Connecting through appletv and companion app

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All - we have a thread that talks about this new dialog box, and why it was introduced.

@shooj I just read the other post you put up and all it seems to do is solidify the issue people are having. They DO NOT want to have to choose between the ATV BT connections and bridging through the Companion app. They want to use the two BT connections on the ATV, and then bridge any devices beyond that through the Companion app. This is how it used to work and people seem to have been satisfied with that. The new ā€˜either/orā€™ version just doesnā€™t seem to be going over well.

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@Nigel_Tufnel
Pairing either / or via native BLE vs Companion bridge is not new. I asked the engineer responsible for the function.

Before this update, the only way to be able to choose the Companion bridge was to run into the maximum connection error first. Once you chose the Companion option, the native BLE option was turned off.

If that were not the case, the BLE signal would still be bound to the game app running on ATV, and it would not be available for the Companion app on your smartphone to pick up. Hope that makes sense?

The only thing thatā€™s different now is that you choose the Bluetooth binding method up front, and if you know you need to pair 3 or more sensors, it gets you in the game a little quicker. This also brings the ATV pairing process in line with the way it works on other OS platforms.

It was considerably better before the latest upgrade :frowning_face:
Like others, I want to connect my HR and Kickr to the ATV via BT. Itā€™s vast;y more stable, then add the cadence sensor via the Companion App so it appears on the ATV active screen.

Please can we have this feature back???

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@shooj maybe Iā€™m not fully understanding (I have a Tacx Neo and Garmin Dual HRM, so I have never had to use the Companion bridge), but how I am interpreting what others are saying is that previously, if they have 3 devices to connect, they could connect 2 through the ATV, and then the third using the Companion bridge. Now, though, it seems they can only EITHER connect only two devices through the ATV, OR connect three (or more) ALL through the Companion bridge. And, if the comments are to be believed, thus experience is much worse than the old experience. And if nothing actually has changed with the way the connections work (which would seem odd, considering the number of people commenting) then there is something about how the connections are working now that is making the experience worse.

Again, not something Iā€™m familiar with, but people donā€™t seem happy with whatever has changed.

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@Nigel_Tufnel While it may have appeared thatā€™s how it worked, but under the hood? It never actually worked this way.

@David_Joffe and others: Enough of you are reporting tangible differences in the quality of the BLE connection when paired through the Companion app that weā€™re looking into why that might be. We hear you.

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Hi, before update i paired Kickr and heartrate through ATV and cadence by Companion, it worked perfect. After update i can pair everything through Companion, IF i do that i just donā€™t feel gradiants, feels like erg-mode.
I have to pair Kickr 2017, hrm through APT and skip cadence to get it work now after update. Cheers Timo

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Shuji, Iā€™m one of those who complained previously. Yesterday I connected my Wahoo trainer, wahoo cadence sensor, wahoo HR and also selected the controllable setting and connected the Wahoo trainer all via the Companion App. I have to say it all worked well and I had no noticable issues. I will try it again later today and hopefully Iā€™ll get the same results.

Thanks

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@shooj when you paired the 3rd device, only that device paired through the companion bridge.

The first two devices were still using the ATV Bluetooth because when you closed the companion app (or it crashed) you only lost the device which was using the bridge.

The native BLE canā€™t have been turned off when you selected the companion option because the ATV remote (bluetooth) still worked. The ATV still had an active connection and still connected to the first two devices.

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that is how I thought it worked and how it was working for me for the past two years

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I have same issue

May I add that the player experience for Apple TV users has been significantly degraded since this change. For most of us it sounds like the previous method of connecting a third device was working well and was very intuitive to use.

It seems like us the players do not understand the rationale for making this change - perhaps a Zwift Product Manager can educate us - was something broken with the previous method, were users complaining, etc.

Please revert back to the previous player workflow - it was simple and easy, reliable, and made sense to the players.

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Some updates on thisā€¦ since i had bad experience routing sensors through my Samsung Gxy S10+, i decided to test running zca on my ipad 5th gen and routing the sensors through it. Surprisingly, it was smooth. No perceivable delays, no signal dropouts. So i suspect this could be an android implementation issue? Anyone else tried this before?

@shooj if u need testers or log files Iā€™m more than happy to help. I work in dev.

I did connect KICKR core / cadence / HRM via an iOS companion app for Apple TV yesterday and it did work. The new companion app may be more stable than before which is good.

It still would be good to have the option to use a combination of ATV and companion app Bluetooth connections. Ie 2 with ATV and 1 via mobile companion app. This worked well previously.

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This is my exact experience. There is no way they can tell me there is not a difference. For now, Iā€™m connecting through ATV and foregoing my cadence.

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Are we any closer @shooj to figuring out this tech issue?

Bloody love Zwift and running it through Apple TV / coupled with the Companion App to get maximum sensors etc. I only bought an Apple TV for Zwift!!

I really donā€™t trust putting it all through the Companion App and relaying it to the Apple TV. Too much invisible traffic buzzing around.

Canā€™t fault anything else. I constantly sing praise of Zwift to everyone and anyone who listens!!ha Just would love it back the way it was.

I hope my Cadence Sensor is missing me as much as I miss themā€¦

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Everyone on this thread:
Our engineers have been alerted to your frustrations on the Bluetooth issues. The experience should be simple and reliable and fun, and we can do better.

The underlying issues are complicated, and itā€™s going to take time to get to the bottom of it.

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thank you

Thanks @shooj - appreciate there is a mix of user experience, user interface and technical issues to solve. I feel like that the Apple TV users/players felt like the previous solution was better for that platform.

Perhaps need a branched solution for Apple TV which was what was previously provided; and perhaps the new solution works fine for other platforms.

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Surely you would always want to split the connections. Putting it all through Companion app is fine in principle but it means hoping that other device doesnā€™t run out of battery or have its own issues; a device that Zwift doesnā€™t control and canā€™t support. Youā€™re completely reliant on it for everything.

Iā€™d much rather have power+controllable and HRM direct to the Apple TV, and cadence through the Companion. Worst case scenario then is you lose your cadence during a ride, no big deal. Versus losing everything.

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