"[Long Post] Apple Watch user's comprehensive thoughts on its features, accuracy, uses."

#PokemonGO: TL;DR at the end.IntroAs a day one player and daily heavy user of the Apple Watch Pokemon Go app, I thought it would be useful to write out in detail my impressions of the app's accuracy, features and other tidbits. I have seen threads here and there mentioning issues with one feature or another but haven't ever seen anything truly comprehensive. My primary objective is to answer the all important value question: is the Apple Watch app just a fancier, much more expensive PoGo+ replacement, and if so, is it worth it? First, a little about me:Level 34 Mystic1,447km walked (5.1km/day)Treadmill owner (more on that later)Apple Watch Series 1 (no built-in GPS) iPhone 7Pokemon Go Apple Watch FeaturesNintiac says the Apple Watch "lets you explore the world of Pokemon Go from your wrist." Specifically, it says the app lets you:-Spin Pokestops-Hatch eggs-Earn buddy candy-Receive notifications of nearby Pokemon-Receive a notification when an egg hatches-Record your distance tracked via the app as an Apple Health workout, and add the corresponding distance to your daily activity rings.So, let's run down these features and see how those claims square with reality.Pokestop SpinningSupposedly, the PoGo AW app allows you to spin Pokestops easily right from the watch. Together with distance tracking, this would almost seem to put the app on par with the PoGo+ in terms of convenience (lacking only the ability to capture Pokemon from the watch, a missing feature discussed later). In reality, while the app never fails to accurately spin a Pokestop it actually manages to recognize, it only rarely recognizes them. With my phone locked and the app running in the background, the watch rarely notified me of nearby Pokestops or presented the opportunity to spin them. I did not gather months of data on this, however last week I did take some time in a Pokestop-heavy area to track the AW app accuracy rate. The findings track with my impression of normal AW app use, and they aren't great:AttemptSuccessful (Y/N)1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8N9N10N11Y12N13N14N15N16N17N18N19Y20NTotals2/20 (10%)Besides abysmal accuracy, the other issue with AW app Pokestop spinning is the lag/annoyance of doing so when they are actually presented correctly. To spin, the AW app user is presented with a card notification saying "A Pokestop is nearby!" The user then taps on this card which brings up the actual Pokestop, and then can spin. The whole process takes approximately 5-10 seconds depending on lag (most likely will be less for AW Series 2 owners, and more for Series 0 owners). As owners of the PoGo+ will agree, this is one tap too many and about 5 seconds too long for heavy use. Even the phone app is much faster. The one advantage of Pokestop spinning on AW is that any items gained from stops spun this way (and ONLY from stops spun this way) will appear in a nice Workout Summary page when the workout is concluded. This is somewhat gratifying, allowing you to see all the goodies you gathered while you're out (if the AW app actually let you).FEATURE GRADE: DDistance Tracking (Egg Hatching, Buddy Candy)Here's where the AW app really shines! The Pogo AW app is an excellent alternative to the phone app and a very good alternative to the PoGo+ for distance tracking. For obvious reasons it is much preferred to the phone app in terms of battery use, and in particular, it outshines the PoGo+ for iOS users given the constant recent issues with the PoGo app crashing in the background with PoGo+, thereby forcing users to constantly reconnect PoGo+. I'm happy to report that the AW app lets you live the dream of strolling around with your phone locked gathering those KMs for your Larvitar or Shuckle (heh).Most importantly, the AW app presents the tantalizing prospect of untethering steps walked from distance traveled according to GPS. This is a vital distinction, and one neither the phone app or PoGo+ are capable of. Allow me to explain with an example: I work in an office, and like to take walking laps around my smallish (several hundred yards) length building. Neither the phone app or the PoGo+ will register these laps as distance walked since no matter how many laps I walk, I don't move far enough on the map to count. However, with the AW app I can record every step of these walks towards buddy candy and eggs. This has been a game changer for my PoGo experience and makes it much more organic to just play as I go about my normal day.In terms of distance accuracy: as far as I can tell the AW app is nearly 100% accurate. Whether walking in a straight line, doing laps or any other kind of movement, I have no complaints about lost KMs or other issues. NOTE: although the AW app allows you to record distance via steps only without needing to move via the map, I have found through repeated testing that the app will NOT give you credit for the distance if you are standing only in one place. It seems the phone app does check periodically to see if your distance is changing at least somewhat. However, the distance needed to trigger credit for steps is quite small. A treadmill or running in place will not work, but taking many steps within a small area (a dozen yards or so according to my testing) will work fine. Just make sure you have your phone on you as you move. While the omission of treadmill support is regrettable, it seems obvious Nintiac is trying to avoid people gaming the app via tricks to gather distance without actually moving. Not perfect, but the AW app is a big improvement over the phone app and PoGo+ for distance tracking.FEATURE GRADE: ANOTIFICATIONSAnother sadly hobbled feature in the PoGo AW app is the notification system. I'll just note the notifications the app says it will give you together with my impressions of their effectiveness.NotificationEffectivenessNearby PokemonSeems to work about 50% of the time, however this notification is of severely limited usefulness given that there is no filtering option for showing only certain Pokemon. Unless you want your watch overwhelmed with Pidgey notifications while you miss rares, relying on the app's main workout screen's nearby view is much preferred (more on that screen later).Egg HatchedI have personally had this notification appear only once despite hundreds of eggs hatched via the app. It is of questionable utility in any case, as most trainers will want to immediately place another egg into their incubator after hatching, an action which of course requires you to pull out your phone anyway.PokestopDiscussed above. Clunky and rarely works but has the potential to be extremely useful if bugs are worked out. Workout summary screen is fantastic.Theoretically, the PoGo AW app should be a perfect use case for notifications. As implemented however, they are limited in usefulness and often simply don't work. Thankfully they can be turned off completely by swiping once to the left.FEATURE GRADE: FApple Health SyncThe Apple Health activity rings are one of the Apple Watch's coolest features, and personally are a main reason why I bought mine. Thankfully, I can report that the PoGo AW app and Apple Health work together smoothly and provide a consistent, accurate exchange of information. If you're like me, the combination of Pokemon Go obsession and the AW will boost your Move goal streak to ridiculous lengths (mine is at 77 days currently).Two interesting tidbits: 1) PoGo walking sessions on the AW app are recorded as "workouts" in your Apple Health app, and there is no setting or ability to change this. Thus, with heavy use your Apple Health app will become a rather ridiculous string of short/medium/long "Outside Walk" workouts. This is harmless, but rather amusing. 2) Note that because of the tracking as "workouts", if you use the Activity Sharing option on AW to share activity information with your other AW-equipped friends, they will receive a notification anytime you "finish a workout." This can result in a flood of notifications to friends, although it seems the Activity Sharing feature is rarely used so YMMV on this. The notifications can be turned off to avoid oversharing, in any case.One disappointing omission from the AW PoGo activity experience is its complete lack of social features for comparing distance etc with your other PoGo playing friends. While this is an omission from the PoGo app in general, the AW app would seem to be a natural place for Nintiac to expand these features. A screen within the AW app comparing KMs walked among other AW PoGo friends, for example, would be pretty stellar in my opinion.FEATURE GRADE: BBugs/IssuesBeyond those already discussed, here are some AW PoGo bugs and my best advice for solving them.App freezes/crashesI often see this bug reported on this sub, but personally my issues with it have been minimal for the last 3-6 months. Previously to that, the app would crash while walking with no warning or notification, leaving trainers walking with no distance gained until they happened to look down and notice. This was extremely frustrating and I believe turned many users off from the app for good. Again, I haven't experienced this bug consistently for months. The fix: force-quit the app (sometimes multiple times) until either the bug fixes itself or the trainer quits in a rage.Distance accruing to main workout screen but not to eggs/buddyThis bug occurs infrequently but is quite annoying when it does occur. During this bug, the main workout screen will show increasing distance but the egg/buddy ring will not update and when swiping right to your eggs you'll see they aren't updating either. NOTE: this occurs when running in place/using a treadmill as outlined above, it is NOT a bug in that case but the intended function of the app. However if you are indeed moving but the bug occurs, the fix is to force-close and reopen both the phone PoGo app and the watch app (in that order). In the rare event that this does not resolve the issue, uninstall/reinstall the app from your Apple Watch app (on the iPhone).AW app shows Trainer Level 1 at startupThis bug occurs semi-frequently; thankfully the app seems to function just fine when it does. Simply start a workout and after a few minutes the correct distance/level information will populate. Distance you accrue in the meantime does get counted, in my experience.Tips and one Underrated FeatureTips-Before I start a workout, I usually force-close and reopen the app just to be sure any bugs are ironed out. A good habit especially for times when you're using the app for the first time in awhile.-The AW PoGo complication is accurate most of the time in terms of distance displayed to egg hatching, but the real use for it is as a shortcut to quickly open the app and start a workout. Using the app grid is nobody's idea of a good way to select apps on the watch, so having PoGo in the watch Dock and complications on your favorite watch faces is essential.-The app will frequently pop up a card that indicates it isn't connected to the phone app. In my experience this has no correlation to actual connection issues, just dismiss it.-Be sure to enable Workout Power Saving Mode in the Apple Watch iPhone app. Saves significant Watch battery during PoGo walks; in my experience workouts are the only thing that can threaten the watch's all-day battery life so conserving is important. However, I still usually have no problem getting through a day without charging despite hours of workout mode every day.-If you use the PoGo+ in tandem with the watch app, be sure to turn off or severely limit PoGo notifications on iPhone. Otherwise your wrist will be inundated with pointless notifications :D-You can Pause your PoGo workout by swiping twice to the left on the AW app and not hitting the red X. Somewhat useful for saving battery if you make a stop on your walk; I usually use it when stopping for lunch.-Unlike on iPhone, the egg list (one swipe to the right) on AW is helpfully sorted by distance to hatch from shortest to longest.-If walking with the phone app open and AW workout going, you may not get the "Oh?" screen on iPhone at all. Check your recent list on iPhone to see the hatch.-The watch app is not bothered by interruptions/resumptions in your walk. For instance, you can walk to your car with the AW app on workout, then drive to the park, then walk there all with one workout going. If you're someone who likes to drive with your phone on and facedown on the passenger seat, having an AW PoGo workout going in the meantime lets you keep track of any distance gained while driving without needing to risk your life by checking your phone.-UNDERRATED FEATURE: while the notifications for nearby Pokemon are mostly a nuisance, the list of Nearby Pokemon on the workout face is priceless. Many is the time it's alerted me to a rare I would have otherwise missed, or even just helped me keep an eye out for Pidgeys for grinding. It's the best of all worlds: convenience of phone-free distance tracking but insight into nearby Pokemon that the PoGo+ can't provide. Best of all, this Nearby list is super-accurate. If lots of Pokemon are near, you can use the Digital Crown to scroll down for more.Conclusions and TL;DRUltimately, the usefulness of the AW app all depends on your play style. If you're someone who primarily or even often plays for hatching/buddy distance, the watch is a fantastic (if pricey) alternative to the PoGo+. If you get tons of steps in daily in environments where GPS alone doesn't pick up on the distance, it'll be an absolute game-changer for you. In particular if you work retail and can get away with it, you could probably hatch 3-5 eggs a day just from this use case.If you're an urban player surrounded by stops and inundated with Pokemon at every turn, the PoGo+ is a much better option for your money than the watch: the watch is frankly poor at spinning stops and has no catching capability at all. Urban areas may also be more prone to GPS drift which could replace some of the watch's distance-counting advantages.For me, the watch app has completely changed the way I play Pokemon Go and helped me pile up so many more KMs than I could have otherwise. If you're an Apple fanatic AND a Pokemon Go maven, you can't go wrong in my opinion. And now is a great time to buy considering the Series 1 and (to a lesser extent) Series 0 are an excellent value relative to previously. Good luck trainers and please leave your Apple Watch PoGo experiences in the comments!!!TL;DR: Despite some bugs, the PoGo AW app is excellent for effortless distance tracking and keeping track of nearby Pokemon. If walking and hatching is your main goal in the game you'll be happy with it. If you're a stops-and-catches master, consider the PoGo+. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2ovOi10