Instinct Analog user manual

Contents

Features
Premium features
Layout
Available data
Data fields
Data update frequency
Circle area
Line gauges
Status icons
Data sets
Switching data sets by gesture
Changing settings on the watch
Seconds
Active bar vs Move bar
Date
Weather
GPS location
Power save
Battery drain
Colors

Features

7 data fields with up to 40+ options each
2 sliders showing level/progress of up to 18 data choices
2 arc gauges in the circle
4 configurable status icons (phone, notifications, alarms, do not disturb)
4 configurable datasets switchable by gesture
Battery saving options
3 background choices
Customizable color accent on devices with color
Choice of Garmin* or OWM weather
Always on second hand
Live HR and solar charging options for circle number and arc 2

*On compatible devices

Premium features

All the functions of this app can be accessed without payment.

However, some features are designated as ‘Premium’ and identified by a ‘key icon’ next to them in the settings.

If any of these is selected without a valid unlock key, a floating padlock will appear (hidden for a few seconds on gesture).

If you don’t want to see the padlock, there are 2 options:

1) Make sure that no option with ‘key icon’ is selected, or

2) Purchase an unlock key here: https://reed.works/instinctana-unlock/

Layout

Available data

Below is the complete list. The availability of a particular option depends on device capabilities. Also, some options are only available in certain data fields.

Data fields

The data fields 1 – 6 allow to select most data supported by this app. But this makes it possible for neighboring fields to overlap when there is not enough space to accommodate them. This is a deliberate design choice to allow maximum flexibility in data placement (or to choose left/right alignment), but then it is up to the user to find the optimal layout that does not overlap. The same data can have a very different length in different situations, for example the weather location, the altitude or the date, so what works for one user might not work for another.

Data update frequency

There are 2 choices:

‘Gesture’ – displayed data is updated every second for about 10 seconds on wrist gesture and on every full minute.

‘1 min’ – displayed data is updated once a minute.

Circle area

There is one numerical data field in it, which can show similar choices as data 1 – 6, two arc indicators that can be configured to represent different parameters ranging from 0 to 100%.

Circle number and Circle arc 2 are the only locations allowing the display of ‘live/real time’ HR or solar charging level.

Slider gauges

Slider gauges move up or down corresponding to the level or progress of the data they represent.

The data choices are the same as for the circle arcs.

Status icons

Status icons can be configured individually and allow the following choices:

– phone connected (shows when there is an active Bluetooth connection, disappears when there is no connection)

– notifications (shows when there are pending notifications, disappears when the notifications are cleared). The counter of pending notifications can be selected as an option for the circle or right data fields.

– alarms (shows when there is at least one active alarm set on the watch)

– do not disturb (shows when the watch is in the Do Not Disturb mode)

Data sets

The ‘Dataset’ option allows quick changing of the displayed data configuration, with 4 sets, Opt1 to Opt4. Each set keeps the choices for the main data fields, circle and sliders.

When you choose a dataset that was not used before, it will begin with the default settings. Then you can can select the data that you want in this set and save the settings.

The next time you switch to this set from another, your configuration will be restored.

Switching data sets by gesture

You can choose how many datasets you want to switch by gesture (from 0 to 4).

Switching datasets requires double gesture, to minimize unintended switches when you move your hand for other reasons than looking at your watch.

When you raise your wrist the first time, a pop-up indicator appears over the 9 hour mark. It shows which data set is currently active.

While you see the indicator, move your wrist again to cycle to the next data set. This movement must be completed within the ‘Gesture timeout’ (in milliseconds) defined in the settings, or before the indicator disappears. If you find it difficult to get the dataset to switch, try making the timeout longer.

Note that double gesture is required to cycle to the next data set. If you want to move further, only one additional gesture is needed for one set increment. So for example, to move from set 3 directly to set 1 you need to move your wrist 3 times.

Seconds

By default, seconds are shown on gesture for about 10 seconds, which is way to conserve the battery. It is also possible to extend the gesture activation duration to 20 seconds, to have the seconds on permanently, or to switch them off completely.

Note that when the seconds are hidden, “Data right” field can be used to display additional information.

Active bar vs Move bar

These two are the opposites of one another. Move bar grows when you remain inactive and goes down to zero when you start moving. Active bar is 100 when you keep moving, but when you stop it will gradually go down to zero.

Date

Date shown is fully configurable, using the ‘Date format’ field in the settings.

To configure the date, you need to enter any of the following letters in the ‘Date format’ setting:

d = day number without leading zero
D = day number with leading zero
m = month number without leading zero
M = month number with leading zero
y = 2-digit year
Y = 4-digit year
n = day name (according to system language)
N = month name (according to system language)
w = ISO week number
a = AM/PM indicator
= = escape character

Any other character (e.g. – / : . []) will be displayed if it is available on the watch.

The equals sign (escape character) has a special purpose to allow displaying the characters that normally are substituted by the date components they represent. You can use it to put arbitrary text in the date field. For instance you can use it to display ‘am’ or ‘pm’ instead of ‘a’ or ‘p’.

Below are some examples:

“n N d” → Fri Aug 24
“n D.M” → Fri 24.08
“d/m [w]” → 24/8 [34]
“d/m =ww” → 24/8 w34
“YMD” → 2018824
“m-d-y” → 8-24-18
“n D (w)” → Fri 28 (34)
“n D a=m” → Fri 13 am

Weather

On compatible devices, weather source can be selected between Garmin (default) and Open Weather (OWM). Compatible means most devices that run Connect IQ (CIQ) version 3.2.0 or higher. You can check this in your watch System/About menu.

Notably, the fēnix® 5 Plus family and vívoactive® 3 do not support Garmin weather and the only option is to use OWM.

For the OWM weather you need to supply your own API key.

OpenWeather key validity

Please note that OpenWeather changed their free key policy sometime around mid-2022. Since that time, new API keys created with “Current weather and forecasts collection” will not work with Instinct Pro.

If you have a free “Current weather and forecasts collection” created earlier, it should continue working.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to “One Call by Call” subscription plan for One Call API 3.0. This subscription comes with 1,000 API calls per day for free, and Instinct Pro will not exceed 300 calls per day (3 calls every 15 minutes).

This information is believed to be accurate as of December 2022, it may become invalidated by OpenWeather changing their policies again.

How to get OpenWeather API key

Go to https://openweathermap.org/api and subscribe to One Call API 3.0 (1,000 API calls per day for free).

Update frequency

Garmin weather updates as often as Garmin decides to refresh it – it seems that it can be anything between 10 minutes to 1 hour.

OWM weather updates every 15 minutes. Note that this is the frequency at which Instinct Pro queries new weather data, but it does not guarantee that OWM will update the data at their end within that period.

Temperature range

When Garmin weather is selected, this shows the forecasted high and low temperatures for the day.

When OWM weather is selected, this shows the forecasted high and low temperatures for the next 3 hours. At the moment it does not seem possible to have the full day temperature range forecast using a free API key.

GPS location

GPS location is necessary for the app to display correct data for all l0cation-dependent data such as weather, sun events or moon phase.

Instinct Pro tries to retrieve the location automatically, but this may not always be possible. If you see ‘GPS?’ displayed instead of the data you selected in one of the fields, this means that you may need to update the location manually.

To do this, switch to the start screen of any activity that uses location, for instance ‘Run’ or ‘Bike’. You should be able to see a GPS acquisition progress indicator there. Wait until it completes or until something like ‘GPS ready’ is shown. Then go back to the watch face and the ‘GPS?’ should be gone.

Power save

Power save mode reduces the display to time only.

It can be activated permanently, or when the watch is in the Do not Disturb mode.

If ‘Full on gesture’ is set to ‘On’, wrist movement with cause full display to appear for about 10 seconds.

Battery drain

The battery drain depends a lot on how large screen area is refreshed every second.

So it is likely that if you use ‘Always on’ second hand and ‘Live’ HR and/or Solar charging level, you will see higher battery drain than when these features are turned off.

Colors

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On devices with color display, there are 8 choices of color accent (Off, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Aqua, Blue, Pink). For more advanced customization, you can edit the ‘Color setup’ text parameter in the settings for each of the accent options (including Off). To define custom colors, use the following numbering:

The custom color text defines the colors in the order shown below:

Top data fields / sliders icons
Top data fields text / sliders guide line
In-the-dial data fields icons
In-the-dial data fields text
Circle number icon
Hour hand
Minute hand
Second hand

Each element has two entries, one for black and one for white background. The numbers must be separated by commas.

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