[POLL] Should apps call setUI back to launcher instead of clock?

[RKBoss6]

Lately, I've been getting rather annoyed at the fact that most apps, when you press back, returns you to the clock. Because of this, there is no easy way to the launcher if you open the wrong app, for example. You would have to return to the clock, then the launcher to try again, which can take around 6-10 seconds on my watch, due to slow loading speeds. If you want to return to the clock, you can always long-press the physical button instead. I really feel that most apps, if not all should return to the launcher instead, for a more cohesive ecosystem experience all together. This post is to see if anyone feels the same about this, and whether I should just locally modify something on my watch, or if this is a big enough issue where widespread action should be taken. All opinions are welcome!

[thyttan]

Fastload utils has an option to return to launcher instead of clock face. It also has an app history setting that will let you go back through all apps you started recently until you're back on the clock face.

[thyttan]

Hm, works for me.

Like this:

1. install fastload utils from app loader.
2. check settings -> apps -> Fastload utils -> Force load to launcher
3. exit settings by the back button

• clock is still loaded when going back from settings the first time for some reason.

4. navigate to settings again and then exit settings by the back button again
5. The launcher is loaded instead of the clock face.

[gfwilliams]

Thanks! Would this work even when doing the long (2 sec) press of the button do you think?

[thyttan]

Long press hw bitton reset still goes back to the clock face regardless of how fastload utils is configured.

I should think it is possible to implement a different behaviour though 🤔

[RKBoss6]

Hmm, that didn't work for me, will try it again soon

[gfwilliams]

Right now you can set clock in setting.json to launch.app.js (or whatever your launcher is), but the downside is then you can't go 'back' from the launcher. I guess it'd need some extra code in the bootloader json to handle going back to the launcher instead - but that's not a big change

[gfwilliams]

Personally, I've never thought it was an issue. For me, loading the launcher takes about 1 second so it's always felt fine.

which can take around 6-10 seconds on my watch, due to slow loading speeds

That sounds pretty bad! Maybe try running a compact from settings, just in case?

In your other post about boot0 (https://github.com/orgs/espruino/discussions/7881) I mentioned running:

require("Storage").writeJSON("setting.json", Object.assign(require("Storage").readJSON("setting.json",1),{bootDebug:1})); load(); 

Maybe do that, and it'll tell you how long each app's boot code took to execute on the console each time you restart the watch - you might find some apps there that are really slowing you down?

Turn it off after with:

require("Storage").writeJSON("setting.json", Object.assign(require("Storage").readJSON("setting.json",1),{bootDebug:0})); load(); 

though or it'll slow you down even more!

[RKBoss6]

I tried that, the largest ones by far were ones I'm working on for my own apps in the future =), so that pointed me towards some optimization at that end. As for implementing a different behavior for the long press, the beauty of the bangle ecosystem is it allows for all the features to be optional, if you want it. It would be interesting, but I personally don't think I would change that at all on my watch.