Thursday 8 October 2020

Amazfit X : Week 3, day 22

GPS is still rubbish. 

There was an update but it is still rubbish. 

It does usually connect but not instantly and not indoors, if I wanted to start a workout and wait approx 3-5 minutes, outside, before starting and manage to make sure my jacket / jumper does not touch the watch face during that time we're good to go. I have attempted to explain to our dog that, yes, we have left the building but no we can't start yet but she just doesn't get it.

When it does decide to track it is a cross between Father Christmas, because of the number of roofs and gardens it crosses and the occasional magical leap between houses, and a squirrel, remember how that squirrel dashed backwards and forwards in front of your car before finally leaping under your tyres, yes that, it seems every time I go for a walk I madly dash backwards and forward in an area for no apparent reason. Personally, I have no recollection of doing so but I have a craving for nuts.

Also worth mentioning that we have been repeatedly informed the China has closed for the first 8 days of October and that is why this international business has ceased to respond. This has the same sincerity as "your call is important to us".

I have installed Notify & Fitness for Amazfit which had a preview as Notify & Fitness for Zepp but updated and settled on the older branding, makes no odds. I am a long time user of Notify & Fitness for Mi band and promptly paid (yes paid) the charges for the pro version and the sync to 3rd party apps capability, total of £5 but the app is so much better than Zepp.

Does N&F have downsides, yes, the interface is chaotic at best and support is patchy / pot luck (says he having spent 3 weeks trying to get any response from Huami, an international company).

It also does not yet support the stress or sp02 monitoring on the band and also does not have the capability of goals that can flex day by day between steps & calories which is a shame because calories goals mean things like bike rides count.

I still need Zepp while I am awaiting Huami to make the device usable and something in the process is causing early morning vibrations and I'm not sure what.

Amazfit / Zepp Issues :

  1. Amazfit X : GPS does not work, sometimes it gets a lock when not being worn but cannot maintain it (2 open tickets, #252878 and #2977, raised on the campaign and via Zepp Feedback) - this is the one that matters, the rest would make the device better, this would make the device worth wearing (worth paying for, oh hang on I already did that). This continues to be a problem - there was a A-GPS update and I now get data about 1 time in 3 but it is only representative of the route followed - yes we could identify that Hannibal went over the Alps but more than that I couldn't commit to. Please refer to the squirrel analogy above.
  2. Amafix X / Zepp : workouts generate random data - 1 walk of 194 steps showed as a slow walk and 4 calories burned, the other 7,800 steps in the day burned the other 5 calories I used, seems a little off to me. (raised via Zep feedback).
  3. Amafixfix : Where to view GPS plotted route on the watch (was suggested as available by support on ticket #252878 although I wonder if they mean "can you see the GPS lock working") 
  4. Amazfit X : Auto pause of exercise works, auto-unpause doesn't, raised via feedback & ticket (#2977 18/9/20) but I am assuming that it will start working if the GPS works.
  5. Amazfit X : Regular SP02 sample not just manual (ia feedback)
  6. Zepp : Have a UK style screen - gets annoying that weeks start on Sundays, they don't they start on Monday that way I have 2 days off at the end of a week. This applies to both the Watch faces and the Zepp data.
  7. New suggestion : ability to change (remove or reorder) workout types on the watch to deprioritize those I will never use and bring those I will use top the top. Reported through Zepp feedback 1/10/20
  8. Battery life, looks like it will be 1 to 2 days now... Raised on the campaign but again in feedback 9/10/20 and having dropped to 36% in one day have raised a 2nd time on feedback 9/10
Notify & Fitness issue :
1. Idle alerts in N&F do nothing. Have changed settings to no avail. Raised via support request through the report 9/10.

Notify & Fitness suggestions  
  1. Ability to reorder the list of workouts on the watch so that the ones I might do are near the top rather than off the bottom of the page. Raised via email 8/10/20
  2. SP02 : add to the app and scheduled monitoring. Raised by email 7/10/20 and promised in the next release.
  3. Stress : add to the app and scheduled monitoring. Raised by email 8/10/20
  4. Ability to use goals that are calorie or steps (and sync with the watch) : Raised by email 7/10/20/

Sleep as Android
  1. Stop it turning off my smart alarms in N&F, I'm sure I just haven't figured out how yet and it falls below my mysterious issue below.
  2. Figure out why it has started sending a summary notification in the morning, usually when I haven't woken up. It started randomly so I am hoping it will stop randomly (best I've got as I can't find answer that says it will send a notification).
Mysterious Issues still to resolve
  1. Annoying single vibrations that happens in the morning with no associated notification....if there is no notification where is it coming from? No way to tell. Apparently I need to try a reinstall of N&F. What is notable is that it has only happened since putting N&F on there (there might be an overlap with Sleep as Android but it was not happening with just Zepp or with the old N&F for Mi Band. 9/10 I have tinkered with the zepp settings as zepp is still in place. 

Nice to haves :
  1. I would very much like a simple watch face, literally just black with white hands. If I got excited I might suggest progressive banding of hand colour according to % of goals / pai to spice it up.

Amazfit & Zepp Issues no longer relevant because Notify & Fitness works - it is interesting how a little diligence appears to go a long way :

  1. Tracked routes (when they do) have no detail about speed etc - this appears in N&F so it is a Zepp limitation.
  2. Amazfit X : Whatps app messages get batched up to a summary count far too quickly (raised via Zepp Feedback)  - I still think this is too aggressive but that appears to be a summary item forcing you to go to the notifications view on the watch, unfortunately you can't swipe anywhere on the notification summary to get to the notifications, instead you have to swipe back to the main screen and then to notifications. It is worth nothing that N&F has much better handling of notifications and resolves this issue - it is so much better, indeed usable
  3. Amazfit X : The schedule function is manual entry and does not sync with google calendary (outlook etc) (raised via Zepp Feebdack and Ticket #253401) - ticket has been closed - I'm told it isn't available at this time, others have been told it is not possible. Again N&F has the capability of syncing to a google calendar, not sure what Huami's problem is because this independent developer has done it (it's really good actually, I thought it would be like a gimic but it actually works and displays nicely).
  4. Zepp : how do I export my data (raised via the campaign, Zepp feedback and a ticket, #253403), I have received an answer but it is not working yet, I have asked support and followed the instructions but it just generates empty files
  5. Zepp : how can I configure the app to remove the adverts from the main screen (raised via Zepp feedback). If anyone is confused by "adverts" I mean Zepp self promoting.
  6. Zepp : how can I configure the app to hide all the features that are not relevant to my device (raised via Zepp feedback) 
  7. Zepp : the sleep tracking on the watch is poor, would be good to integrate with Sleep As Android. Latest firmware (1.0.1.30) has added "sleep breathing quality monitor, beta" so hopefully work has been carried out on the sleep module, again annoying that when I looked at my sleep record on Sunday morning it said none for the week because in America Sunday is the first day of the week. There is no indication of what this does / presents.
  8. Workouts are not being synchronised with Google Fit, reported through Zepp feedback 1/10/20 but resolved by N&F.
  9. New suggestion : smart alarms, work brilliantly with Notify & Fitness, clearly needs good sleep tracking, I did suggest this during the campaign but also 5/10 via feedback In zepp

Amazfit Closed Issues - and notably not a single fix by Huami so far: 
  1. Amazfit X : Auto detection of activities - it seems that 10 minutes is a normal time to wake up and start collecting data but two hours of cycling isn't detected... just doesnt work but there is an on / off selection on the watch which is a blessed relief.