What time is it? It’s time for new SmartHalo features! This one’s good, we’ve got a bunch comin’ your way.

Speaking of time…

We just made it way easier to stay on schedule with a new “Clock” feature. Stop being late with the help of a clock you can display with a short tap on your SmartHalo. Gone are the days of pulling out your phone constantly to check the time.

Beep beep – Watch out! The Horn is finally here.

Yes, you heard that right. You now have a built in horn right at your fingertips. Simply long tap once on your SmartHalo to honk your way to a safer cycling experience.

But that’s not all… Introducing Quick Touch.

Trigger actions (that could previously only be done through the app) directly through SmartHalo’s touch screen surface with Quick Touch. Want to navigate home? 3 short taps on SmartHalo and you’re good to go! Want to switch from Turn-by-turn to Compass navigation? Easy: 3 long taps. The brand new clock and horn features are also triggered with their own sequence.

The best part? You can customize which tap combinations trigger each action. View and customize them within the Assistant tab.

To make sure these features are easy to use, we’ve also improved touch feedback: you’ll now hear a subtle sound when you tap and you’ll be able to view the touch sequence you’ve just input, even when connected.

How do I get these sweet new features?

Easy, just follow these 2 steps:

1. Make sure you download the latest version of the app in the App or Google Play store (some phones will update apps automatically).
2. Once that’s done, install the latest version of the firmware. You’ll need to be connected to SmartHalo to do it. Just tap on the top right icon (you’ll see a red notification dot appear on your SmartHalo icon) and tap on “New firmware update”. The update takes 5 minutes max!

We hope you enjoy these new features and improvements. Big thanks to everyone who has provided feedback: SmartHalo keeps getting better and better thanks to you. Stay tuned for more updates!

Greetings from Montreal!

We have just released a new version of the SmartHalo app and we’re really excited to share with you various improvements we’ve made to a core part of the SmartHalo experience: Navigation.

Navigation, either to discover your city or to get around, is a huge part of how you use SmartHalo. The new improvements we are announcing today should make your experience even more enjoyable:

Better search

This one’s a game changer: we now use Google Search and it is a-MA-zing. Just try searching for anything you can think of. Odds are, you’ll now find it.

Google Maps Tiles and Points of Interests

We now use the beautiful Google Map tiles for our map display, which means you’ll feel right at home if you use Google Maps regularly (we know you do 🙃 ). When zooming in, you’ll now see that favorite restaurant of yours or that new bistro that just opened a few months ago. Simply tap on these places and SmartHalo will plot a course to that destination. Pretty neat, right?

Improved Directions

We now have an improved directions algorithm. We’re constantly improving it, but it should now provide much better paths than before. This being said, we know that there can’t always be one best path that fits every use case… so yes, we are working on providing alternative paths. Expect them in an upcoming release!

Better Favourites Management

New in iOS: you can now see your favorites on the map (and you can tap on them to plot a course). You can also delete them using the “+” menu in the navigation screen. Don’t worry if you’re an Android user, it’s been in your app for a while!

***

We truly hope you will enjoy this new release as much as we do.

As always, keep providing us with your precious feedback, as we are constantly working to improve SmartHalo. Remember, this started as a humble Kickstarter project, we know there is room for improvement. With your help, we believe we can become the best smart biking device there is!

Right off the heels of last week’s App release that included Navigation and Bluetooth improvements, we’re happy to share another cool feature this week: Compass mode!

Compass mode is for when only the destination matters. Once active, SmartHalo simply points you towards your destination instead of giving precise turn-by-turn directions. How you get there is entirely up to you. As you get closer to your destination, the pointer progressively turns greener.  

To turn compass mode on, simply tap on the gear icon in the navigation tab. Use that same menu to flip back to turn-by-turn. You can even switch mid-ride. We’ve already found some new paths we would’ve never had even taken otherwise using Compass mode. We hope this feature will help you rediscover your city as well!

Improved Fitness Tracking Start Mechanism

This release also includes a fitness tracking refinement. From now on, if you walk besides your bike, fitness tracking won’t track it; it only starts when you actually start riding fast enough. It’ll also filter out the end of your ride if you walk a few meters. No more low average speeds!

Make sure you have the latest release by updating your app to the latest version. Have a fun ride! 

-The SmartHalo Team