I'm against obsolescence, I decided I wouldn't throw away my TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS. Rumbo GPS Tracker.
As I'm against obsolescence, I decided I wouldn't throw away my TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS.
GPS apps on it have been almost broken since the beginning: the watch tries to use Wear OS services to get the position from the phone, and once you've paired it even once, it won't work properly on its own afterwards.
So I started vibe coding an app, first just to diagnose what was going on, and I found the watch could get a lock by itself in 10-15 seconds. The hardware was fine.
After trying with no success to make the official apps work with it, I gave up and wrote my own. Sharing it in case someone still has one of these lying around.
It tracks GPS, heart rate and elevation, shows a map, and it can use the FSTN low-power screen during runs. Another cool feature is the integration with Garmin Connect, and if you have your Strava account linked there, it reaches Strava too. It is one app for one watch, written for me, it proves that we live in a world where perfectly fine hardware has to be thrown away because one or two companies (mobvoi, google) decide to stop supporting it or give people the ability to use their own apps or OS. It works in wear os 2 the one im using but probably (if not it will be easily fixable) also in wear os 3 (the last update that came to this watch).
I tested it on several runs, and the GPS tracking at least works perfectly fine, on par with what my gf tracked on its phone with Strava on the same run. Heart rate looks fine to me as well but i didnt test it other than checking that it matched my expectations
