Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

[chris432626]

Are you using the latest version of watchOS 26.2? Nothing has changed in the app since September but I have only heard reports of this recently, so I assume something has changed in watchOS.

I have made a few changes in a beta which are intended to workaround some of the audio issues. However they are a bit extreme: e.g. an option to recreate the watchOS voice synthesiser object every time something is spoken. They seem to work for some people and not for others. If you want to try the beta then please email me at info@workoutdoors.net

Thanks for your reply.
Yes definitely on the latest versions, doesn’t do this in the native workout / running app.

 

[Richo5]

Hi @cfc

I have been using your app for a while now. It's still my go to for running exercices. But I'm having troubles with the sound output of the app.

1. This is my situation:
- only wearing my apple watch, iPhone is at home.
- I'm using my airpods to play music from the apple watch
- Voice output is set on apple watch

When I start running and the app wants to send me a voice notification f.e. to report I'm running too slow, the music's volume get lowered and I receive the voice notification. That's normal behaviour but in my situation the volume is lowered but I don't receive a voice notification. Until approx 5 minutes, then I suddenly receive all previous 5 or 6 voice notifications at once and from then on it's acting normally like it should.

I think it's a bug or something because I never had this before. It's like that a couple of weeks or months now.

2. I was also wondering whether it can autodetect where my sound is being outputted? Sometimes, I'm carrying my iPhone with me and when I do, the music from my airpods are streamed from my iPhone and not from my apple watch. In that case I always have to manually adjust the voice notification settings.

3. Would it be possible to add notes to workouts? I like to compare my runs but sometimes it's important to note that a run was worse than previous because of certain (weather) conditions. It would be great if I could add that

I have been dealing with the voice issue for a couple of years now. When it occurs I almost always get the 1km alert at about 1.8km and then it is fine after that.

A couple of things that have helped:-

• Rebooting does mostly work for me - the first 3 of 4 runs after a reboot generally behave correctly. It seems that the longer between reboots the less predictable the behaviour. If I have a workout where I need the notifications early in the run I will usually reboot before hand.
• I used to use the 'duck' setting in the voice options which would reduce the volume of the audio for the voice announcement. This was a pain as if I had a podcast, between 1km and 1.8km I couldn't hear the audio unless I turned it up very loud but this would be too loud when if resolved itself at 1.8km. I have recently changed the setting to 'mix' and the audio volume for my podcasts is fine and this has reduced my frustration considerably. I still get the delayed notifications but overall I find it acceptable now.

I'm running the beta at the moment so I might try the 'extreme' option to see if that sorts it out and report back.

 

[cfc]

I have been dealing with the voice issue for a couple of years now. When it occurs I almost always get the 1km alert at about 1.8km and then it is fine after that.

A couple of things that have helped:-

• Rebooting does mostly work for me - the first 3 of 4 runs after a reboot generally behave correctly. It seems that the longer between reboots the less predictable the behaviour. If I have a workout where I need the notifications early in the run I will usually reboot before hand.
• I used to use the 'duck' setting in the voice options which would reduce the volume of the audio for the voice announcement. This was a pain as if I had a podcast, between 1km and 1.8km I couldn't hear the audio unless I turned it up very loud but this would be too loud when if resolved itself at 1.8km. I have recently changed the setting to 'mix' and the audio volume for my podcasts is fine and this has reduced my frustration considerably. I still get the delayed notifications but overall I find it acceptable now.

I'm running the beta at the moment so I might try the 'extreme' option to see if that sorts it out and report back.

It would be interesting to know if the extreme option of recreating the speech synthesiser every time helps. It seems to help some people but not others.

 

[chris432626]

I have been dealing with the voice issue for a couple of years now. When it occurs I almost always get the 1km alert at about 1.8km and then it is fine after that.

A couple of things that have helped:-

• Rebooting does mostly work for me - the first 3 of 4 runs after a reboot generally behave correctly. It seems that the longer between reboots the less predictable the behaviour. If I have a workout where I need the notifications early in the run I will usually reboot before hand.
• I used to use the 'duck' setting in the voice options which would reduce the volume of the audio for the voice announcement. This was a pain as if I had a podcast, between 1km and 1.8km I couldn't hear the audio unless I turned it up very loud but this would be too loud when if resolved itself at 1.8km. I have recently changed the setting to 'mix' and the audio volume for my podcasts is fine and this has reduced my frustration considerably. I still get the delayed notifications but overall I find it acceptable now.

I'm running the beta at the moment so I might try the 'extreme' option to see if that sorts it out and report back.

Can confirm reboot and setting to mix "fixes" the issue. I'll now revert to duck, which was my previous setting, and report here after the next run or two.