Not to try and off put the app at all, and all of the recent improvements within the app, but i feel like now is the time to put resources into a full revamp of the Apple Watch, particularly on the ultra. I love the convenience of taking scores on my wrist, but in order to do this I must sacrifice my ability to use full stats for my scores. Also, a feature recently added to garmin watches was the ability to measure distances to the pin on the watch. I feel that this is blatantly missing from the Apple Watch, despite it having the full capability to do so, particularly with the new dual-band gps on the ultra. Additionally, with a cellular model watch, it is still impossible to create or finalize a scorecard from the watch, and scoring is 100% dependent on having your phone close to you at all times before, during and after a round. Allowing scorecards to be created, finalized and synced without the presence of an iPhone would be a game changer, even if it was only available on cellular watches or required a re-syncing with the phone upon reestablishing contact. Finally, I think that the watch would be more than capable to handle many of the features of the full phone app, with everything from maps to measuring throws and even more. I know this is a big ask, and is most certainly a lot of work to even make possible, but with the current watch app feeling so old and outdated, and with the progression of the Apple Watches, the UDisc app feels more like a forgotten memory than a convenient wearable app capable of feeding much appreciated data and helping to manage a round.
A few recent similar threads. The vibe seems to be that the uDisc teams doesn’t have any of this on their current roadmap.
I would be interested in just how few people use a smart watch to keep score and how many resources are required to development for Garmin, Android, Apple Watches etc.
My assumption would be that it is a lot of work for just a minority users. But I’m open to being proved wrong.
Your analysis is spot on. Building for watches is very challenging, and quite difficult to get right. The various watch platforms are all separate with their own codebases (they share basically no code with the main app) and the platforms either evolve and change rapidly, or have been completely stagnant for years until recently (WearOS). Very few people have smartwatches compared to the smartphone owning population.
However, we see scoring on a watch as a great companion to the UDisc app, and we do plan to invest more resources into watches when we can.
I wear my apple watch every time I play, which is daily. If there was distance logging and shot tracking ability on the watch, I would use UDisc on it. Currently, I just use it on my phone, which I would rather keep in my bag. I have to carry my phone in my pocket instead.(taking it in and out of the pocket every hole) If I can trade stocks on my apple watch in real time, you would think that could be done.
Some Apple watch updates will be in beta soon!
Let me know! I would love to be a beta tester. I have done it for a half a dozen traditional golf apps and products. I am a very active and thorough partner in it.
-JR
Hey @wannagopro, reach out to us at help@udisc.com and we’ll see what we can do!
Scoring on Apple Watch is fabulous and works flawlessly, but even with “distance to pin” having been added recently, I still would really LOVE to be able to stand over my disc and tap, “Disc Here” or similar to log where the previous shot came to rest. That would make tracking fairways hit, circles in reg, shot distance, and other metrics SO much easier. Otherwise, we are relegated to pulling our phones out at every shot – which no one is really willing to do, so we just don’t use all the features that Udisc offers.
Additionally, I second being able to “Finalize” the round on the Apple Watch.
If I can add my own 2 cents:
There are other watches than Apple watch. If you extend these feature for Apple, please don’t leave the WearOS and Garmin folks behind.
We built a prototype of the “Disc Here” addition you suggested, and the problem is that the vast majority of watches still use the GPS reading from the phone, and we have no way as developers to control that, even if there is a GPS chip in the watch. If you leave your phone in your bag/pocket, it’s not going to be accurate enough to place your disc in the circles reliably (yet), and you’d end up needing to pull out your phone anyway. Some watches like the Ultra generally do use the GPS chip in the watch, but until watch batteries get better across the board, Apple/Google will probably keep doing it this way. It is something we are very interested in exploring more.
Hey Matt – thanks for reaching out.
I completely understand the issue therein. However, I still feel like you could add the feature, simply state that caveat, and offer “guidance” that advises the user to keep their phone in their pocket, rather than in their bag, IF using this feature…to “help the accuracy” of the GPS reading.
I’d rather start using these features/metrics, even if the readings are off a couple feet. You know?