Share your experience with the Suunto app here!

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos
My question was more in general and SI just as an example.

ChubbyCrusher

My Wahoo computer uploads my ride to strava and uploads the .fit file to dropbox before I have the garage door closed. No phone required. I can change all the settings real time on the device from my phone. I can push routes right to the device from the phone from services like RideWGPS. I have structured workouts. I can view my ride ride history in the app and guess what, they have useful graphs and everything. I can create routes in the app or import from many places or create one from a ride. You know what the app doesn’t have? A bunch of useless, buggy “social” features like seeing people I don’t know or care about on a map. The app is what bike users want and the devices just works. The UI is nice and the battery lasts.

Why is it, that it takes hours or a day to upload to strava from SA? Why can’t I do basic things like create and sync POIs to a watch designed for back country navigation? Why is there egregious bugs in every release and I have to hear “it’ll be looked at in the next release?” I’m a software developer and I get it, development these days is about getting something out there fast rather than correct or what users actually want, but I’m as done with Suunto now as I have been with Garmin for years. I never thought Suunto would be using users as alpha/beta testers like Garmin does.

I wish Wahoo would make a watch. They seem to be the only customer focused device maker out there (that I’ve used anyway). And I don’t care if their bike computer can play music in this next revision, you know why? It’s a bike computer and I want it to be GREAT at being a bike computer, not just ok at being a bike computer and ok at having 20 features I don’t want. If they make a watch, it’ll no doubt be a good watch with a hand full of features that work well…like Suunto used to be. Uggh, I’m so tired of the entire Suunto eco system and the way they managed this transition from a service and devices that people loved to what we have now. I can’t even in good faith sell this watch to someone because you can hardly get your data off the device and into something useable. Now I just have to manually pull the .fit file off and upload it to whatever service I’m interested in. You think SA would at least make it very easy and reliable to get your data into 3rd party systems given they don’t intend to create features that people expect from these expensive devices.

Sorry for the rant, but I’ve just had it with my watch not syncing and the glacial pace of updates to SA.

@ChubbyCrusher so true. But difference to Garmin: despite we are beta testers it is working. I never had any software issues with my Fenix 5x, just had a replacement because of cracks in the oHR sensor. You get all metrics out of connected sensors like Stryd. You can also connect you watch to the Mac/Pc and can just copy your FIT files. So easygoing…

One of my friends who has been Suunto user for 7 years and convinced me to buy Ambit1 many years ago has just decided to move to Garmin 5X+. I guess he didn’t like the mess that Suunto ecosystem has become. Good job, Suunto.

thanasis

Despite the shortcomings of Suunto app in terms of being able to customize my A3P ( if they don’t fix this it will not be acceptable of course )
I believe it is a decent app which I tend to use quite oftenly in conjunction with Movescount

freeheeler

@thanasis
if you need two apps plus one website from one company to make one watch work… something is wrong

thanasis

@TELE-HO it is definitely - I agree

ChubbyCrusher

@moe67er Yeah, it would be nice if my Traverse Alpha would just let me mount the watch as a USB drive and pull my fit files off, but I can’t even do that. I need an app on the machine (and I’m a Linux user, so there isn’t one) or I have to save it from SA to Dropbox or something and then upload it (and fit file export on Android has only been out for a few months).

Here is what a person I follow on Strava has shared with his 737 followers - not the kind of advertisement Suunto needs:

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@silentvoyager Thanks but there are other people that post positive

We dont focus on peoples reputation

ChubbyCrusher

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos right, I understand the idea of not focusing on reputation, but people with many, many followers are telling every day, non-advanced users there is a major problem with Suunto devices and to steer clear. I’ve advised 3 people this year not to buy a Suunto until the dust settles, and I’m sure many other tech people that others rely on for informed decisions are doing the same. Suunto can choose to ignore that fact, but perception is reality whether you believe it or not.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@ChubbyCrusher Can you elaborate on dust to settle?

ChubbyCrusher

For me, the dust will settle, when I have a clear understand of what devices will be supported going forward, syncing to third party services actually works reliably, and all the data on my device is synced and able to be retrieved from my device. I personally, can do without a Suunto managed site as long as things work as well as they do from the Wahoo app and there is a easy way to get the raw data from the device. For others (a lot it seems based on the topic on the forums), not having a central, Suunto managed site is a deal breaker.

All in all the dust will settle when we know what Suunto is doing. It feels like they are not focusing on their outdoor users (maybe that’s just my POV), but maybe they are and just haven’t gotten around to supporting us very well yet. Like so many things in life, communication would go a long way here. Back in the old days before all this agile stuff happened, software companies used to have road maps they could share with their customers what the next few months looks like. A road map showing what will be supported and what won’t at the very least would be fantastic. If it had some kind of general time lines, even better.

I’m annoyed with all this, but my feeling is in a few years time, I’ll be able to buy a Suunto device with confidence. Right now, the software side of all this is clunky and missing major features, so I’m not willing to point people towards the eco system, even if I believe the hardware is some of the best available.

freeheeler

@ChubbyCrusher
while i completely agree with you and a lot of other very good forum contributors with a lot of watch and SA knowledge… i notice that i read the “same” topics again and again from various members with different words and sometimes different weighting depending if they are mountaineers, urban athletes or ultra athletes etc…

i think suunto is working on that and what we need is a huge load of patience…
i’m convinced they don’t spend their time doing office chair races or pencile spinning challenges

ChubbyCrusher

@TELE-HO yeah, I’m sure they are hard at work. I think this is more a symptom of modern software development and the “easy come, easy go, I need it now” way of life these days. I personally appreciate craftsmanship, well thought out executed software and features, and less features that are high quality and targeted. The same goes for bikes for me. I’ll spend way more money getting a locally sourced, hand made bike, where I can actually talked to the people making it and I know they care about every frame that leaves their shop. I know I’m in the minority, and honestly, I’ll be leaving the software industry soon over it. These days, it’s all about “what can we get out in a 2 week sprint”. Quality, testing, and customer engagement be damned. That blame has to be shared by consumers though. We demand features now!!

Mff73

@TELE-HO
Just to write that you have my vote for your latest post.
Nothing to add and don’t want to add anything else.

Alexander Beck

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Share your experience with the Suunto app here!:

@Alexander-Beck are you threatening us?

I don’t know if a single user can be a “threat” to a company of that size. But if you consider “negative feedback in public space” as a threat: hell yes, I will publish negative feedback, and the reason stays the same.

Without the features the web page offers being ported to the mobile app, you are crippling my property. I still miss essential features the Ambit 3 currently is offering, and I don’t see any updates from Suunto concerning this issues (despite 5 months since my last comment here):

upload of programs to add more functionalities. Example: the GPS display in Swiss coordinates. without the watch cannot be used with any Swiss map and also provides no real help in emergency situations.
changes and rearrangements in the displayed data in training modes plus adjusting the GPS parameters. Especially the GPS parameters are critical. If the watch runs out of battery because GPS is draining too much power, the watch is unusable. And yes, there is a difference in 100h vs. 10h max runtime. And yes, adjusting the displayed data is also essential.
Adding/removing training modes.

Your opinion might be different, but I see it as critical loss in the reputation of a company if they decide to drop essential features of a watch which costs 300 Euros or more, and for me it will be my last Suunto in that case (plus the negative feedback you will get in future, plus a watch sent back because of the statement “Satisfied or your money back” on the HP).

Thx,
Alex

freeheeler

@Alexander-Beck
dimitrios said in another thread we’ll have an update in october… let’s see

zhang965

@TELE-HO
i don’t get it, will ambit3 will get a new update at oct?

Saketo Nemo

@zhang965
Suunto App