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Vendor Watt Time & Watt Key - Wear OS Watch Apps To Control Your Tesla
- Thread starter joshendy
- Start date
Hi. I'm interested in Watt Key. However, I've seen mentions of where the phone bluetooth connection with the car is sometimes unreliable, and so they need to keep the keycard with them as a backup. Is that a situation where the NFC key function in Watt Time is useful? Are there any plans of adding the NFC key function to Watt Key? The rest of the functions of Watt Time sound great, but I really dislike the lag with the API and I sometimes park in an area with no internet connection. Thanks!
Hi, yep the Bluetooth connection to the Tesla is a bit fiddly sometimes. I've constantly been trying to improve it. A big part of the issue is that by default Watt Key runs in the background and tries to automatically connect to your Tesla. Big issue with this is that Android's Wear OS aggressively kills apps running in the background to save power. This is a great feature but is a real pain for Watt Key trying to auto connect. In practice I usually have my phone auto connecting and unlocking the Tesla so I added a feature to Watt Key to turn off the auto connect in the settings menu of Watt Key. When I want to use Watt Key specifically, I open it manually on my watch and it works very reliably.
The NFC feature of Watt Time is nice, if you ever lose your internet connection you can still lock/unlock your Tesla by holding your app up to the B pillar. See here:
I didn't want to add the NFC feature to Watt Key as the Bluetooth connection makes the NFC irrelevant but in the event Bluetooth isn't working for whatever reason then I can see it would be useful. There'd be an issue for users with both Watt Time and Watt Key as they'd fight over the NFC but I could add an option to Watt Key to enable/disable it.
Watt Time and Watt Key are stand alone apps, they don't require the other to work. Watt Time purely uses an internet connection to talk to the Tesla servers which in turn then talk to your car. Watt Key talks directly to your car over Bluetooth. Biggest difference being the internet based Tesla API has many, many features whereas the Bluetooth protocol only supports basic functions like lock/unlock, open frunk/trunk/chargeport etc.
Watt Time will only wake your car if you open the app, if the app isn't open then it won't wake your Tesla. Once Watt Time has woken your car to get the latest information from it, it won't wake it again and allow it to go back to sleep. Watt Key will wake your car if you physically get close to it and have Watt Key's auto connect feature enabled.
Watt keyyy! I was sold in a second. I literally stopped at the costco omw to the business trip just to upgraded my watch to galaxy watch 5 to try and use this app.
This would be perfect when im renting out the tesla or renting a tesla from hertz or others when im in different city.
There was one time i rented MY in vancouver and they only give you card key. It was such a hassle locking unlocking and starting the vehicle. (i was so used to at just getting in and start the vehicle without using the card key) everytime when i was in a rental i had to dig out the key to open the door and place the card to start the vehicle.
Im actually heading to the airport for the business trip and i have a tesla MY booked so im going to try this.
And like i said if you advertise this to those renters on turo and people renting from hertz in canada it would sell really well.
One thing though i tried to look up the instruction on the website. Its definitely not enough information...
It would nice if you could give some detail instruction on each features on watt key and the conditions for it to work.
I was wondering to be able to use the auto unlock and locking do you have to set the watch as a priority bluetooth device or do you even have to add the watch on bluetooth device list?
Because when i authorized it it was connected and i was able to use the buttons even when it wasnt on the bluetooth device it was only showing up on lock list.
I will be picking up my rental Tesla in couple hours i will check it out if it works and the features i could use and keep you updated as well.
Thanks for the awesome app!
Ps. On my watch watt key shows version 4.1 is this the latest version?
This would be perfect when im renting out the tesla or renting a tesla from hertz or others when im in different city.
There was one time i rented MY in vancouver and they only give you card key. It was such a hassle locking unlocking and starting the vehicle. (i was so used to at just getting in and start the vehicle without using the card key) everytime when i was in a rental i had to dig out the key to open the door and place the card to start the vehicle.
Im actually heading to the airport for the business trip and i have a tesla MY booked so im going to try this.
And like i said if you advertise this to those renters on turo and people renting from hertz in canada it would sell really well.
One thing though i tried to look up the instruction on the website. Its definitely not enough information...
It would nice if you could give some detail instruction on each features on watt key and the conditions for it to work.
I was wondering to be able to use the auto unlock and locking do you have to set the watch as a priority bluetooth device or do you even have to add the watch on bluetooth device list?
Because when i authorized it it was connected and i was able to use the buttons even when it wasnt on the bluetooth device it was only showing up on lock list.
I will be picking up my rental Tesla in couple hours i will check it out if it works and the features i could use and keep you updated as well.
Thanks for the awesome app!
Ps. On my watch watt key shows version 4.1 is this the latest version?
Just downloaded Watt Key for my M3LR seems to be working great! Agree it would be awesome to have nfc in Watt Key as a backup.
Is there any way to remove certain buttons so I don't accidentally press it? (I.e unlatch drivers door). As I've just accidentally pressed it and had to go out to close the door
Planning to purely use my watch as an offline key when I go park somewhere for cycling, and to quickly unlock charger as I'm heading out the door - will see how practical it is compared to using my key fob.
Is there any way to remove certain buttons so I don't accidentally press it? (I.e unlatch drivers door). As I've just accidentally pressed it and had to go out to close the door
Planning to purely use my watch as an offline key when I go park somewhere for cycling, and to quickly unlock charger as I'm heading out the door - will see how practical it is compared to using my key fob.
I'm glad you like the app. Yes v4.1 is currently the latest version. I'm not sure the companies renting out the Tesla's would like people adding their watch as a Bluetooth key, as if you ever found that Tesla on the street (after having rented it out) and assuming they didn't delete the key you added from the Locks menu then you'd be able to unlock that car and drive away.
The Tesla's Bluetooth menu is unrelated to the Tesla's Bluetooth key functionality. You only need to see the key added to the Tesla's locks list to know that it's authorised and added.
I'll add NFC to Watt Key in the next update as a backup feature that's off by default. Just need to test it won't clash with Watt Time also running an NFC key. Whoops! I can add a confirmation to that command so it asks first before executing it (the frunk and trunk commands can ask for a confirmation before opening also - check the settings menu).Just downloaded Watt Key for my M3LR seems to be working great! Agree it would be awesome to have nfc in Watt Key as a backup.
Is there any way to remove certain buttons so I don't accidentally press it? (I.e unlatch drivers door). As I've just accidentally pressed it and had to go out to close the door
Planning to purely use my watch as an offline key when I go park somewhere for cycling, and to quickly unlock charger as I'm heading out the door - will see how practical it is compared to using my key fob.
If you have it paired to your phone no. If you are out of range of your phone and want to use it then yes you need internet. Watt Time goes through the internet where as Watt Key is more like a phone key and local bluetooth.
I just purchased watt key and I'm not able to pair my watch as a key. I followed the instructions on your site and I'm getting a notification on my watch saying watt time nfc authorized. However, my car doesn't recognize the watch. It just stays at the screen asking to scan behind cupholder. My watch is a fossil gen 3 explorist on wear os 2.
The watch needs to be scanned before the key. It doesn't recognize the watch so it never asks for the key.
The developers website states watt key uses BT but watt time uses NFC. I bought watt time for the additional functions.
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