The dog on the watch and a capercaillie in the tree
Laikku barked up a capercaillie, and the watch on the wrist said where the bark was. Moose parties got what the stand asked for at the same time: the whole party on one map.
Today Laikku barked up a capercaillie. The direction and distance to the bark were on the wrist, and the phone stayed in the pocket the whole way.
The dog on the watch
With a barking bird dog the moment that matters is when the barking starts. That is when you have to move, quietly and in the right direction, and the last thing you want is to dig the phone out of the pocket. On the wrist the same thing is one glance: the dog's name, an arrow, the distance in metres and the compass bearing.
On Garmin watches this works now, and the app goes next to Garmin's app store, where testers will get it. Apple Watch and Android watches are already built and waiting their turn behind a real dog.
For the moose party: everyone on one map
A moose hunt usually has several dogs, each with its own handler. The question from the stand was simple: why do I only see my own dog?
Now a party can set up a group in the app, and the group's dogs show up for every member on the same map — and on the same watch. Each person can also choose to show their own location to the others: the one on the stand sees where the dog and the handler are coming from, and the handler sees where the stands are. A collar can be lent to someone else for a day, a week or for good. The group has its own conversation, and it travels over the same radio network even where the phone network does not reach.
New testers
Boxes are going out to new parties. One box holds everything: the collar, a personal node, a coverage node, a cloud node and one page on the order to set them up in. The party starts without us at their side, and that is exactly where the most valuable feedback comes from.
What comes next
On iPhone the app is now available through a public TestFlight, and the Android version is on its way to Google Play.