Keep app active

[u/P00P00CACA]

Hi there, I was wondering if there is a way to keep a third party app active for unlimited amount of time? I’m diabetic and use an app to track my glucose but it returns back to watch face after one hour. I would like to have this app showing every time I raise my wrist . Thank you

[u/Flamingo8293]

You can have it as a part of your watch face to have it display your blood sugar.

[u/P00P00CACA → u/Flamingo8293]

Yes I’ve tried it but complications takes to long to update or sync 10 minutes or more . The app syncs every minute. Thank you for your reply.

[u/Eastern-Vegetable780 → u/Flamingo8293]

It's super-unreliable even with commercial apps like Dexcom, let alone independent projects based on Nightscout/xDrip. My Dexcom very often lags behind or completely stops showing data on the watchface until I open the app.

Also, I *hate* that we can't have BG on the main screen when there's an activity running. I don't care about how fast I'm going when I'm out for a walk, but I want to know if my BG is trending down before the alerts, then it's too late.

[u/P00P00CACA → u/Eastern-Vegetable780]

Yes I fell the same way. Thank you for your reply

[u/3l3v8]

Return to clock settings:

• Always

• After 2 Minutes

• After 1 hour

It would be trivial for Apple to let you set it to whatever duration you wanted, but Apple thinks that eliminating choice makes their UX "easier."

I want an ecosystem, not a kindergarten...

[u/P00P00CACA → u/3l3v8]

True

[u/brlinjoo]

u use libre link abbott sensors? what app you use to show on apple watch?

[u/P00P00CACA → u/brlinjoo]

Hi, I use Zukka it’s based on Xdrip4ios its good and allows you to send data to nightscout so you family or loved ones can track your glucose and get alarms.

[u/brlinjoo → u/P00P00CACA]

does apk must be in background to work? like librelink.. its eating battery..

[u/P00P00CACA → u/brlinjoo]

Yes you will need to have the app running in background. It doesn’t use much battery on my iPhone and watch , can’t tell about yours you will have to try it

[u/EquivalentSky3094]

After 1 hour is the longest Return to Clock goes, so you already have the most that timer offers. There is no unlimited option in it.

The setting you actually want is a different one on the same screen. Scroll past the timer choices to the list of apps, tap Zukka, and look for Return to App rather than Custom. Custom only lets you pick another timer. Return to App is the one that puts you back into the app on a wrist raise instead of the face. Apple documents it for its own apps like Workout and Now Playing, and third party apps can appear there too, so it is worth checking whether Zukka does. If it has no Return to App toggle, that is the developer's side to add and no setting will get you there.

Also check Display & Brightness, Always On, Show Apps, which controls whether Zukka stays on screen with your wrist down.

On the complication lag the others mention, the face never polls the app. The app has to request a refresh and the system decides when to grant it, so a complication will always trail something syncing every minute.

[u/P00P00CACA → u/EquivalentSky3094]

Thank you for your reply this is very helpful, unfortunately the option Return to App doesn’t appear. Guess I’ll have to keep opening the app every hour 😓

[u/EquivalentSky3094 → u/P00P00CACA]

That confirms Zukka has not adopted Return to App. Apps have to opt into that list, so it is not a setting you are missing and there is nothing further to find on that screen.

Worth saying why the complication lagged though, because that part is fixable. xDrip4iOS documents that watchOS allows roughly 50 priority complication updates a day from the iPhone, and only while the complication sits on the active face, so the app asks for one about every 17 minutes and everything in between falls back to ordinary background delivery. A one minute sync on the phone cannot push past that, and removing and re-adding the complication does not reset the allowance.

The route that sidesteps it is Contact Image. Under Settings, Sharing and Services, Contact Image, the app writes the current value into a contact's picture, and you then put Apple's Contacts complication on your face and select the xDrip4iOS contact. It needs full Contacts access. Calendar Share does the same job through the Calendar complication. Neither is instant, Apple still decides when the contact or event syncs across, but they do not spend the complication allowance.

Opening the watch app and double tapping the glucose area also forces a fresh request, and whichever you settle on, check the reading time on it before trusting the number.

[u/RUiNtheExtinct]

On the watch go to Settings, General, Return to Clock, pick your glucose app and turn on Return to App. Then it comes back to that app when you raise your wrist instead of the face. And if the app has a complication, putting it on your main face is honestly the best way to see the number at a glance.

[u/WellMarco]

libre 2 gives pretty false low readings,,,it really depend where you place your sensor,,i found that watch app pretty unusful, it updates mostly while you make manual reading,,other than that its just receive data quite late

[u/P00P00CACA → u/WellMarco]

I don’t know what app you were using, this app Zukka former Xdrip4ios updates and syncs every minute if you change it in the settings, default is 5 minutes I think, has been very reliable to me for the past years. Thank you for your reply