Too Many Apps, Not Enough Time 2

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If you’re anything like me, you’ve combed through the Pebble appstore to find and download all the apps and watchfaces you find interesting/useful, and taken time to sort them in a way that makes them relatively easy to find. After a while, though, even the best-sorted list gets impractically long, and then the watch runs out of storage space (or you hit the 50-app cap, whichever comes first).

Currently, PebbleOS deals with limited storage by preserving your custom order in the “locker” on the phone app, while only showing the apps/faces it has room to install on the watch itself, and hot-swapping (silently uninstalling) other apps to make room when you try to install a new one after the limit is reached.

This implementation results in the following problems:

  • It can be inconvenient and frustrating to find the apps you want

  • If you try to load an app or face that isn’t currently installed, it’ll jump to the top of the list, forcing you to reorder it if you want to keep things sorted

  • You have to return to the app/watchface “locker” in the Pebble phone app to load anything not currently installed

  • Games regularly lose progress & scores because there’s no easy way (that I’m aware of) to stop them from being unloaded (RIP my months-long pixel miner run)

I’m proposing some (hopefully) straightforward suggestions that could work around Pebble’s storage limitations while still allowing people to easily access the glut of great apps and watchfaces being released recently as folks flock back to the platform.

  • Allow organization of apps and watchfaces in custom folders

  • Allow “pinning” favorite apps/faces that you never want to be unloaded from the watch when making room to install another (at least not without prompting first)

  • Always preserve the custom order of apps & watchfaces, leaving a placeholder title if one is uninstalled (perhaps with an icon indicating this) that will automatically load that app/face from the phone when selected

  • Make details of app/watchface file size and on-watch free storage space visible, and restrict the amount you can install based on actual free space instead of an arbitrary 50-count limit

Do these ideas seem practical? Are there any other changes you’d like to see to PebbleOS app management?

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2

50 app cap?
Wow. I hadn’t even thought about that as I’ve only added I think three to what came with the watch by default.
And adding the Timer app was basically making my PT2 up to the base capability of my PT watches out of the box. I consider that an essential feature.

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