Share your experience with the Suunto app here!
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The last iOS 1.9.0 update was a nice one with the manual and intervals splits/laps. Big surprise for me, so huge kudos to the dev team!! If only that screen could be made landscape at the turn of the smartphone, that would be great, as more than 4 values would fit in the laps chart (à la Movescount web laps section).
Sadly there’s a lot of catchup to do in SA, but things are coming along. However, until there is no proper web frontend replacement for MC I will stick to MC and refrain from using SA’s routes and sports mode configuration.
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It has been 6 months since I left my previous comment here. I’ve been using Suunto App quite a bit more during those 6 months so hopefully this time I’ll have a more constructive feedback.
I’ve been thinking about why SA triggers such a negative reaction in me, even compared to the very primitive Movescount app. On a surface it looks much more rich and advanced than Movescount. I think the main reason is that it is targeted at a user different than me.
Let’s look what I see when I open Suunto App. Immediately I am prompted with “My week” widget which is supposed to show me a summary of my training week so far. But it completely misses the point. It shows me time across all sports that I’ve been training so far, my time goal, as well as my steps and calories. Do I care about any of those? Absolutely not! Furthermore it doesn’t even capture my week correctly, because I can’t make it to start the week on Monday instead of Sunday (I am in USA, but my training week is Monday to Sunday).
Let’s compare that to Movescount app. In Movescount I see a compact summary of my mileage by sport over the last 30 days. I’ve prefer the current week or month instead but that is still more useful to me than SA’s general fitness goals. Below that in Movescount I see a fairly compact list of my recent activities that is color coded by type of activity. I find that very helpful. The amount of information is certainly very limited but at least the way it is represented is easy to consume on a small phone screen.
Back to SA, at the bottom of the main screen I see a Strava like feed of activities by me and people I follow, with a high focus on the social side of things. First of all each of these entries take more than half the screen so scrolling through these is difficult. Do I really need to see a large “ADD A COMMENT” each taking almost 10% of the screen under each activity? Absolutely not! I already have Strava for this kind of Social stuff and seeing that in Suunto App is the last thing I want. At a minimum, this social feed should be tucked away. And ideally there should be an option that turns it off completely for the majority of Suunto App users who don’t need yet another social platform. The main tab of Suunto App should be focused only on me.
I actually like how it is done in Garmin Connect App. It seems it allows you to choose which widgets you’d like to see on the main screen, be it mileage or steps, or calories. So you see only the data you are interested to see. For example I’d be very interested to see the amount of the vertical gain in the current week. And the remaining recovery time.
OK, let’s switch to the diary. At the top there is a training graph that can be switched between Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly. Good idea, but again, that shows only time, which is of no interest to me. Make it show mileage across all sports and that would be much more useful to me. Let me select a group of sports to include in the mileage, and that would be even more useful. Below the graph is the actual diary - activity log. Somehow it manages to have a very low density of information and at the same time make it very difficult to consume the data. I don’t know what it is? Perhaps it is the weird alignment fields, or using one color only, or the fact that different types of fields are shown for different types of activities, but visually I struggle to quickly find the activities I need in the list. Why not use the colored icons for the sport modes that match the activity log in the watches and Movescount? I think the Movescount style list would be more useful. And furthermore, the diary really has to have a calendar, and to have a way to show key activities / races in a distinct way. I dare anyone to try to find a race that you did a year ago in the list. That is nearly impossible. Strava mobile app does this much better in their activity log.
Now, let’s go into activity details. Here are my thoughts:
- It throws a bunch of data at you at a very disorganized way.
- Again a very large part of screen estate is wasted on social stuff. That should be done via a menu so that it doesn’t take any UI space.
- Graphs - enough has been said about the graphs. They are absolutely terrible on all levels. The feature to show a graph full screen is a nice try but it misses the point. There is no value in seeing an altitude graph alone. I can find what altitude I had at any given point by looking at tooltip, but what is the point? That needs to be shown in relation with other metrics. I want to see time, distance, pace, HR, cadence, and potentially other metrics at the same time. Ideally there should be a way to overlay two or more graphs, but at a minimum multiple metrics should be shown in the tooltip. The pace graph is unusable for trail running. There is a hard-coded scale that ends at 14:00/mile at the bottom, which means a large part of activity is cut off from the graph. I’ve had many activities in mountains where my average pace was slower than 14:00/mile. And in general, pace and speed graphs would benefit from some smoothing for longer multi-hour activities. The way pace and speed graphs are shown in the current version makes them nearly unusable, at least for activities where the pace/speed varies a lot.
- Comparisons to previous activities - I don’t find them useful. That would work only for relatively short activities, and only for someone who it just starting. I don’t see a point to learn that my current run is 60 miles shorter than the previous, because the previous was an ultra-marathon race. My distance varies a lot on purpose. My pace also varies a lot on purpose. So none of this “PREVIOUS” stuff is helpful. The same applies to other comparisons.
- The 30-day summary at the bottom of activity screen could be useful. The main problem is that it is limited to one sport only. My running is combined from 3 sports - road running, trail running, and treadmill. Looking at any one of these in isolation misses the big picture.
Finally I’d like to praise the route editor. I think this is one part of the app that works fairly well, and I use it from time to time to estimate a route for a trail run (even though I don’t sync SA routes to my Suunto 9). The only negative is that it doesn’t show the elevation profile, but overall it is easy to use and very fast, and uses good outdoor oriented maps. Yesterday out of curiosity I installed Garmin Connect App and tried their route editor. Let me tell you, it was so unusable for anything not on roads, and planning a route with it seemed like a really painful process. SA route planner is way way better in comparison.
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I’ve used a suunto watch and the suunto app for a couple of weeks now, although i have been quite happy with it i’ve become more and more frustrated with the whole thing. This varies from literally strange inconsistancies like the week running from monday till sunday on the watch and from sunday till saturday on the app, to more frustrating things like inconsistencies between the sync of the watch and the app. For example I’ve done several workouts where the watch will give for example 1000 calories burned while the app says 1250 calories burned? Like how is this possible, the app gets the info from the watch, right? Another workout I’ve done said 670 calories burned while the watch gave an overall active amount of calories burned stuck on 645, thats so frustrating… I’m really thinking about returning this watch and just switchting to Garmin with things like this the whole thing just becomes not trustworthy.
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@silentvoyager Good points and well said. I agree.
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New to the forum here! Having used Movescount and Suunto since Ambit 2 gen timeframe, here are my thoughts for the app on iOS. Apologies if some are repeats of others’ thoughts.
What i like:
- Overall I love the new, clean, quick interface compared to older movescount. Great job team!
- Syncs much faster than with movescount.
- Absolutely love the route creation tool and use it extensively - it’s probably my favourite tool. Arm and a leg above other platforms! I used mine together with Strava segments when searching out new routes. Heatmaps are nice, but could be bolder/stronger.
- Sleep and activity tracking and syncing is nice to see.
- Topo base maps are nice to have.
Issues or wishlist:
- After latest update (May 2019), the app seems to work much slower when navigating menus or activities. Not sure if it’s server issue slowdown related or the app itself.
- Under ‘share’ option, .fit export would be great (especially given the latest troubles)
- Custom (more complex) interval workout creation to transfer to the 9 and other watches. For example, I want my workout to include a 10min. interval followed by a 90sec. rest, then 3x90sec. with 45sec. rest between. This would be helpful.
- I am not seeing much difference and don’t fully understand the need for a main feed and my diary. Perhaps if I followed others this would make more sense on my end.
- Leaderboard— have not used this yet.
There might be more but these are off the top of my head right now. Keep it up! (and pleeeeease keep that Strava connection healthy
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Hi
I use Ambit3 only as a GPS-watch and just for tracking rout, speed, time etc. In MC(PC) I liked go to map and see other users moves and routes in my area. That feature worked in SA also in the early 2019 by pressing “explore button”. You could then see all activities/moves on the map. If I zoomed out I saw moves from the whole world. But now this feature is totally gone. Cant even see my own moves that way by pressing “explore button”Have asked support several time but they just ignore that this has been a function at all. Its seems that the support dont no whats going on with SA.
Anyone else having this problem with the missing moves/activities on the map “explore button”?
Have they removed this feature or whats has happened? whats the point making moves public if no one can find them? and whats the meaning with that “list” that only says “theres no activites in your area” if it wasnt meant to show any activites there from the beginning?!
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What is the relation between sport tracker web app and Suunto app.
I’m missing my detailed graphs which I have in movescount app and webapp.
Are they coming back?
Sportstracker is just way simpeler as movescount… -
Where are data for:
ascent, descent, for one move or for monthly report for different actrivities (run, bike, hike, one click in movescount)
average pace speed for montly report, (one click in movescount)
distance in montly report for different actrivities (run, bike, hike, one click in movescount)
detailed data for just one part of the move (one click in movescount)…and about 10 similar things.
Creating a track with heat maps is a nightmare. Heat maps are red and also track??? (blue in movescount). not to mention small screen
I have 4 tabs: training, steps, calories, sleep. How can I remove last 3. I Did not spend 700 eur to track *ucking calories, sleep and steps.
If I wanted that I would buy wristband for 29.99 usd.I am selling my watch for 2 months now. Almost half price, nobody wants it. I am long time suunto user. 1983 moves. ambit2, ambit3, spartan, suunto9. 9000 km behind me for running and trail running. I know one thing: Suunto, never again
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@Jaakers
seems that you question has not been answered.
For me it was the same in the first place, because I could login to Sports Tracker with my Suunto App credentials. BUT I’ve learned soon that ST and SA have nothing in common except they share the same data base. ST is NOT the web interface for SA. Activities from SA will be synced to ST and vice versa, but depending from where the data comes it lacks quality. If you sync Movescount data to ST you will notice a weak quality in SA. That’s why I started to sync my Ambit3 to MC app (that syncs automatically to MC web, as it is the same). Then I manually sync my activity to SA and force the SA to stopp as it would keep the connection to the watch and causes failure when you want to connect to MC app next time.ST is not a simpler MC in my point of view. It is a very very basic list of activities and summary. But it has no elevation data at all and hence not useful for mountain athletes.
There’s a noticeable bunch of guys in this forum that are very looking forward for improvements on the SA and also for a web interface.
…and many many more features for analysis, comparison, statistics, Ambit settings etc…
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@zvonejan
I agree with what you are missing. I miss this, too… desperately!! But I’m confident that Suunto will implement this… the elevation extension for Strava shows how it could look like.
I only bought a new A3 Peak Sapphire today as I am convinced Suunto will release an SA incl web interface that keeps up with Movescount.
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App does not show vo2 max or any other fitness level tracking (besides EPOC).
My user experience with ambit 3R and movescount was way better than right now with Suunto 9 and Suunto App. I was hoping for big upgrade, and honestly I consider running with my trusty 3R instead of Suunto 9. -
For some time I’ve received notifications in Movescount and SuuntoLink about migration to the Suunto App. Finally with some spare time I decided to take the plunge. Overall first impression was a confusion about the synchronizations and new accounts required:
- I had to create a new SportsTracker account and use this to login to Suunto App.
- SportsTracker Web interface is pretty useless and it doesn’t even show the correct sports profiles for the activities.
- About the migration of my data from Movescount, the instruction says: “Ensure you have downloaded Suunto app and have notifications enabled to be notified when your Movescount exercise history import is available.” After waiting for an hour or two I’m still wondering if this import will be available later today, tomorrow, this month or next year? Additionally as I would like to use Movescount for the web interface and Suunto App for the phone, I’m not at all sure if all the activities which I sync to both services while waiting for the migration to happen will basically end up duplicated when I finally can do the actual migration.
- All the routes have to be manually imported from Movescount to Suunto app.
- Apparently I will still need Suuntolink for the firmware updates in the future as well.
- For the feedback and upvote for the web interface I had to create an additional account for this forum (which is third account I seem to need for the Suunto ecosystem).
- It seems that the weekly planner is also gone which is unfortunate.
- It is very difficult to find out what is actually planned for the release in the future, just some vague promises about “listening to the community and going with agile development” which for the user is very confusing. Roadmap or information about the upcoming releases and new features in them would be nice.
I really hope that this migration process would have been easier: delete old application and download a new one and then select if I still want to synchronize to Movescount which should be automatically handled from the Suunto App. Now for the migration I had to read a good amount of descriptions and instructions which really does not give a good first impression about the application.
On a positive side, the new application looks promising. Hope it will fly and we will get a web interface as well. Unfortunately it seems to me that in the future the web interface and further analysis is kind of outsourced for the partners like TrainingPeaks and Strava and to be able to use their tools and my Suunto watch to full potential I will have to subscribe to TP premium or Strava Summit.
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@Sidhe said in Share your experience with the Suunto app here!:
It is very difficult to find out what is actually planned for the release in the future, just some vague promises about “listening to the community and going with agile development” which for the user is very confusing. Roadmap or information about the upcoming releases and new features in them would be nice.
I am not even sure Agile development is a positive thing here. None of the serious large software companies use Agile, and I’ve worked in two well known ones. I’ve heard from a friend, that Agile process has been a disaster for their company from engineers’ prospective, and is the reason the focus has shifted to shallow features, that are easy to finish quickly in short Agile sprints, and that any deep dive without quick results is now nearly impossible.
That is my 100% speculative opinion, and I may be wrong, but I have an impression that Agile has a similar effect on SA development - I see some busywork and trivial features being done, but nothing of substance that would require deep engineering changes.
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I have Suunto Ambit 3 Sport and I have been using Movescount from the beginning. I tried Suunto App for several weeks. My first impression was that it lacked a lot of features that Movescount has. Syncing etc. has been working fine.
Planning and statistics are way worse in SA than in MC. Also what was a big (negative) surprise was that I cannot change the sports modes in my watch. Considering there can be only 10 of them in the watch, changing them is essential to me.
In short, it seems that SA is more like those health apps, like Samsung Healt or Google Fit, than an app for (semi)serious trainers.
I changed back to movescount now and will continue to use it until it is shut down. If SA doesn’t change considerably, my next watch will be some other brand - unfortunately, because I have liked my Ambit 3 a lot. I have now compared watches that have
- HR from the wrist
- possibility to use standalone HR belt
- sleep analysis
- stress and recovery estimation
- training planning and statistics
Suunto has good watches but SA lacks so many features that it won’t be an option in current state.
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@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Hi Dimi, just a question regarding the development of Suunto App and/or firmware:
What possibilities do we really have?
Is it somehow “sugesstion with many upvotes will be developed” or is it more like “we follow our own roadmap”?E.g. Structured intervals is I think one of the most upvoted features but now I must read that it is not planned in the near future. In the beginning, it looked like Sunnto/that forum really want to get to know what customers want, but for me (personel opinion! maybe I am wrong) this is not anymore. I am not complaining, don’t get me wrong. I am not a native speaker and maybe I do not find the correct words. But please try to convince me to believe in Suunto again…
Just my thoughts the last couple of days…
Best
Marcus -
I mentioned this long ago but nothing seems to come of it. Please provide an option for users of Suunto App to have a more streamlined experience on the Diary page as can be had in Movescount. I don’t need the pictures to tell me it was a run/swim/trek…there are icons that do that just fine. I just want the data in a concise format!
Please…as a configurable option for those of us who don’t need the fluff.
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@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos this ^^^^^^
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@cringram said in Share your experience with the Suunto app here!:
I mentioned this long ago but nothing seems to come of it. Please provide an option for users of Suunto App to have a more streamlined experience on the Diary page as can be had in Movescount. I don’t need the pictures to tell me it was a run/swim/trek…there are icons that do that just fine. I just want the data in a concise format!
Please…as a configurable option for those of us who don’t need the fluff.
vote here, maybe that helps to but it higher on the agenda:
https://forum.suunto.com/topic/1427/collapsible-activities -
@moe67er I am not sure about the Structured intervals, since this forum is made for the app (as of now) and Structured intervals are a watch feature (as well) I cannot say something with confidence about it. Sorry
Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
Creator of Quantified-Self.io
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https://www.strava.com/athletes/7586105 -
@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Suunto can’t make a statement at last, will this feature appear or not?
Finally, someone has to know the answer to this question
