Always-on Display review process

[ted-tanner]

Per this article in the Fitbit Developer blog, "For now, AOD [Always-on Display] is gated behind a restricted permission that needs to be granted to a developer profile, and also granted for each clock or app (once reviewed)." Does this mean that I can submit an app with AOD capabilities for review or do I need the permission to be enabled to even submit one for review?

I've created a watch face that I'd like to publish, but I think it looks bad when the AOD face is drastically different from the chosen watch face so I don't want to publish my watch face if it will not have AOD support. My AOD display meets the guidelines described in the blog article--is there a way I can submit my watch face for review to have it published with AOD?

[ted-tanner]

@JonFitbit any idea how close Fitbit is to allowing developers to publish and submit apps with AOD for review?

[sovanyio]

6 months after launching this feature it still isn't usable by devs. This is ridiculous. I'm getting emails from users of my watch face asking for this feature, something that is very easy to implement for my face, yet somehow this isn't already covered by the existing review process?

This is why I personally use a Garmin watch now.

[rsanek]

Any update on this? What is the process by which AOD permissions get distributed? Does this answer mean that the only way to get it is if the FitBit team themselves reach out to existing developers? Would appreciate being added to this allowlist / gate / feature flag if possible.

[josekreif]

---

@JonFitbit wrote:

We allow devs to work in Studio with AOD, you just can't sideload on a real device due to the risks. That's the same for everyone, except the review team.

---

I can't even begin to explain how rediculous this is. There is absolutely no risk to AOD.

Aside from that, side-loading apps affects no one but the developer. It's ZERO risk to the community if there even was a risk.

What possible hardware risk could exist by showing the time or some number in AOD mode vs awake mode? Absolutely none. I guarantee the execs at Fitbit are planning right now "How can we make AOD a pay-to-use feature?"

With the Google acquisition, I do hope Google can step in and clean house.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @JonFitbit How can we use AOD on Studio? I can not find any documentation on how to work with AOD on my clock face... I'm ok to submit the clockface for revision.

[SunsetRunner]

I found the examples here https://dev.fitbit.com/blog/2019-12-19-announcing-fitbit-os-sdk-4.1/ but when I try to turn off the display on the simulator AOD is still saying "AOD inactive".

Any idea? 

[Kyouki_IE]

GonzaloSantome:

You have to actually swipe down on the simulator screen and enable AOD in the quick settings. This caught me out for a while too.

[empijei]

With the Google acquisition, I do hope Google can step in and clean house.

---

"""
The year was then 2021. 18 months had passed since the feature was released, and yet no one, not even people that worked at Google could sideload AOD clock faces on their own devices.

The developer was still waiting, and considering that in that time he could have aged an amazing parmesan cheese, right to the correct amount of savoryness.

The other developer was thinking about all that happened in that time. The world had become a different place. There was no pandemic when this all started, Australia hadn't seen the most devastating fires ever, people could still travel.

Another developer looked at the time on the default digital AOD clock on his wrist, knowing that more than 10% of the Sense screen pixels were constantly lit, because Fitbit decided that having battery (with an icon), date, goals and time in bold would have been a good idea. But they would not trust developers from the community to program their own devices. Fitbit was just burning through people's batteries in this dispotic decision that they could do better than anyone else, and no one could have overridden their decision, not even with hardware they bought.

The sun was raising, and the googler thought it might have been a good idea to go to sleep. Jose's words of hope towards Google would have been a good positive note to go to sleep to. The googler enabled sleep mode on the watch. No one could really sleep with that lighthouse sitting on their wrists. That default, unchangeable lighthouse that was the default AOD clock face.
"""

[timb0slice]

It's been more than 2 years now of limiting access for AOD to a select few "privileged" developers. There has been no transparency on how these developers were selected, or how one can apply to be included. I have many watch faces that are ready to have the functionality added and well within the guidelines for AOD.

If you can't allow everyone to have AOD capability, then can you at least provide what the process is for approving an individual developer? It is extremely unfair the way you are currently rolling AOD out, and some of us are losing out on money because of it.

[bradzacher]

This really sucks. I spent a while building a watchface for my wife for her birthday only to find that I can't give it AOD capability. still, over 2 years later, the permission is given to a select few.

I thought that by now there would be a review process through which I could submit my watchface to get approval. It's sad that I had to come to the developer forums to find out there's nothing.

It feels really bad to have wasted a day on a watchface that is half as functional as the ones in the store.

[Guy_]

You can simulate AOD in a watch face so all is not lost, though it cannot yet be categorized as one.

See SimpleAOD.

[Partah]

Any update on this? This is August of 2022 and it's been more than 2.5 years since Fitbit introduced AOD feature!!!!

What is this taking so long and why is this so difficult?

Why is this "easy to program" feature still available only to some priviledged developers? 

[Partah]

"Swipe down" shows notification center. Swipe right shows the "Always On" setting, but even after changing the quick setting, Simulator still says "AOD inactive". Has something changed recently? 

[Gondwana]

I don't think anything has changed. If you set the display to off in the sim, it should go into AOD mode (assuming that your simming an AOD-compatible watch).

[Partah]

It worked! AOD on Simulator worked like a charm. Thank you so much!

But I am not sure if my clock face would ever make it to the real world. I am not an approved developer who can publish AOD enabled clock face 😞

[Partah]

I think the bigger issue is the lack of process transparency. Unless Fitbit has a major hardware limitation, all the concerns regarding screen and hardware damage sound like excuses for something else. AOD screen design constraints have already been established, and we, the developers know how to follow those guidelines.
Fitbit, just be open and transparent to this community. Tell us what we need to do to qualify. Do we need to take a test or show our engineering degree or pay money? Please just don’t keep us in the dark. It’s been more than 2 years!!!! Be honest. Let us know what’s going on. Thank you. 

[josekreif]

I've said it before and I say it again. There is absolutely no harm in using AOD, especially when guidelines are met for screen percentage. COVID has probably halted many things for companies including fitbit, but mark my words, the one and only TRUE reason Fitbit refuses to address this, the reason it's a problem to begin with is that they want to make AOD a pay-to-use development feature. They want developers to buy a premium license yearly to maintain the rights to publish AOD.

This isn't crazy. A few years ago, there was no such thing as Fitbit premium, and now all of a sudden you need to pay $10 a month just to see addition stats, like heart rate while sleeping (not resting heart rate, SLEEPING)

[Partah]

Whatever be the reason, Fitbit should be transparent and clarify their intentions.

I don't mind paying money to gain "AOD" rights, even if I publish only free clock faces.

[czandor]

Are you serious? It's a joke! This is a 3 year old link! Still nothing! Aren't you ashamed to still work there? I have a lot of users, many of them complain that my watch face is faulty because it doesn't know AOD, they think I'm stupid! PLEASE, DO SOMETHING!!!!

[dylanett]

Guy_ can you say any more about how you made SimpleAOD?