Has anyone found an option to use the watch for standalone GPS navigation? I realize it would be a last resort since it's not as easy to use as your phone, but I.E. if your phone got left at home or whatever, I'd like to be able to use the watch for directions.
The Here Maps app requires BT pairing with the phone, which in my opinion, makes it useless. Because if you have your phone in your pocket, who wouldn't just use the phone??
EDIT: from what I can tell, Komoot also does not do this.
Any luck finding this? I just got the watch and was disappointed that this feature was not available since I'd rather use Google Maps if I have my phone on me...
I didn't own the Gear S, but it appears there was a Gear Navigator Standalone app that did just what you [and I] are looking for. It looks like the developer of the app is actually the one that makes a companion app for the Gear S2's HERE Maps as well (although that rely's on the BT connection still), so hopefully they'll come out with one for the S2. Anyone know about anything in development?
kjdBonez said:
Any luck finding this? I just got the watch and was disappointed that this feature was not available since I'd rather use Google Maps if I have my phone on me...
I didn't own the Gear S, but it appears there was a Gear Navigator Standalone app that did just what you [and I] are looking for. It looks like the developer of the app is actually the one that makes a companion app for the Gear S2's HERE Maps as well (although that rely's on the BT connection still), so hopefully they'll come out with one for the S2. Anyone know about anything in development?
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Yeah under settings > conenctions > then scroll down to the bottom for "locations" > turn it on and select the GPS method you want.
I have verizon, so it may be different for yours. Also, there is no GPS for the wifi/bluetooth model
53aray said:
Yeah under settings > conenctions > then scroll down to the bottom for "locations" > turn it on and select the GPS method you want.
I have verizon, so it may be different for yours. Also, there is no GPS for the wifi/bluetooth model
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Turning on GPS doesn't give you turn-by-turn navigation though. You can pull up the maps app and see your location, but in order to navigate to a destination as you would with Google Maps, Waze, a Garmin, etc you need to be BT-connected to your phone still.
Search for "Gear Navigator Standalone" in the Gear store. (It's there for me anyway; I'm in the US.) Claims to provide exactly what you want. Although the current instructions say for S2-3G users, "because of weak GPS signal under certain conditions, it is highly recommended to pair smartwatch with phone to get accurate GPS coordinates and internet connection."
tstreete said:
Search for "Gear Navigator Standalone" in the Gear store. (It's there for me anyway; I'm in the US.) Claims to provide exactly what you want. Although the current instructions say for S2-3G users, "because of weak GPS signal under certain conditions, it is highly recommended to pair smartwatch with phone to get accurate GPS coordinates and internet connection."
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Someone else pointed this out to me on another thread. Are you on a non-3G version? I think it has been temporarily pulled for the 3G version. I contacted the developer last night and he was quick to respond - said it should be re-released sometime in May after some big fixes.
kjdBonez said:
Someone else pointed this out to me on another thread. Are you on a non-3G version? I think it has been temporarily pulled for the 3G version. I contacted the developer last night and he was quick to respond - said it should be re-released sometime in May after some big fixes.
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Yes, that it explains it, I'm on a non-3g S2 classic.
I am quite interested in this -- for public transit navigation. Even paired with a phone, does it work well without a data connection?
In my gear S2 3G (AT&T) has a small bug with S-health application.
When I run I use the GPS in watch to make my track, and on the same route and the same place, when I put the option to walk it notes 1,2km in 25minutos, when I use the run option he notes 4.5km in 25minutos that is what that's right.
Someone with the same bug?
hey guys, so I've been playing around with my new hw2 and I have noticed a somewhat issue,
the watch seems to be using my phones connection to wifi through bt, because I turn off watch's wifi and it still has internet connection, but when I turn off phone's(or watch's) bt, theres not internet on the watch any more
my home wifi network has wpa2 password and it is saved on my phone and also it shows up in saves networks list in the watch, but when I turn off watch's bt and turn wifi on, it wont connect to the network! what should I do if I dont want to use my phone and want to use the watch directly to connect to home wifi network?!
edit: when I tap the add network option, my home network wont show up! is it a defective unit?!!!
When you connect the watch to wifi, you should get the option to connect through phone to the wifi. When it connects, you should be good.
The problem is the network does not show up so I cant connect! It does not find it!
That is weird. It should show. If this persists, wipe the device. If you still have the issue then it may be a defective unit.
guys did you update to the latest version? if nobody else has this issue Im gonna send it for warranty...
also someone please tell me how long does it take for the gps to locate position without phone??
If you are using any app besides Google fit, less than 6-7 seconds. Google fit defaults to phone unless phone is not close out disconnected. In that case still 6-7 seconds.
Devolution1x said:
If you are using any app besides Google fit, less than 6-7 seconds. Google fit defaults to phone unless phone is not close out disconnected. In that case still 6-7 seconds.
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Im actually talking about google maps, assuming that I am connected to the phone for internet but want to use watches gps instead of phone, because in my test I waited for about 10mins and google maps was still searching for location...
Hi,
i have the 4G version.
when i'm going running (without mobile at all as i don't have mobile^^), watch ask me to activate position i not already tick in prefs, and i get GPS working under 10s, max 15s when outside.
Therefore, i haven't test on google maps, if i have time il will test and tell you.
akwaba972xda said:
Hi,
i have the 4G version.
when i'm going running (without mobile at all as i don't have mobile^^), watch ask me to activate position i not already tick in prefs, and i get GPS working under 10s, max 15s when outside.
Therefore, i haven't test on google maps, if i have time il will test and tell you.
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Thanks. I'll wait for your answer before returning my watch
Kianush said:
Thanks. I'll wait for your answer before returning my watch
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Hi,
ok, i have install google maps on my Huawei watch 2. here are my results :
A > my watch (with simcard) is pair with a phone with no SIMcard at all. This phone have bluetooth OFF and wifi OFF . So phone is not connected to internet.
B > first test : with A and watch with no BT, no wifi and no data (SIM not activated) : google maps start, GPS icon is searching localisation but no maps is visible, about ten or 15 s, gps icon become a compass, so in my opinion, GPS find my location, but as i have no internet connection, google map cannot show the maps, so the screen is empty (i don't know if i can predownload map in watch in local)
C > second test : with A and watch without BT, without wifi but WITH data (SIM activated) : google map start, GPS icon searching for 10s, maps is visible, my location is ok and the position circle become smaller and smaller as GPS refine. BUT, when i select if theres a POI, he ask me to connect the phone AND if i select a point to go, he ask me to connect the phone .
D > third test : with A except only modify WITH wifi ON + watch without BT, without wifi but with data : exactly the same of C results : so data LTE cannot connect to phone wifi (seems logical)
E > test four : with A except only modify WITH bluetooth ON + watch WITH bluetooth ON, no wifi with data : same results as C, with the difference that google maps don't tell me to connect the phone but say that it cannot find any POI, and cannot calculate the path to destination (so even with data on watch + bluetooth on phone, nothing is possible except finding localisation)
F > last test : with A except bluetooth ON and Wifi ON on phone : and watch data ON and bluetooth ON : gps ok, localisation ok, POI are finding (by phone and sending to the watch i suppose) and when i pick a dest on watch and ask for path, google maps start on phone and calculate the path, wich appear on my watch then (i precise that at this moment, google maps on the phone tell me tha my watch have to activate it's own GPS during travel).
G > if i exit BT, wifi on the phone, the watch immediatly lost the already path... so it isn't store on the watch ...
FINALLY :
> We can say that the GPS is working well on my watch (even with no map, the compass replacing GPS icon is the witness) : so kianush you can verify this point on your's.
> we can say that google maps cannot work standalone on the watch : sim data only can show maps and watch gps localize position and show it, but NO POI or destination way ! If you want that, you have to connect watch to your phone, wiitch have to be connect to internet by wifi... and when you move, you have to get your phone too, if not, the path of destination is not in the watch.
I can tell that, google maps, is not a good apk to verify if your GPS is ok or not... the problem may be google map in fact
For me, who use SIM card in watch only and never use smartphone, googlemap is not usable at this time, because even i i get my phone with me, it will lost internet wifi connection and as it do not have simcard, it will never connect to internet for POI and Calculate path.
Hope this help you !
POST SCRIPTUM:
> i have try your configuration : i disable simcard connection in my watch and only activate bluetooth.
On my phone, i have activate bluetooth and wifi (no GPS activated on phone).
In this configuration, the watch gps find my position, so as GPS is OFF on phone, we can know that's the GPS watch is ok.
but notice that the watch tell me to connect to phone for POI or path !!!!!!!!!!! In fact, you have to connect with androidwear (via bluetooth) on phone, and then all work.
wow man! you really put your time on this, thank you very much! yeah I already returned my watch as I suspected the gps was not working, after 10 minutes of running google maps gps icon was still grey and there was a text saying still finding location! But I wonder how it could track my steps though!
also in what position were you testing? I was testing it at home at night (under the roof)
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edit:
today they called me and sent a video to me showing that the wifi is working with no issue after factory reset, that's strange because I already did disconnect and reset the watch to see if it fixes the problem! could it be because of the phone that I paired it with? it's a xperia x compact with 7.1.1.
anyway they will send back the watch and I will try to test it again and see if its ok...
Im still not able to see any wifi ssid on my watch and also saw some other people on the internet talking about this issue in AW2
if anyone knows a fix, Im all ears...
Update:
So I today a was able to make sure my watch is not defective and its somehow a software bug or problem!
I disconnected and reset the watch to factory setting
then cleared the data and cache of google play services - android wear and google play store apps
Then after the watch started up, before pairing I long pressed the power button and went to wifi option there and in "add network" i was finally able to see my router and other available networks in the area!
Then i cleard all saved wifi networks on the phone (just in case it was related) and pair the watch to my phone,
and bang! Right after i confirmed the bluetooth code and it was showing that its looking for update, i went to settings the same way and I was not able to see any networks anymore!
So I decided to do these steps again and factory reset my watch and pair it to another phone(mine is xperia x compact with 7.1.1 and the other phone is galaxy j3 5.1.1), and still before pairing it showed and the moment I paired it in amdroid wear app, watch's wifi wont work anymore!
I also noticed that if instead of selecting the watch in android wear app, i just connect my phone bluetooth to it from phone settings, the phone will connect and the watch wifi is still working, but the watch wont pair and it keeps stuck at "searching for updates" screen.
So the might be something wrong with android wear app, or something else!!!
Please guys if you know how to fix this help me out
My watch is bt version leo-bx9 with build number N7176C
If there is a newer rom please give me instructions to flash, but I dont thinks its related to the rom...
WiFi issue fixed
Hi friends, I had this problems until last week, I connect watch to my phone and connect phone to WiFi for having internet, I ran VPN on the phone and go to watch and check for updates, I found the update via VPN, before I use VPN I didn't able to check update.
I started the update and watch go to Oreo, every thing were ok, WiFi was fixed, last night I check for updates again, there was new update from 1 March 2018, every thing is ok now, WiFi problem was android bug, I hope you enjoy it.
MAHBOZ said:
Hi friends, I had this problems until last week, I connect watch to my phone and connect phone to WiFi for having internet, I ran VPN on the phone and go to watch and check for updates, I found the update via VPN, before I use VPN I didn't able to check update.
I started the update and watch go to Oreo, every thing were ok, WiFi was fixed, last night I check for updates again, there was new update from 1 March 2018, every thing is ok now, WiFi problem was android bug, I hope you enjoy it.
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Please help me too as I am having this problem, so what country or vpn did you use? Did you have to format your watch ?
Ok this is weird and I dont know why this happens but if I reset my watch and connect to my ipad using wear os. I strangely get my ability to view wifi and have wifi on my watch for the first time. Now some things did change like the tutorial looked different on my watch.
Ok so I tried to reset and reconnect back to my watch and it seems that it wont work soooo. I guess we have cleared out that its not a hardware problem meaning not defective but a bug as stated. So pretty much our phones are doing something that the watch then wont accept wifi or somthing.
Now if i cant get it to work i guess I will have to sideload or using usb adb to put something that allows two devices to be connected to the watch.
---------- Post added at 01:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 AM ----------
Ok this is weird and I dont know why this happens but if I reset my watch and connect to my ipad using wear os. I strangely get my ability to view wifi and have wifi on my watch for the first time. Now some things did change like the tutorial looked different on my watch.
Ok so I tried to reset and reconnect back to my watch and it seems that it wont work soooo. I guess we have cleared out that its not a hardware problem meaning not defective but a bug as stated. So pretty much our phones are doing something that the watch then wont accept wifi or somthing.
Now if i cant get it to work i guess I will have to sideload or using usb adb to put something that allows two devices to be connected to the watch.
Hi everyone!
I got my HW2 from one month now, and I really love it! Everything is wotking fine, except one thing I am not able to understand: the GPS.
I would like like to use the GPS without using my phone but here is what I can do and what I cannot:
- I can use Viewranger to follow a route, so GPS is working in standalone in this app and in this mode: great!
- I cannot use Viewranger for tracking and recording my GPS watch. I think it comes from the app which is designed to use the GPS phone in this mode. I hope this feature will be available in the future.
- I downloaded Ghost app, which can track and record GPS with a standalone watch mode, but here is the problem: when my phone is connected (and my GPS phone enabled) it works perfectly tracking data from my watch (I know that because the sensor is far more accurate than my phone). But if my phone is not connected (or my GPS phone disabled), even in standalone mode, my watch records nothing.... (of course my watch location is enabled and there is no permission problem with the app).
So.... Am I missing someting or maybe do I have to change some parameters?
Thank you for your help!
Has nobody experienced this problem with the GPS not working in standalone mode?
I use Strava on my watch and leave my phone at home.
The watch records my distance and when I get back home the watch syncs with the phone automatically and I can see the route i ran on the phone app.
I suppose I would like it to be able to see the map on my watch screen...but this doesn't seem to be offered.
Stand alone gps is working tho...that's for sure.
Wait. So you guys have a simcard in the watch and it's not uploading instantly, but waits to be connected to the phone again? Makes no sense.
I use ghostracer all the time on my watch while leaving the phone at home. Works perfectly. I have the LTE version. GPS locks in 10 or 15 seconds and never have issues with it. Perfect tracking. When i finish the run before i connect to the phone my track instantly uploads to ghostracer and strava. All automaticaly. Only thing i have enabled in ghostracer phone app under android wear settings is 'force watch gps'. So it will always use the watches GPS, even when you are still connected to the phone
Thank you very much for your answers. I tried again, and now it works perfectly...
- When I start GhostTracer with GPS watch only and bluetooth connexion to my phone: OK
- When I start GhostTracer with GPS watch only without any connexion (LTE / BT): OK
So I don't know if it comes from the several updates, or if I misunderstood something, but I'm ok with that =)
Thanks again!
Huawei watch 2 GPS doesn't work for me
valentin8709 said:
Thank you very much for your answers. I tried again, and now it works perfectly...
- When I start GhostTracer with GPS watch only and bluetooth connexion to my phone: OK
- When I start GhostTracer with GPS watch only without any connexion (LTE / BT): OK
So I don't know if it comes from the several updates, or if I misunderstood something, but I'm ok with that =)
Thanks again!
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@valentin8709 @glenner05 @mitchward1971 I bought Huawei watch 2 recently and built-in GPS doesn't work for me. Mine has Wear OS 2.3 version installed. Please, would you tell me which Wear OS version is running your watch and if it still works? I talked to another HW2 user and he told me he is running Wear OS 2.0 version and GPS works for him. So I suspect Google killed this functionality with its latest update.
And why not use the Huawei Exercice mode on the watch ?
Iv'e had the watch for a couple of months now and use Strava to track my runs and bike rides and the results are very inconsistent. Anyone else have this issue?
Both my Gear S3 watch and the S-health app on my Android phone use to show a map of my route. I was able to share/send it via email from my phone and use it with some other computer mapping programs. I know its been gone a while but don't recall when it might have disappeared. Or maybe I've done something to kill that feature or its been moved to some sub-menu? I've just finally got around to asking what happened to it. Anyone know what's what?
Thanks in advance.
You must enable GPS on Watch.
dersie said:
You must enable GPS on Watch.
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Thanks. Just looked around on the watch.
Is it on the watch or one of the Gear settings done in the phone app?
I don't see a specific GPS setting in the phone. I see some location/map stuff?
fred2546 said:
Thanks. Just looked around on the watch.
Is it on the watch or one of the Gear settings done in the phone app?
I don't see a specific GPS setting in the phone. I see some location/map stuff?
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There are a setting in the watch setting : Location to enable or disable the watch GPS (like on phone), and other setting for each exercice in the SHealth app on the watch. When you launch a "Walk" exercice for exemple on the watch, there are some settings on watch screen and you can disable/enable the GPS for this exercice.
I have been looking around and tweaking various settings on both the watch and in S-health on my android phone. Location is ON. I have not been able to get back the map or track of my route. S-health on the phone use to be able to export or share a gpx route that I could view using Garmin software and I can't get that working either. I might be missing something obvious???? Thanks for any additional help.
Here's the type of maps that I had but are now gone:
I had the same issue, no map on watch after a training, and position switch was on.
But today I started manually a walk session and a pop-up appeared, on the watch, asking me to give permission for position.
So I confirmed the permission tapping on the check symbol and now it works again!
I think that this happened after I paired another phone which made an hard reset of the S3. It seems not enough to set position on, you should also confirm the position permission by manually starting a training session (if the session start in automatic detect, the popup does not appear).
This has been bothering me for a bit now. When using the GPS (Google Maps) Navigation on my phone, the GPS on my GW4C turns on too. If I stop the navigation on my watch, it stops it on my phone! ARGH!
This was never an issue on any of my Tizen watches before. Has anyone come across this too? If so, how did you fix it?
I didn't think Google Maps was option on Tizen watches.
Anyway, this is how you fix. While in the google map app on watch touch the search icon. Then go to settings and then auto-launch. You can choose when watch auto-launches from phone. I have it off for driving and on for walking and cycling.
Sadly, none of Wear OS apps can use location data from the phone. I've tested this using Google Maps, Strava, and my own apps. All of these apps stop working if you disable GPS on the watch, even when the GPS of the connected phone is on. This behavior contradicts the official documentation https://developer.android.com/training/wearables/data/wear-location-detection
On a watch, get location data using the FusedLocationProviderClient. The FLP automatically uses location data from the phone if the watch lacks a GPS sensor.
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I'd prefer if smartwatch apps used phone's GPS because it's much more accurate and because the battery wouldn't drain as fast on the watch. This was easy to implement on Tizen watches, but seems to be impossible on the Galaxy Watch 4. I've tried both the Fused Location Provider and requestLocationUpdates() methods, but nothing worked.
Does anyone have any suggestions?