and create routes, analyze your runs and enter the sport mode menu after it was synced within the most recent “SA session” it works without any delay.

it is a bit inconvenient for creating new sport modes… but if you rate how often you create new modes vs how long sync takes AND how long creating modes does take… it’s not such a big deal

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@suzzlo it works as you describe. We don’t sync all the stuff we just do a check.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Egika yes. Sport mode customization is kinda heavy.