Remote S: Tesla app for Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

[AllenWong]

Thanks for the nice app and Apple Watch support!

For the glance, I agree with ruby110 that it would be even more useful to indicate if the car is attached to power. The car silhouette glance you have currently displayed could be replaced by a new one with a trailing power cord when plugged in...

Yup, my plan for version 2.0 is to have graphics for all scenarios whether in glance or any other place where the car is shown: Locked or unlocked, HVAC on or off, rear and front defrosters on or off, charge port open or closed, car plugged in or not, roof open or not, trunk or frunk open or not, each of the four doors open or not.

It's just a lot of graphics to create, so I didn't make all of them for version 1.0 for the sake of getting this app out there sooner rather than later.

 

[wayner]

And finally let me add that I think it is pretty well understood that the android app from Tesla has lagged well behind the iOS Tesla app. This means android users should embrace your app even more than the iOS users have!

Or it means that Tesla owners should switch from Android to iOS . (just kidding, not trying to start a flame war)

 

[DITB]

Very cool. My family is from Hong Kong. Entering through the pano roof when locked in by other cars was a feature I didn't think of. Do people in Hong Kong get locked in by other cars often?

...

It's only been 2 days, so I can't really tell yet if this is a successful app or not. The debut has been stellar, and more than I imagined, though. If this app becomes a steady source of income for me, then I would have no problems with working on an Android version. I will not know for another few weeks of sales. In the meantime, I need to polish up the iOS app anyway, and it would be to have a polished app design to work from when starting the Android project.

...

I read the interview article about you. I am not from Hong Kong but live in Hong Kong, so a bit the other way around. I haven't had to use it yet, but with a car which is 2.2 x 5 meters, it fills up most parking spots apart from a few cm in the sides. Not like in the US where you need a map to find where your car is located in the parking spot itself - because it is so big. A few days ago, the only un-ICED charging spot of 8, was with a wall on one side and the next (ICE!) car parked right over the stripe. I could get the car in, but not open the doors more than a few inches. Just as I opened the pano roof, another ICE car left further down, and I took his spot instead.

About your sales - there are only so many Tesla Model S sold, and no Model X yet, so that sets the limitation for sure. And if only about half of them use iOS, then you probably won't have more than 30,000 potential app sales maximum. Double that if you go Android, although I heard there is an Android app already that covers the equivalent gWatch or aWatch, whatever they call it in that environment. (and no, I am not planning on getting an Apple watch)

Was there something ... about you weren't treated too well by Google btw?

 

[Requiem]

Very cool. My family is from Hong Kong. Entering through the pano roof when locked in by other cars was a feature I didn't think of. Do people in Hong Kong get locked in by other cars often?

It's only been 2 days, so I can't really tell yet if this is a successful app or not. The debut has been stellar, and more than I imagined, though. If this app becomes a steady source of income for me, then I would have no problems with working on an Android version. I will not know for another few weeks of sales. In the meantime, I need to polish up the iOS app anyway, and it would be to have a polished app design to work from when starting the Android project.

I too would really LOVE an android version of this app! It looks beautiful and really useful, and the official Android app is not exactly stellar.

An Android app + Pebble Time app would make me a very happy man

 

[jaydee49]

1. The more you use the app, the more updated the Glance screen will be. There's something called a background fetch with my app, and it's controlled by Apple's system. Apple devices learn how often you use the app, and automatically update the content in the background accordingly. The more you use the app, the more often Apple allows the app to fetch up-to-date data. I've been using the app for 3 weeks now, and my glance is almost always up-to-date. Apple doesn't let apps work in the background, and background fetch is the only work around for it. The problem with Glances is that when you look at the screen, it shows you outdated info (it'll say when it was last updated on the bottom). It then tries to fetch new data, but usually users stop looking at the glance before it finishes. The work around is to look at the glance maybe 15 seconds later to see the updated info. In my next update (version 1.1), I reduce this time to much less than that. It should start updating almost immediately.

Any idea how much the background fetch would cause vampire drain by leaving the car connected? Bought the app yesterday and plan on testing this myself but just curious.

 

[AllenWong]

I read the interview article about you.

Was there something ... about you weren't treated too well by Google btw?

Which interview article did you read? There were several. My company's adsense account was banned by Google and they owed my company a lot of money when it happened (they don't pay you the money owed if they ban you). The ban was very annoying, because it was through no fault of mine or my business partner. Someone had ran a bot that faked clicks to our website's Adsense banners maliciously. I did not know the person and I definitely had no hand in this, because I had no interest in getting my account banned. When I asked Google for an explanation as to why we were banned, Google ignored us and basically gave our company a generic response that they detected invalid clicks. It was not until we received an anonymous email from the person who did it that we found out what happened. Because our company relied heavily on Adsense, we started using our personal adsense accounts on the website to continue getting revenue. For several years after that, we never had another ban - which goes to show that there was nothing wrong with our company's website that had the adsense banners. We appealed the case, and they ignored us once again. That cold response and lack of communication/understanding led us to believe that Google was a crappy company that only cared about profits. I vowed not to create an Android app since then, because they profit off that as well, and I couldn't trust them anymore. Fast forward 4 years, and now Google and I are in better terms. We exchange phone calls every once in a while to check up on the ads they placed on my other company's apps. And I'm warming back up to them. But a few years ago, they owed me around $100,000 when one of my companies was banned and they haven't paid us back since. I also couldn't do anything about it, because their terms and conditions heavily favor their company in a way that they can terminate anyone's account for any or no reason and that we had no right to sue them. I wrote about this in detail and more in my autobiography called Lifehacked, which is available on Amazon or my website: lifehacked book by Allen Wong, multimillionaire app developer

- - - Updated - - -

Any idea how much the background fetch would cause vampire drain by leaving the car connected? Bought the app yesterday and plan on testing this myself but just curious.

I've used the app for 3 weeks now and the vampire drain is no different from before the app. It's possible to disable background fetch in the settings if you don't like it.

 

[omarsultan]

Downloading now!

 

[omarsultan]

Been playing with the app for a bit now--great job for an initial release. One quick question, is there a way to show rated range on the first screen instead of estimated range--the former would be more useful to me?

 

[bjwModelS]

I don't own an Apple Watch, and my 70D is still ~6 weeks away from delivery, but I still bought it to support your efforts. Thanks!

 

[tezzla]

Been playing with the app for a bit now--great job for an initial release. One quick question, is there a way to show rated range on the first screen instead of estimated range--the former would be more useful to me?

Mine shows Estimated, Rated & Ideal miles?

 

[omarsultan]

Mine shows Estimated, Rated & Ideal miles?

Hmmm...mine only shows "Estimated range" unless I am missing something....?

 

[AllenWong]

I don't own an Apple Watch, and my 70D is still ~6 weeks away from delivery, but I still bought it to support your efforts. Thanks!

Thanks! But you don't need an Apple Watch to enjoy my app. It works on all iOS devices.

Hmmm...mine only shows "Estimated range" unless I am missing something....?

View attachment 81399

Install the Glance. The Glance has your rated range and is easier to get to. It also makes it easier to get to the Remote S app, because you can tap the Glance and it will open up the app.

 

[omarsultan]

Install the Glance. The Glance has your rated range and is easier to get to. It also makes it easier to get to the Remote S app, because you can tap the Glance and it will open up the app.

Done - thanks - nice layout for the glance. In terms of feature requests, it would be nice to customize the first screen much the same way you can customize the Apple modular watch face.

O

 

[AllenWong]

Done - thanks - nice layout for the glance. In terms of feature requests, it would be nice to customize the first screen much the same way you can customize the Apple modular watch face.

O

What would you like to change on the first screen?

 

[evmike]

@regoapps: do you have any plans to add the ability to adjust ride height from the app/watch? Is that even possible with the current API?

 

[omarsultan]

What would you like to change on the first screen?

So I was think modularity like this (if it was not clear):

In terms of things on the first screen:
- obviously, being able to pick estimated, ideal or rated miles (I usually care about rated miles)
- internal temp or external temp (I usually care more about internal temp, since I live in temperate CA)
- when charging, time remaining to reach charge limit

Don't get me wrong, loving' the app, think of these as wishlist items for your consideration...

 

[AllenWong]

@regoapps: do you have any plans to add the ability to adjust ride height from the app/watch? Is that even possible with the current API?

Not possible. All the commands you see available on the watch are all the commands the API has available. That doesn't mean that more commands can't be added. It's just that they'd have to somehow use what I have. So things like conditional, or combined commands. Such as scheduling or geofencing might be something I'd add. I have to prioritize which features to add first, but my ultimate goal is to try to tend to everyone's needs (within what I can do, of course).

So I was think modularity like this (if it was not clear):
View attachment 81403
In terms of things on the first screen:
- obviously, being able to pick estimated, ideal or rated miles (I usually care about rated miles)
- internal temp or external temp (I usually care more about internal temp, since I live in temperate CA)
- when charging, time remaining to reach charge limit

Don't get me wrong, loving' the app, think of these as wishlist items for your consideration...

I don't get anyone wrong. I had plans for something like that. I just wanted to know what you wanted to change so that I wouldn't miss it. Time remaining to reach charge limit already exists.

 

[shrink]

Forgot to ask earlier: Is there a way to enable Valet mode from either the Apple Watch or iOS app?

 

[lg_golfs]

Forgot to ask earlier: Is there a way to enable Valet mode from either the Apple Watch or iOS app?

Was wondering the same thing. I can see myself forgetting to set it and wanting to later on.

 

[AllenWong]

Forgot to ask earlier: Is there a way to enable Valet mode from either the Apple Watch or iOS app?

There isn't yet. All the commands you see available on the watch/ios app are all the commands the Tesla API has available. If there's a new command to be added, I'll add it.