I had a problem getting notifications from the Blynk Android app to show up on my Asus ZenWatch 2. After a suggestion from the wonderfully responsive Blynk Team, I found that I needed to set the following permissions in the Blynk App on my phone in order to get notifications to display on my Smartwatch:
Camera
Storage
Location
These are the only optional permissions for the Blynk App on my phone. Notifications on the phone work fine with none of them set. I must have them all set for notifications to appear on the watch. This seems to be a strange combination of permissions.
My questions:
Are these related to the app specifically, or might the project (which I got from somebody else) somehow be responsible?
Do these permissions make sense to anybody for receiving simple text notifications on my phone, and if so, can you explain them to me?
Suggestions on how to reduce them? (I mean, seriously – why does the app need access to my camera to tell me my garage door is open?)
Any info would be appreciated!
Oh, and yes – I’m a total noob when it comes to Blynk; I’m not a programmer; and sometimes I’m a little dense, so please be kind.
Blynk is primarily meant for Phones… while it can work on tablets… but this is the first time I have heard of the App running on a smart watch. Regardless, I doubt it is a Blynk issue, more so how your watch OS links with the phone, unless it is truly a standalone device? I haven’t looked it up yet. But if it is, then it’s OS determines the flexibility of the permissions, not Blynk.
It doesn’t, but it will need the camera if you want to scan in a QR code. GPS streaming and Map need Location permissions, and so on… Thus, with newer Phone OSs you can be specific about the permissions you allow if you don’t want/need certain features in the App.
Again, this is a Phone OS thing, not a Blynk thing.
Just to clarify – the Blynk app isn’t running (or even installed) on the watch. The watch only displays notifications from the Blynk app.
I understand what you’re saying about giving access to the camera if I want to scan QR codes from the phone – however, the phone displays notifications with that permission turned off; it just won’t send it on to the watch. If the Blynk app would not work on the phone without that particular permission, that would make more sense to me.
I can accept that this is not a Blynk specific issue – however, I’m not seeing the connection between that set of permissions for that one app on the phone and notifications from that one app on the watch. Other apps (e.g. calendar and my grocery list application) do not need that particular combination of permissions to send notifications… though, it may be that they have extensions that install on the watch itself… I’ll have to look into that.
Thanks for the response! I really appreciate you taking the time to reply!
Even though there is a relationship between the OS on the Watch and the one on the Phone, they are separate OSs… so there is separate permission algorithms.
If those Apps have NO need for a camera, then there will be NO need for a camera permissions… Blynk however has needs for all those features of which permissions are required, depending in the widgets or base App functions.
Only newer, smarter, OSs can allow that distinction on a per feature (widget/project) basis, not just a per App basis.
Thanks again for the response. Please know I’m just trying to understand – not trying to argue just to be contrarian.
I’ve posted the same question on Google’s support site - I’ll share any response I get from there, if you are interested.
The Blynk app does NOT require those permissions to work on the phone. They were not enabled when I first started looking into this, and the only issue was notifications on the watch. So, I don’t understand why you are saying Blynk needs those permissions. It may need permission to access the camera when I’m scanning a QR code, but I can turn it off afterwards, and the app and the project continue to work as expected on the phone. (I’ve just tested and verified that very scenario). I have yet to discover any need for either Location or Storage with regard to the project I’m running.
What OS would you suggest? My phone has Android 7.0, and the watch is using Wear OS 2.12.
Totally understand I just don’t know how more to explain it… but I will try…
As I said… the level of permission breakdown is OS dependent… If I recall, Android 7.0+ started the “per option” based permissions and that is why you were probably not automatically prompted for full permissions… assuming you didn’t have any widgets active that required them.
However if you HAD enabled sharing, or tried to scan in a QR for a new project… or added in a GPS widget, etc, then your phone would have prompted you for the appropriate permissions (assuming you didn’t have that entire option disabled… not sure if that can be done, probably depends on the manufacturer’s OS skin). And without the permissions enabled, those particular functions would not actualy work.
Older OSs however, like your watch, prompt right out of the gate on a per App basis… per App == All permissions or None.
We support wear notifications, but there is a case when it would not be sent to your wear device - when app is opened and notification is shown in the blynk app as an alert. Is it your case? If not - please provide you wear device os version as well. Also could you check is the Wear OS app on your smartphone - blocked apps’ list in notifications settings?
I’m not sure how to answer that. The Blynk app does not need to be opened on my phone to show notifications (or send them to the watch). How do I determine if the “notification is shown in the blynk app as an alert”?
Asus ZenWatch 2
Wear OS 2.12.0.197555195
Google Play Services 12.6.85 (050300-197041431)
Android OS 7.1.1
Android Security Patch Level June 1, 2017
Blocked apps (from Wear OS on the phone) 2 calendar apps (to avoid duplication).
That is what I am experiencing. When the Blynk app is open on my phone, I see the “alert” in the app but nothing on my watch – that’s fine (if the app is open, I’m likely looking at it anyway!).
When the app is not open on my phone, and the 3 permissions (Camera, Location, and Storage) are enabled on the Blynk app on my phone, I get notifications on the status bar of the phone, and on my watch. If any of those 3 permissions are turned off, I still get notifications on the status bar of my phone, but nothing on the watch.
Try to disable all, except storage one - it is the only permission that could affect notifications (if you had used some custom notification’s sound).
I’ve rechecked that with my Pixel and LG Watch - everything works fine in all cases with disabled, partially or full enabled permissions, custom or default notification’s sound. Maybe there are some specific issues on your Asus with resending notifications, but I had not heard about that before.
We do not check anything on our side for sending wearable notifications - we are just asking system to send the notification also to wearable device. If it fails - that’s probably something because of smartphone’s logic or Wear OS app that provides connection between Wear and Android devices.
I just don’t know how more to explain it… but I will try…
