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Audio Announcements

Overview

Personally I am a big fan of being able to use GPSLogger hands free - a big part of this experience comes from the fact that the app has implemented multiple so-called text to speech (tts) functionalities. Instead of checking your phone every kilometer yourself (in order to look up your pace, overall distance or time) the app can automatically give you this information (if a specified distance is traveled).

You have the choice, if the app should just give you a short audio signal once a certain mileage have been completed or if the app should inform you with overall and interval based information.

In the past years I have just had my mobile phone in the back pocket of my cycling jersey and let it announce every 5 km the overall distance, the time for the last 5 km and the remaining distance (when I was following a previously planed route) - Of course when I am following a planed route, the turn instructions will be also given via audio commands - In combination with being able to control my phone via my Di2 shifting levers this has become extremely convenient to use [e.g. to request details about the upcoming turn (especially the distance)].

These are the following types of audio announcements available (alphabetical order):

You can specify the output channel on which the audio information will be submitted. Also, you should know, that if you are listening to music or an audiobook this playback will be temporarily paused and after the signal resumed.

When you in the Application Settings > Speech & Audio Notifications > Make use of speech synthesis, then most of the audio announcement features are disabled. In this case only the Simple-Mode of the Sector announcements will be available as audio notification.

Sector announcements

When you are running or cycling you might want to get frequent information about your intermediate performance. Or simpler, you might just like to be notified once you have completed a certain distance (e.g. after each 1 km).

GPSLogger supports this via a function called Sector announcements, where the Sector length can be configured by yourself. So it’s really up to you, if this should be every km, every mile, every 500 yards or very 5 km (which I use for my cycling activities). [Just for completeness - you can use any number here - if you like to capture every 624 m (for what ever reason) you can do so.]

When you specify a sector distance of 0 the feature is disabled.

Simple-Mode

The simple mode will just trigger the playback of an audio signal of your choice once the configured sector distance has been completed. You can additionally select the duration of the playback - You have the option to choose between ‘play 1 time’ and ‘looping for 2-30 seconds’.

Text-to-Speech Mode

In order to use this feature you need to specify your sector distance. As described above it can be any value larger than 0. Once you have completed the specified distance you will hear a voice (generated via speech synthesis) that will provide you with the following information:

  • Total Distance
  • Total Time
  • Total average Speed (Ø)
  • Sector Distance
  • Sector Time
  • Sector average Speed (Ø)
  • Distance to Finish (Navigation Mode)
  • Elevation climb to Finish (Navigation Mode)

You can enable/disable each piece of information separately via the application settings!

A few more things you should be aware of:

  1. If you have enabled Total & Sector Data, then for the first Sector you will hear the Distance & Time only once - since Sector and Total values are identical.
  2. When you make use of the Speed as Pace feature, and you have configured the sector distance to an equal value to your pace distance (1 km or 1 mile) then a sector announcement can be quite irritating when you have enabled Sector time and sector average speed since you will then hear two time based information announcements (which are hopefully identical).
  3. Distance to Finish will be only announced if you have loaded a navigation path.
  4. Elevation climb to Finish (remaining meters to climb) will be only announced if you have loaded a navigation path from which the app could extract climb information (see also Climb View Section).

Turn-by-Turn Instructions & Climb-ahead Information

I hope it’s reasonable to you, the turn-by-turn instructions require that you have loaded a navigation path. And further: Climb-ahead information is only available if climb data could be extracted. More information about the climb extraction requirements and process can be found in the corresponding Climb-View Section.

Additional Options / Functions

  • You can enable, that each announcement can have an introduction (either a simple ‘Attention’ or any notification sound that is present on your device)

  • Turn-by-Turn announcements can be repeated for one time ( via the Application Settings)

  • Of course the announcement will be made, before the actual location is reached. The distance of how many meters before the waypoint the event-announcement will be made, depends on your current speed. As the faster you are, the more meters ahead the announcement will take place. The core idea is, that it’s always some seconds ahead so that you have time to prepare yourself for the turn. In addition, the events will be pre-announced at least 300 m before the actual location - so you should know something is coming.

You can adjust your preferences in the Application Settings > Speech & Audio Notifications > TurnByTurn Instructions & Climb-ahead Information Section.

TurnByTurn Instructions

If turn-by-turn instructions are present in navigation path they will be announced once you are approaching the next navigation waypoint.

Please find below some possible Turn instructions/parts as examples:

  • straight ahead - continue _%STREET_NAME%
  • …and stay on _%STREET_NAME%
  • keep left / turn slightly left / turn left / make a sharp left turn
  • keep right / turn slightly right / turn right / make a sharp right turn
  • …onto _%STREET_NAME%
  • make a U-turn
  • at roundabout, take %NUMBER% exit
  • reached Finish

Climb-ahead Information

If climbs are present in your loaded navigation path they will be announced once you are approaching them. Even if GPSLogger is support multiple units (like meter, feet or yard) currently all the climb information will be announced in (height) meter (welcome to the metric system).

Please find below some possible Climb-ahead information as examples:

  • Climb of %METER_TO_CLIMB% for %DISTANCE%
  • %CLIMB_METERS% from %METER_TO_CLIMB% mastered (That’s my half-time motivation)
  • Climb of %METER_TO_CLIMB% completed
  • Climb of %METER_TO_CLIMB% completed. Then %REMAINING_TOTAL_CLIMB_METERS% remaining to Finish

All these announcements also exist with an additional Climb Category information.

Event Announcements

Low Battery

Are you constantly checking the remaining battery of your mobile device? Or have you ever been caught by an unexpected high power consumption for what ever reason? So you can let GPSLogger II inform you about the current battery level of your device. When enabled you will hear one of:

Attention please your battery is low

  • Battery level at 10 percent
  • Battery level at 5 percent - charge device now
  • Battery level at 2 percent - hey dude! - just two percent left

GPS Status

At the early stage of the application development it happened, that when I kept a phone in my pocket, that I turned Airplane-Mode ON or turned Location OFF by accident. So the app is able to inform you, when it does not receive a GPS location for a certain amount of time, so you are aware that the current location recording process can’t be continued until the signal recovers (sometimes this recovery happens automatically - sometimes it’s required to enable/reset a device setting). In case of an issue with the GPS signal you will hear one of:

  • GPS Signal was lost
  • GPS Signal recovered

Recording Started / Paused / Resumed / Stopped

When you make use of the AutoSTART / AutoSTOP or AutoPAUSE function of the app you might find it convenient to get an audio notification once one of these function are triggered. In case of one of the events you will hear:

  • Recording Started

    or

    Alert Recording was not started

    (when there was a technical issue that prevents the app from creating a new file in the storage)

  • Recording was Paused
  • Continue Recording
  • Recording Stopped

Summary after Recording

Additionally, to the Recording Stopped it’s possible to get an announcement of a summary (total distance & total time) for your finished activity.

More than 50 m Off / Back on track

When you are following a navigation path it might / can happen, that you leave the planed route by accident - when this happens you can let it inform you that you are not on the planned route any longer.

When you are off the route and have an online connection the app is able to request a possible detour back to your initial planed route - the app can let you know, when such a detour was found and the app is going to change the next Turn Instructions accordingly.

Finally, once you are back on the route GPSLogger can inform you again.

Obviously these kind of announcements are sort of obsolete when you are able to look at the display of your device - but even then - take these announcements as an additional indicator.

In case of one of these events you will hear:

  • You have left the path
  • You will be re-directed
  • You are back on track

The You have left the path announcement will be playback as a loop - but the pause between the loops will increase over time.

ANT+/BluetoothLE device connection status

If you don’t like to check each time when starting GPSLogger, if the connection to the additional configured sensors (for the current active profile) have been established - or you want to be informed when the connection to a sensor has been lost, then you can enable the device connection status announcements.

In case of one of the events you will hear:

  • Heartrate Sensor connected / connection lost
  • Cadence Sensor connected / connection lost
  • Speed Sensor connected / connection lost
  • Power-meter connected / connection lost
  • Di2 connected / connection lost
  • Treadmill connected / connection lost
  • Rowing Machine connected / connection lost

Di2 Battery below 20%

Has your Di2 ever run out of power during a ride as you forgot to check the battery status before you started? This never happens to me! Since I always know in advance when my Di2 will run low on power, thanks to GPSLogger.

This event announcement can be in the Di2 Settings Section of the App

Attention please

  • Battery level of your Di2 reached 20 percent
  • Battery level of your Di2 reached 10 percent

Gained Height

If your navigation path does not include any climb data, you can enable an announcement if you have completed a certain amount height gain meters.

This is quite an old feature and might be removed in the future. Let me know if you still find it useful.

Version: 2023/03/19