To do its thing, On Track calculates what you should have achieved by the current time of day to be on schedule, and compares this with your actual achievement so far. It does this for energy (calories or kilojoules), steps, distance and floors climbed.
On-Track Calculation
Calculation of the activity level you should have achieved by the current time (ie, your ‘on-track’ value) is based on these assumptions:
During the early morning (ie, before your ‘active period’), you don’t do anything.
During the evening (ie, after your ‘active period’), you don’t do anything.
During your active period, you’re active at a constant rate that gets you to your goal at the end of the active period. (This even applies to your energy goal: although your body will continue to burn calories after your active period, you won’t need to do any more activity to ensure that you reach your daily calorie goal by midnight.)
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Most fitness apps show your energy (calorie or kilojoule) activity level increasing even if you’re inactive. This is because of your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which is the amount of energy you expend simply by being alive. It usually contributes more than half of your daily energy goal.
If you turn off the ‘Include BMR’ setting, On Track will remove your BMR from its calculations. This doesn’t change how many calories or kilojoules ahead of track you would be. However, choosing not to include BMR reduces your daily energy goal. As a result, the ‘% of goal’ value will be higher. This means that the gauge indicators will be further around from the centre. You may find this to be more consistent with the other activity types (steps, etc), since you don’t accrue steps (etc) when you’re inactive.
App
The On Track app displays a progress card for energy (calories or kilojoules), steps, distance and floors climbed. Each card states the amount by which you are currently ahead of your schedule, and also also expresses that figure as a percentage of your daily goal. A gauge presents that information graphically: if you’re ahead of schedule, a progress line will extend clockwise from the top of the gauge; if you’re behind schedule, it will extend anticlockwise from the top. The gauge will also change colour depending on whether you’re ahead or behind.
Touching a card displays your current achievement, current track and daily goal. For energy including BMR, you will also see the current ‘coast’ value, which is the level of achievement that would ensure you meet your daily goal even if you don’t do any more activity today. The rightmost values are differences from your current achievement.
Below the table is a graph. The dotted line is your on-track value throughout the day, the solid orange line is the coast value, and the dot marks your current achievement.
Settings
To access On Track’s settings, open the app and touch the button with the cog-wheel icon below the activity cards.
Wear OS and other apps on your watch don’t share their data on your body characteristics, exercise goals, etc. As a result, you may need to enter data into On Track’s settings that you’ve already entered elsewhere. For example, on Google Pixel watches, the Fitbit app on your handheld device contains much such information.
When entering goals, specify daily totals (eg, steps per day).
The energy goal should include your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) rather than just active calories, even if you turn off the ‘Include BMR’ setting. This is the figure that’s available from the Fitbit app and equivalent sources. Internally, On Track will adjust your energy goal taking the ‘Include BMR’ setting into account.
The ‘Gauge Ranges’ settings let you specify the value that corresponds to the maxima that can be displayed by the gauges. For example, if this setting is 50% and you’re currently 50% of your goal ahead of schedule, the gauge indicator will be at the maximum positive position. If you’re currently 25% behind schedule, the indicator will be half way towards the maximum negative position. You can specify a different range for the energy gauge because, if you include BMR, you won’t tend to get very far from your schedule (because you’ll be consuming energy at BMR whether you’re active or not, so your daily goal is much higher).
Complications
On Track provides four types of complications: Energy ahead, Steps ahead, Distance ahead and Floors ahead. You can show one or more of these in your watch face if the face supports range-based complications.
If you are exactly on track, a complication will display an indicator dot at the top centre (12 o’clock position) of the gauge arc. If you’re ahead of track, the dot will be moved clockwise around the right side of the arc, and ▲ will be displayed below the value. If you’re behind track, the dot will be moved anticlockwise around the left side of the arc, and ▼ will be displayed below the value. The range of values that can be indicated on a complication gauge is the same as that for the corresponding app gauge, and can be adjusted in the app’s settings.
On Track’s complications automatically update every five minutes, which is the most frequent interval that Wear OS permits to maximise battery life.
If you touch an On Track complication, the On Track app will open. This lets you see additional data and make changes to On Track’s settings. When you close the app, On Track complications will be updated almost immediately.
If a complication says ‘SEE APP’, this indicates that On Track doesn’t have the necessary permission and/or settings to allow calculation of the value to display. Touch the complication to open the app, touch the settings icon, and provide the missing requirements.
Tiles
On Track provides tiles for Energy ahead, Steps ahead, Distance ahead and Floors ahead.
When swiped into view, On Track tiles can take up to ten seconds to update. After that, they can update every five seconds when you’re active, or every minute when you’re not. (Values can change when you’re inactive because the ‘on-track’ value may increase even though your achievement may not.)
Touching a tile opens the On Track app.
Permissions
On Track only requires one Wear OS permission: ‘physical activity’. This allows On Track to find out your current activity levels. Without those values, On Track could not determine how far ahead of schedule you are.
Privacy
On Track does not collect or transmit any of your information.
On Track needs your body settings (gender, date of birth, height and weight) so it can estimate your Basal Metabolic Rate. It needs that figure so it can know the approximate rate at which your body uses energy (eg, calories) when you’re inactive. Those settings are not used for any other purpose.
Release Notes
1
Initial release.
1.1
New feature: Touching a card displays statistics and graph.
Bug fix: ‘Check settings’ should no longer be displayed when the app is reloading. It will now say ‘Loading’.
Bug fix: A warning icon was briefly displayed when scrolling new cards into view. This should no longer occur.
Bug fix: Multiple instances of the app could sometimes appear when swiping to close it. This should no longer occur.
1.2.0
Tiles!
Always display same number of decimal places in details table columns so that values line up better.
