Connect IQ 8 – what we know so far about System 8

Garmin’s Connect IQ System 8 update brings enhancements for users and developers.

There are significant improvements for developers, perhaps less so for what users will see.

The highlights for developers are a greatly increased memory space and improved sensor pairing. That sounds techy (it is!), but the former could mean at least these three new things to help your workout experience.

1. More data fields might be allowed per sport profile. Currently, four are allowed, but they merely share the same memory space that previously supported two data fields.
2. Memory-hungry data fields like the feature-rich STRYD Zones should co-exist more with others in a friendly way.
3. More complex apps and data fields can now be developed, perhaps including more complex algorithms.

User Features: Enhanced Personalization

The standout feature for users is the on-device watch face editor, now available on the Garmin Fenix 8 and newer models. This editor lets users customize their watch faces directly on their devices, tailoring them to individual preferences. Users can adjust:

• Styles: Experiment with fonts and watch hand designs.
• Data: Configure complications to display specific data fields.
• Colours: Select data and accent colours to match personal tastes.

With the ability to save up to four custom configurations per face, System 8 improves the Garmin smartwatch experience.

Developer Features: Streamlined Tools and New Possibilities

Developers gain access to new tools and APIs to create innovative apps:

1. Visual Studio Code Extension for Monkey C
   This extension introduces modern development conveniences like real-time error detection, autocompletion, and code folding. It simplifies debugging and accelerates the app development process.
2. Extended Code Space
   Apps can now utilize an additional 16MB of paged code space on supported devices, marked with the :extendedCode annotation, enabling the creation of more complex functionalities.
3. Sensor Pairing Enhancements
   Developers can integrate wireless communication with ANT, ANT+, and BLE sensors using the SensorDelegate API, streamlining the pairing process within the device UI.
4. Notifications API
   Background apps can now trigger actionable notifications, offering users timely updates for events, phone messages, and more.

Developer Comment

Here’s a comment from a developer I know:

it’s SUPER cool from a developer perspective. The VS Code extension comes with QOL that will definitely help for better code writing.

I’m not developing watch faces so I’m not really measuring the advantages, it seems that it will provide the same configuration features as native watch faces instead of having to do it in CIQ app.

The codespaces seems to be nice, would definitely help in adding a lot of extra features, but they only mention “apps” so I don’t think it’ll be so useful for my customers as I work mainly on datafields.

The notifications also seems to be useful in apps only so I cannot comment on that, I don’t work on apps right now.

The sensor pairing is a game changer !! You can’t imagine how excited I was when I saw this. I have to dive deep on this and see the capabilities and limitations but this will ease my life for XXXXXXX and will allow more robustness with XXXXX. Right now, to initiate an ANT+ or BLE connection, we need to handle everything in the datafield itself. For ANT as it’s broadcast it’s not so much a problem because you don’t need to keep track of state, but for BLE it’s a nightmare (you need to register profiles, to make sure you’re connected to the right one, scan for devices, etc etc). Some of those operations can lead to crash if the state or order is not correct, it’s really a pain.

Also, if your sensor has custom channels and standard ones supported by the watch (for instance for XXXXXX we broadcast HR and custom data), you can’t pair natively the HR and use the custom channel because it breaks the connection. So this means that we would have a very nice native flow to pair initially and make it more robust for users… [@SD]

Take Out

That’s all I know so far.

The changes appear to be a good thing for developers, making their jobs easier. Apps should be developed more quickly and be more robust for us as users.

My disappointment is that there are no wholly new areas of functionality that could signal new features for watches later in the year.