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Tizen Ambient Mode - NOT GOOD - Android Wear is Exactly the same just dimmer

I just got the Gear S2 - I've been using the LG Urbane and wanted to try Tizen.
One thing I've noticed is that on the Urbane and Android wear - the Ambient mode is the exact same as the active mode - just a bit dimmer but looks the exact same at all times.
I can't seem to find very many faces through Tizen with anything other that two black and white hands in ambient mode or just a basic look.
Is there an issue with Tizen not being able to offer this ?
I want my watch face to be seen by other people looking down at my watch when I don't know they're looking.
I don't want the face to be shown just when I lift my arm - I want the look always.
This "always on" option will also make developers created faces then seen by others with the same watch in passing and they'll ask what that watch face is leading to potentially more purchases and downloads. -- grass roots marketing
I love the watch so far, but the lack of ambient mode looking just like active mode is about a deal breaker for me.
Any thoughts or suggestions here, before I return it and stick with my Urbane and having the watch face I choose always on ?
I've only been able to find about six (6) faces that have a similar look to the active mode when in ambient and it's still no where near as good as Android Wear's look with the Ambient mode option.
The Tizen ambient is only similar -
With all the face options to choose from when we decide on one for the day as watch owners - we want the face to be there always not just when I lift my wrist - I want to show off the look I decided to use.
This bother anyone else ?

jabakerman said:
I just got the Gear S2 - I've been using the LG Urbane and wanted to try Tizen.
One thing I've noticed is that on the Urbane and Android wear - the Ambient mode is the exact same as the active mode - just a bit dimmer but looks the exact same at all times.
I can't seem to find very many faces through Tizen with anything other that two black and white hands in ambient mode or just a basic look.
Is there an issue with Tizen not being able to offer this ?
I want my watch face to be seen by other people looking down at my watch when I don't know they're looking.
I don't want the face to be shown just when I lift my arm - I want the look always.
This "always on" option will also make developers created faces then seen by others with the same watch in passing and they'll ask what that watch face is leading to potentially more purchases and downloads. -- grass roots marketing
I love the watch so far, but the lack of ambient mode looking just like active mode is about a deal breaker for me.
Any thoughts or suggestions here, before I return it and stick with my Urbane and having the watch face I choose always on ?
I've only been able to find about six (6) faces that have a similar look to the active mode when in ambient and it's still no where near as good as Android Wear's look with the Ambient mode option.
The Tizen ambient is only similar -
With all the face options to choose from when we decide on one for the day as watch owners - we want the face to be there always not just when I lift my wrist - I want to show off the look I decided to use.
This bother anyone else ?
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Click to collapse
There are several reasons for this. 1) Battery life. By reducing colors and the number of pixels that are activitated, it allows the watch to go several days without charge. 2) OLED burn in. OLED displays will "burn in" if pixels activated too long.
However, there are several options one is the "Alive" app on the Gear store. Install this and your watch never goes into ambient mode. Free app. Problem solved. However, you will have shorter battery life. YMMV.
Rob

jabakerman said:
One thing I've noticed is that on the Urbane and Android wear - the Ambient mode is the exact same as the active mode - just a bit dimmer but looks the exact same at all times.
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Click to collapse
Not true, maybe an exception on your face, very very very.... few face has same dim mode than active mode on Wear. Worse, for example on LG-R Dim mode brightness has no setup and most time dim mode is brighter than active mode, so totally grazy

OP, check this thread for Gear S2 watchfaces that have more than the basic ambient mode...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=63804290

jabakerman said:
I just got the Gear S2 - I've been using the LG Urbane and wanted to try Tizen.
One thing I've noticed is that on the Urbane and Android wear - the Ambient mode is the exact same as the active mode - just a bit dimmer but looks the exact same at all times.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is incorrect.
Ambient mode on both platforms is a part of the watchface design -- it has as much, or as little detail as the designer put in it.
There are plenty of Wear faces that reduce to simple 2 B/W hands in ambient. Try the Bang & Olufsen watch face, for example.

For the time you would spend sorting through the Samsung store to find a good ambient face, you could create your own with Gear Watch Designer. That way you could include pretty much whatever you want in the ambient face.

Ambient mode seems to use a lot of battery. Mine drops from 100% to about 30% in 16 hours on ambient mode, making nightly recharging a must. And, I'm not a power user.

Zelmo88 said:
Ambient mode seems to use a lot of battery. Mine drops from 100% to about 30% in 16 hours on ambient mode, making nightly recharging a must. And, I'm not a power user.
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Click to collapse
I have a very intricate ambient mode and I have it always on, and I get 2 days on a full charge. I only have bluetooth on. I do not have WiFi on. If you have WiFi on, or if you have a 3G, that's what's eating your battery.
Rob

rlichtefeld said:
I have a very intricate ambient mode and I have it always on, and I get 2 days on a full charge. I only have bluetooth on. I do not have WiFi on. If you have WiFi on, or if you have a 3G, that's what's eating your battery.
Rob
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Click to collapse
I'm only using bluetooth, no WiFi, and I don't have a 3G version.

Custom Vibration and Ambient Brightness

All,
Trying to make the S2 work, I really like it, and I had some questions (although there doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic here). First, is there a program to create custom vibration patterns for alerts? For some of mine, (At Bat is a great example) there are no vibration alerts at all. It's there, but it doesn't alert me to it. Baseball season and all, it would be nice to get something, anything, when there is a score change. There are some other apps as well, and I can't find any setting in the Gear app. Is it possible?
Battery life is a struggle for me. I've disabled WiFi, and dialed the screen brightness to 4, but I want a watch to be a watch, so I use ambient mode. I think one of the challenges is ambient mode is brighter than the active watch face. I think I read here there are no user settings for us, but I wanted to check. You could reduce the screen brightness by half and it would still be fine for me. Coming from AW, it seems a basic setting.
Any help would be appreciated!

ret4425 said:
Coming from AW, it seems a basic setting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No brightness setting for dim mode in Android Wear. On my LG-R dim mode is brighter than active mode

dersie said:
No brightness setting for dim mode in Android Wear. On my LG-R dim mode is brighter than active mode
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Click to collapse
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I have a Moto360 2nd gen, and that flat tire everyone moans about works pretty well as a sensor, so it scales the brightness so I don't have to. Without a sensor, I guess you'd be in the same boat.

How to get "ScreenSaver" while the S3 Fronteir is on "Always On"

While I had my my AT&T S3 Frontier LTE watch set to "Always On" I was getting something like a "Screensaver" which consisted of just the hour and minutes hands in white on a black background. It came on after the watch display dimmed and after the display time out. This happened while using the Chronograph+ (default) watch face. It was a distinctive + useful screen face that probably saved me some battery life. Now the displays dims after the time out and then it turns completely off (black). After I power cycled the S3 yesterday, I stopped getting this "Screensaver" and can't find the settings combination that will get this "screensaver" back. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and how to get it back?

tamanaco said:
While I had my my AT&T S3 Frontier LTE watch set to "Always On" I was getting something like a "Screensaver" which consisted of just the hour and minutes hands in white on a black background. It came on after the watch display dimmed and after the display time out. This happened while using the Chronograph+ (default) watch face. It was a distinctive + useful screen face that probably saved me some battery life. Now the displays dims after the time out and then it turns completely off (black). After I power cycled the S3 yesterday, I stopped getting this "Screensaver" and can't find the settings combination that will get this "screensaver" back. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and how to get it back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Enable Settings -> Style -> Watch Always On

tamanaco said:
While I had my my AT&T S3 Frontier LTE watch set to "Always On" I was getting something like a "Screensaver" which consisted of just the hour and minutes hands in white on a black background. It came on after the watch display dimmed and after the display time out. This happened while using the Chronograph+ (default) watch face. It was a distinctive + useful screen face that probably saved me some battery life. Now the displays dims after the time out and then it turns completely off (black). After I power cycled the S3 yesterday, I stopped getting this "Screensaver" and can't find the settings combination that will get this "screensaver" back. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and how to get it back?
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Click to collapse
I don't think I've really ever used the default faces. I know in a lot of the Watchmaker faces you can get a toned down face with maybe just the numbers and hands glowing when using AOD mode but I don't know about the default faces. In display settings there's a setting for auto low brightness that may affect that.

10urshin said:
Enable Settings -> Style -> Watch Always On
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Click to collapse
If you read the first sentence of my post you'd see that I'm already using this setting.

tamanaco said:
If you read the first sentence of my post you'd see that I'm already using this setting.
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Click to collapse
Yea i have read it. Not just first sentence but I also read the whole thing, you must admit it is not really making much sense. "Screensaver"? There is no such thing on this watch, only AOD and "Now the displays dims after the time out and then it turns completely off (black)." this sentence perfectly describes the AOD off behavior. So i thought it worth mentioning.
Only other thing that comes to my mind is default analog AOD watchface(attachment) which is something watch shows if the current watchface does not support AOD. But since you stated that you were getting your "screensaver" on Chronograph+ which supports AOD, it doesn't really make sense either.
Anyway hope you'll find your answer.

I also saw this "screensaver" mode in a review video somewhere, but I have not been able to locate it again. Once I find it, I'll post a screenshot of it.

tamanaco said:
While I had my my AT&T S3 Frontier LTE watch set to "Always On" I was getting something like a "Screensaver" which consisted of just the hour and minutes hands in white on a black background. It came on after the watch display dimmed and after the display time out. This happened while using the Chronograph+ (default) watch face. It was a distinctive + useful screen face that probably saved me some battery life. Now the displays dims after the time out and then it turns completely off (black). After I power cycled the S3 yesterday, I stopped getting this "Screensaver" and can't find the settings combination that will get this "screensaver" back. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and how to get it back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thinking more about it, I don't think the AOD is even supposed to remain on all the time. That has been a major complaint, the AOD mode not being actually AOD. What you're experiencing now isn't normal and there should be no setting to change that. If you want to set up the watch again, you might try resetting it. That's assuming you've already tried just restarting it.

What comes to my mind with "Watch always on" (or "Always On Display", AOD) and having screen completely black is if watch thought at some point that you weren`t wearing it - only in that case should the screen go completely black with AOD set, otherwise it should, well, keep "always on display", that`s the point of the setting
When you take the watch off your hand, then it goes blank even though AOD setting is still active - watch is "playing it smart" to preserve battery life in case where you`re not actively using it.
But, it`s possible for the watch to (wrongly) think that you`re not wearing it even when you do, thus turning the screen off when it should otherwise be in AOD mode (as set). For example, it can happen when your wrist band is a bit loose so the heart rate sensor has issues reading your pulse, or when the heart rate sensor itself is smudgy or otherwise blocked to make the valid reading - some people with tattoos reported that AOD doesn`t really work for them, having the screen constantly turning off (tattoo effectively confusing the heart rate sensor reading).
This is especially troublesome if you`re using "Samsung Pay", where the watch asks for you PIN in order to unlock itself every-single-time, as it`s thinking that you didn`t wear it in the meantime...
All this said, from what you described, it looks like AOD doesn`t work for you at all anymore, as what you seem to call "Screensaver" is actually AOD - a dimmed and more simple version of the watch, whose main purpose is to spare the battery while still providing a bit more realistic feel, having the watchface shown all the time.
There is additional "trick" to trigger AOD mode (once you have the setting configured), besides simply waiting for some (configured) time to pass by - just cover the watch with your palm for a few seconds, and it should fall back to AOD mode. If the screen goes blank instead, you might have an issue with the watch.
It would be good to have some default watchface in use when you`re trying AOD (like mentioned Chronograph+), just to opt out a possibly "broken" third-party watchface, and you could also check if "S Health" heart-rate reading works for you, starting a heart-rate readout manually (you can use a widget for that as well).
If the issue is still there, you may try restarting the watch again, or eventually soft (or factory) resetting might be a thing to go for, too, though you`ll have to setup the watch again, as already mentioned.

I have seen the exact same behavior. My AOD will suddenly become black and white, while normally it is full color, and any app icons that are usually on the AOD disappear. When the watch is active (by turning wrist or touching the screen), the full color face returns and looks normal - it is only the AOD that is always B&W. The difference for me is that I don't like it and I would like to figure out how to get it to stop happening.
I've had the watch for about 2 months and it has happened to me 3 times with different watch faces. It lasts from several hours to more than a day. I have changed every related face setting, changed faces, changed face settings, AOD settings, restarted, and reset the watch completely (and restore), but it still happens. The only thing that I've noticed may help (may be coincidence) is that it will stay indefinitely until I power cycle the watch. After restarting, the AOD remains black and white for a few hours and then suddenly the color AOD will return. Next time it happens I will take a pic.
I'm actually somewhat relieved that I'm not the only one who has seen this because my googling revealed next to nothing. I don't know if I would call this a screensaver, but it would be nice to be able to control it.

annulation said:
I'm actually somewhat relieved that I'm not the only one who has seen this because my googling revealed next to nothing. I don't know if I would call this a screensaver, but it would be nice to be able to control it.
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Click to collapse
I knew I was not seeing things... please take a picture if it happens again, so that we can have a reference image. I'll do the same if it happens to me again. In certain situations... I actually like just having the hour and minute hands in "brightish" white on black background. Like you, I would also like to control it. I thought it was a "screensaver-like" feature as the watch face turns mostly black. But as you say, it might be a glitch... it has not happened to me since I last power cycled the S3.

Low Color AOD
I finally figured it out.
The behavior is called "Low Color AOD" and "High Color AOD". It is controllable by swiping from the right side of the screen near 5 o'clock straight up. This consistently toggles it for me, and a popup message shows a message saying either "Low Color AOD" or "High Color AOD". See pics attached (sorry, don't know how to rotate them).
Pics:
1. Low Color AOD
2. High Color AOD
3. popup message Low Color AOD
4. popup message High Color AOD
Only some faces support this behavior. For me, "Low Color AOD" always means monochrome B&W and no app icons.
PS - this face is called "Stylish Set" and the creator gives free coupons for it if you email him. It is one of the few faces I've found that shows day/date, with temperature and battery.

As mentioned, the function described is dependent on the functionality of each watch face independent of the watch itself. If a given watch face supports it, it can be accessed. The "always on" function also depends on the capabilities of each watch face. Some have customized always on displays, and some do not (generic). The watch will go black if it senses it is not against the skin (the sensor on the back). This will also cause the watch to lock again and require the security code to re-activate. If a band is too loose, the watch can falsely think it has been taken off. The time that the watch face itself is on can be extended with an app called "Flaunt" available from the Galaxy app store. It can extend the original watch face active time to 30 minutes. It can then be re-activated to extend for other 30 minute time periods. Of course it does impact the battery life.

Always on??

Stupid question alert... So I have always on, screen time out 30 sec, auto low brightness on, wake up gesture on, gray scale on, and brightness at 2. I'm currently using watch maker's watch face for my own custom design. It has a second hand, but after a short period goes to ambient mode or whatever where the second hand stops moving.
Is there a way to set it to truly always on where the second hand is always moving? A couple of the stock watch faces do that I notice. In the custom watch face I have everything set to always. I'd search more, but don't know what lingo to use. Thanks for the help in advance.

vipfreak said:
Stupid question alert... So I have always on, screen time out 30 sec, auto low brightness on, wake up gesture on, gray scale on, and brightness at 2. I'm currently using watch maker's watch face for my own custom design. It has a second hand, but after a short period goes to ambient mode or whatever where the second hand stops moving.
Is there a way to set it to truly always on where the second hand is always moving? A couple of the stock watch faces do that I notice. In the custom watch face I have everything set to always. I'd search more, but don't know what lingo to use. Thanks for the help in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's all based on the watch face. Don't see that much 3rd party watch face use that but depends on the watch face

zune70 said:
That's all based on the watch face. Don't see that much 3rd party watch face use that but depends on the watch face
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Click to collapse
Oh ok. Ugh... Thanks

Can I get a true ambient watch face like Google Wear?

I've been using a Sony Smartwatch3 but have jumped to the S3 Frontier because of its better looks and battery life. However, much as I love the built in chrono/sports watchfaces there seems no way to set them up in an 'ambient mode' like the Sony. This is where you can get a stripped down, dark grey representation of the face so you don't need to keep twisting your wrist or drawing attention to yourself with a lit up screen.
Is this possible at all, or would I have to be download some third party watch face that will, I suspect, be nowhere near as attractive as the Samsung one?
Cheers

Hi.
If you use the "always on" mode for watchfaces, and turn off the activation by movement, you will have a greyed out version of the watch face at all times.
Is this what you are looking for?

ga123 said:
Hi.
If you use the "always on" mode for watchfaces, and turn off the activation by movement, you will have a greyed out version of the watch face at all times.
Is this what you are looking for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want it so that it's permanently greyed out (i.e. not backlit) so it's just about readable at all times and only comes on/lights up when I tap it.
Below is a Sony example.

the gear S3 has no backlight, it uses an OLED screen.
this means each individual subpixel is a light, and turning this off would make it black.
what ga123 suggested is the closest you can get.

urban75 said:
I want it so that it's permanently greyed out (i.e. not backlit) so it's just about readable at all times and only comes on/lights up when I tap it.
Below is a Sony example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use the very pretty "SamVictor" ...

Ga123 gave instructions that accomplish what you want. The always on display provides a simplified version of the watch face. If gestures is turned off, that will be shown until the screen is touched or the bezel is turned. That is the setup I run on my watch.

ThinkD said:
You can use the very pretty "SamVictor" ...
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Click to collapse
Pretty indeed but too simplistic for my needs.

afblangley said:
Ga123 gave instructions that accomplish what you want. The always on display provides a simplified version of the watch face. If gestures is turned off, that will be shown until the screen is touched or the bezel is turned. That is the setup I run on my watch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean 'wake up gesture' in the 'Device' menu? If I turn that off the screen goes blank. Touching the screen doesn't do anything so I'm guessing there's some setting I've missed....

urban75 said:
Do you mean 'wake up gesture' in the 'Device' menu? If I turn that off the screen goes blank. Touching the screen doesn't do anything so I'm guessing there's some setting I've missed....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use a stock watch face or make one with the gear watch designer, you will get AOD. Some custom face watches will blank the screen.

urban75 said:
Do you mean 'wake up gesture' in the 'Device' menu? If I turn that off the screen goes blank. Touching the screen doesn't do anything so I'm guessing there's some setting I've missed....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the screen is black until you twist your wrist, you don't have the always on display enabled.* Goto settings, STYLE -> WATCH ALWAYS ON (the second option). Then every watch face will have two modes,* activated and ambient. The detail displayed depends on the designer's specifications.

Here's a picture of the watch face Boldindex12 with its ambient display and its activated display.

This op doesn't seem to be answered.
I was wondering the same thing and can't find an answer.
Atblangi posted pictures of what i want but it seems not capable of achieving in the means of the op.
Given my enquiry is the same, i will try to reword it.
I want a dim watch face that is always on; when i'm not looking directly at it. But a brighter face that is activated with a gesture (turn the wrist and look at the watch), or an action (press of button or turn of bezel).
I have seen faces that change with light intensity, but what i want (and the op), is a face that changes with a gesture.
Is this possible?

Use Watchmaker faces and you can set all you want for active or dim faces.