WatchOS 9 beta... anyone try the new running features?

[xerenthar]

not sure if this is the all purpose running thread, but decided to post here before making a new thread.

okay, what's the secret to voice feedback during a run? i have never been able to get this to work properly and consistently! i have Workout/Fitness allowed to do voice announcements in my Siri/Notifications settings, i have Voice Feedback turned on in the Workout settings of my Watch. i turned off Voice Feedback for a few minutes and back on last week, and the announcements returned for that run! splits! halfway point for a distance run! i went for a run two days later and a run today, and they were gone again! is there any way to consistently make this feature work? it's so frustrating!

 

[NME42]

not sure if this is the all purpose running thread, but decided to post here before making a new thread.

Good point. Yesterday I asked the moderators to change the name of this thread to "Running with the Apple Workout App" and pin it. Would be great to have one single thread on this topic.


To your question: I am not using voice feedback, can't help.

 

[msackey]

In consistently get voice feedback if I use my AirPods which I do sometimes for listening to music while working out. The feedback goes through the earphones. I don’t use voice on the Watch alone

 

[msackey]

Further update: so I ran a 4th route yesterday that I'm trying to get as a Race Route. In the WatchOS 9.2 era, this is the first time I have run that route, but certainly under different WatchOS versions I have ran the same route although these were a while ago.

So far this route is not appearing as a Race Route. I will attempt running the route again today or soon and see what happens.

 

[Jana_CZ]

not sure if this is the all purpose running thread, but decided to post here before making a new thread.

okay, what's the secret to voice feedback during a run? i have never been able to get this to work properly and consistently! i have Workout/Fitness allowed to do voice announcements in my Siri/Notifications settings, i have Voice Feedback turned on in the Workout settings of my Watch. i turned off Voice Feedback for a few minutes and back on last week, and the announcements returned for that run! splits! halfway point for a distance run! i went for a run two days later and a run today, and they were gone again! is there any way to consistently make this feature work? it's so frustrating!

I usually start some music on my Watch to make sure that the airpods kick in 😂 and then the voice announcements work perfectly.

If you’re trying to use this without the airpods, make sure that the sound isn’t muted on your watch (i.e. it’s not in silent mode). Though, I find it annoying to hear the loud notifications from my wrist, so I haven’t used the voice feedback this way for a very long time…

 

[Densis]

not sure if this is the all purpose running thread, but decided to post here before making a new thread.

okay, what's the secret to voice feedback during a run? i have never been able to get this to work properly and consistently! i have Workout/Fitness allowed to do voice announcements in my Siri/Notifications settings, i have Voice Feedback turned on in the Workout settings of my Watch. i turned off Voice Feedback for a few minutes and back on last week, and the announcements returned for that run! splits! halfway point for a distance run! i went for a run two days later and a run today, and they were gone again! is there any way to consistently make this feature work? it's so frustrating!

I also struggle with this in the normal workout app. Can't get it to work with standard bluetooth headphones connected to phone (where my podcasts are streamed from).

WorkOutDoors actually has a great feature where you can assign which device you use for voice feedback. You can even test the settings in the app... So when you are listening to music from the phone, you setup the phone as the device where you want to hear to notifications on...

It's sometimes painfull to see that 3rd party apps are miles ahead compared to the standard features of this expensive device...

 

[Akrapovic]

Annoyingly my route was blocked today so I couldn't try again.

I've installed watchOS 9.3 beta. We'll see what that does.

 

[msackey]

Annoyingly my route was blocked today so I couldn't try again.

I've installed watchOS 9.3 beta. We'll see what that does.

Sorry, that is annoying!

The route I'm running to try to make it a Race Route has a very muddy section midway. It's not like this if it doesn't rain for a while and I thought I had given it enough time for the mud to clear away. Nope! Last night, I had to walk a small portino of it and detour into some bushes, but didn't trail too far from the actual trail. Hope Apple Watch doesn't "ding" me on that one! LOL.

 

[xerenthar]

I usually start some music on my Watch to make sure that the airpods kick in 😂 and then the voice announcements work perfectly.

If you’re trying to use this without the airpods, make sure that the sound isn’t muted on your watch (i.e. it’s not in silent mode). Though, I find it annoying to hear the loud notifications from my wrist, so I haven’t used the voice feedback this way for a very long time…

In consistently get voice feedback if I use my AirPods which I do sometimes for listening to music while working out. The feedback goes through the earphones. I don’t use voice on the Watch alone

i exclusively use AirPods, and if i swipe right in the Workout app on my Watch, i see the music that is playing, the volume up/down works, etc...

 

[xDKP]

Annoyingly my route was blocked today so I couldn't try again.

I've installed watchOS 9.3 beta. We'll see what that does.

Damn …

I just tried a shorter 5K route today after 2 x 10K to and from work yesterday. First time in a while running 5K, so will test again later this week and see if it comes up

 

[Jana_CZ]

Ok this is fixed in the latest public beta, finally! 🎉

Hey runners. With 9.2 beta 3 and 4, I’m experiencing a bug with pace alerts - when setting up a range (for any outdoor run type), the Upper limit value selector is empty, not allowing to set anything. The Lower limit works correctly.

If anyone’s on beta 3 or 4, could you please check if it’s just me or if it’s reproducible? (And if you’re seeing the same and want to report it too, my feedback ID you can refer to is FB11844195.)

There’s a cumbersome workaround, setting the pace alerts for Target pace and setting the value that you intend for the upper limit for the range later; then exit the edit mode; edit again, switch the pace alerts from Target to Range, and only adjust the Lower limit (that one works, just the Upper limit selector is blank). This workaround isn’t 100% reliable, sometimes I need to fiddle with the settings for a while, but I’m sharing it here just in case it helps anyone.

 

[msackey]

Sorry, that is annoying!

The route I'm running to try to make it a Race Route has a very muddy section midway. It's not like this if it doesn't rain for a while and I thought I had given it enough time for the mud to clear away. Nope! Last night, I had to walk a small portino of it and detour into some bushes, but didn't trail too far from the actual trail. Hope Apple Watch doesn't "ding" me on that one! LOL.

Small update:

- So I ran 2 times on separate days this 4.6mi route. It hasn't shown up yet as a Race Route. But, as I seem to recall from the 3rd Race Route that I was able to get into my Watch, it took me running the same route 3 times before it showed up.

Tomorrow, I will run this 4.6mile route for the 3rd time and see if it shows up as a Race Route.

 

[Jana_CZ]

9.3 beta and race route: immediately after the update, three new routes from last several days appeared. All older routes have disappeared, I only have those three now.
Interestingly enough, they are not even my most frequent ones - I’m certainly missing my Monday’s track training, 5 times the same two and half laps 😂

Edit to add: ah, those 5 runs were done with the pacer, so… I assume this confirms that pacer runs don’t qualify..? 🤔

 

[msackey]

9.3 beta and race route: immediately after the update, three new routes from last several days appeared. All older routes have disappeared, I only have those three now.
Interestingly enough, they are not even my most frequent ones - I’m certainly missing my Monday’s track training, 5 times the same two and half laps 😂

Edit to add: ah, those 5 runs were done with the pacer, so… I assume this confirms that pacer runs don’t qualify..? 🤔

Regarding pacer: that is very interesting.

I think it might very well be true that pacer runs aren't considered. I can barely remember my history of testing this Race Route feature (LOL, and too lazy to look back at this thread) but I think I had a couple that were run under pacer runs which I re-did a few times without pacer for them to show up in the Race Route.

 

[NME42]

9.3 beta and race route: immediately after the update, three new routes from last several days appeared. All older routes have disappeared, I only have those three now.

Interesting. Thanks for the info! Looks promising.

Did you also update iOS to 16.3 beta or only your watch?

 

[NME42]

I have updated to watchOS 9.3 public beta 2 and did another attempt of creating a new route (3 tries before with watchOS 9.2).

As @Jana_CZ experienced updates on new routes, for me nothing changed. No updates on existing routes and no new route available after the run.

I did not update iOS to the latest public beta though.

 

[Jana_CZ]

Did you also update iOS to 16.3 beta or only your watch?

Both. I always update iOS first and then Watch OS, just in case there are some dependencies…

 

[NME42]

Both. I always update iOS first and then Watch OS, just in case there are some dependencies…

Good news!!! After I updated my iPhone to iOS 16.3 public beta 2, my new race routes appeared on my watch.

 

[Akrapovic]

I can confirm that. Routes are now appearing on my watch. Not only that, it appears to have back dated my routes too. It's grabbed my routed from 2021 in my old city and applied them. From the Workout app only - no third party app routes included.

 

[msackey]

Update:

So the 4th Race Route that I was trying to get into the Watch did show up. I had run this route twice on two separate days. As a Race Route, it didn't show up right after I ran the route. I waited a day and it still didn't show up. Today, the 2nd day following the last time I ran it, it did show up!

I wonder if there's a way to find out if Race Route requires communication with Apple Server or whether all the magic happens only in or between the Watch and the phone.

 

[Akrapovic]

Update:

So the 4th Race Route that I was trying to get into the Watch did show up. I had run this route twice on two separate days. As a Race Route, it didn't show up right after I ran the route. I waited a day and it still didn't show up. Today, the 2nd day following the last time I ran it, it did show up!

I wonder if there's a way to find out if Race Route requires communication with Apple Server or whether all the magic happens only in or between the Watch and the phone.

It appears to be phone based and fixed in the latest iOS13 beta.

 

[msackey]

It appears to be phone based and fixed in the latest iOS13 beta.

Interesting! I also note that I had rebooted my phone for other reasons just today. I wonder if rebooting helped to get this Race Route into the Watch.

 

[NME42]

Maybe I shouldn't have shouted "SUCCESS" too early.

Did a "race route" today but afterwards, the route information is not being updated. And sadly, I did a significantly hard run with a big PR on this route.

Had watch on charger, rebooted AW and iPhone, etc. Watch says: "last run 06.01.2023".

 

[msackey]

Maybe I shouldn't have shouted "SUCCESS" too early.

Did a "race route" today but afterwards, the route information is not being updated. And sadly, I did a significantly hard run with a big PR on this route.

Had watch on charger, rebooted AW and iPhone, etc. Watch says: "last run 06.01.2023".

I say give the Watch time to update your personal best. It may not be instantaneous. Did the Watch record this particular run? Silly question, but just double checking to be sure that PR run was recorded even though you used Race Route.

 

[NME42]

I say give the Watch time to update your personal best. It may not be instantaneous. Did the Watch record this particular run? Silly question, but just double checking to be sure that PR run was recorded even though you used Race Route.

Typically the updates where there as soon as the workout was synced to Apple Health. Not this time.

And yes, recorded and also visible in Apple Fitness. Showing that it was a „race“ and against which time I was running.

Edit: just before sending this post, I checked my watch. And surprise: it is updated!
What the heck is this software doing?


Edit 2: looked at the filtered routes and between lunch and now a whole bunch of routes appeared that were never on my watch.