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  • I was thinking about how I used to like having physical button shortcuts to some applications on my Pebble and how that could possibly be added to the Bangle JS 2.

    One thought I had was to potentially add the ability to press BTN1 x number of times to launch a particular application. E.g. press 2 x for Messages, 3 x for Quiet Mode App etc.

    This would likely only make sense while on the Clock screen as other apps may require presses of BTN1 for certain functions. Also, the first press of BTN1 would likely be reserved for unlocking the device (unless screen is always unlocked I guess).

    I know the Pattern Launcher exists and it really is brilliant but sometimes it is more convenient to launch apps from a physical button than having to unlock first and then do a pattern.

    I was mucking around in the web IDE and created a simple click counter detector for BTN1 using setTimeout functions but I wasn't sure how to apply it to the rest of the watch so that awareness of the initial unlock with a single press was respected and that when inside other apps it was ignored. Likely something for someone else to look at until I have a better grasp on the system as a whole.

  • Just a thought: I personally prefer touch to prolong the life of the button for a simple reason: when the button will die the watch is almost useless. I would not stress it with app use. I created a watch face with two start buttons for actions/apps (not in the store for some reasons). With additional left/right swipe I have four "actions" via touch in direct access (e.g. integrated music player, launcher, BT on/off, here: blue when BT is on) without stressing the physical button.

    Maybe you can take the approach to have a single virtual button, which launches different apps depending on the number of touches?


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    • watch3.jpg
  • That's a great suggestion and a very valid point about the button wear and tear. I still would prefer to activate somethings via hardware buttons but, if it improves the lifespan of the device then maybe that's something I need to accept and start to prioritise the touch screen.

    That's a great watchface! I think I need to experiment with creating watchfaces and perhaps make my own that does something similar to yours. Shame it's not been released into the wild, I bet a lot of people would be interested in using something like that!

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