I wanted to let you know some really exciting news. We’re going to have our developers and designers come to YOU, our amazing community, to directly hear your feedback and answer your questions about the Anova App.
We will be checking this thread every Thursday at 1:30 PST, so please note that we cannot respond immediately to your questions, but we do promise to do our best to get to them we will get to them!
Our team is made up of me @HunterC, the Product Manager, @cdo1828 our full stack engineer, @gusAnova our head of engineering, @NateAnova our UX designer
Why can I no longer remotely start my meal? This is one of the reasons I chose to buy the Anova and now that the app has been consolidated, I no longer have this functionality.
It would be great to get some clarification on what you’re experiencing. It sounds like you have previously cooked remotely with app but no longer can. We haven’t made any changes to the app to remove remote cooking functionality for wifi users. Could it be that you are only connected via bluetooth and need to go through the pairing process? Perhaps unpairing from the “More” tab and reconnecting could restore your connection.
We have been working on improving the pairing process but there are still some problems we need to work through. Please feel free to reply with additional details on your problem, hopefully we can get you back to cooking remotely.
Hi @acs, Thanks for reminding us of our earlier threads about app suggestions, especially the one from @Ember. The suggestion to improve manually setting time and temp is exactly what we are currently working on and we are testing if people would rather use a keypad or scroll wheel. We listen to all the feedback that we get. It just takes time for us to implement changes and to prioritize them with other updates.
Thanks Nate. It’s nice to know that things didn’t go dark after all after suggestions were requested the last few times. Even a brief mention of things as they progress goes a long way with the user base.
BTW, I found my paring knife, so you can skip that mod, but any chance of changing the beep to star trek food replicator sounds?
That could actually be a fun change to the app, letting the user pick the alarm sound that the phone/tablet plays when the various events occur: water at temp, timer start, timer complete, etc…
@acs, you’re spot on again! We get a lot of complaints about the cooker’s beep and are designing new sounds for upcoming products. I can’t say we’re making them customizable but it’s something we are meeting about today!
@NateAnova, the customization easter egg was for the app. I can’t see how that’s any more difficult than picking a ringtone, many apps have customization available for their alarms. Should be a standard API.
As for the cooker hardware itself, can you put a “Disable beeper on cooker” (aka: silent mode) option in the software? I realize this might or might not be possible depending on hardware design and firmware on the unit itself.
Hi @acs, I get it. I like the idea. I can’t promise customizable ringtones will be available since we’ve got some core functionality issues to fix, such as improving time and temp input. We’re a small team so fixing basic issues takes some time. However, we are considering a silent mode for our improvements. It’s not the win you’re hoping for but all of this is at the top of our minds.
I was wondering if they were going to do a Windows app. I control alot of my electronics using my laptop at home. It would be amazing if i could connect it to that as well.
Nate, it’s not about a win or not for me. I don’t use the app. I run everything manually. I’m just trying to help you guys build a better product. So, no need to worry about upsetting me about a lack of an app feature.
Now, please don’t ever take the manual temp setting dial away. That was, very literally, the deciding factor for why I bought the anova. Because, when the automation lets me down, I can still run it manually. And, let’s face it, restaurants don’t use wi-fi cookers, all their stuff is manually controlled.
I know there was mention of “manually setting time and temp” in another thread, but I would like to make some suggestions about the timer in general.
Please give a better indication that it started. Right now, I can see that it was set, but I can’t be sure it started. WIth no seconds counting down, there is no immediate feedback or other affordances that it has started and I have to wait a minute to make sure it has. After several uses, I did notice the indicator around the perimeter filling in, which is nice, but for times of more than a few minutes, moves too slowly to indicate what it is showing. Unless I’m fixated on the app (and who is with sides and dessert to make) this thing fades into the background. First time users won’t get this. Even after using the cooker for months, I still get anxiety from the timer. I have had, on more than one occasion, the timer fail to start after the water comes to temp. I now use the kitchen timer as a backup.
It is not intuitive that the timer doesn’t start until after the water comes to temp. I know it works this way only through testing and observing; something users shouldn’t have to do to figure out the app.
There should be an option to set the timer’s starting behavior. In some of my more delicate recipes, I want the food to come to temp with the water; for others, I want to drop it in after the water comes to temp. It would be nice if I could choose to start the timer immediately on setting it or to start it when the water comes to temp.
The timer is too small. Most of the screen real estate is empty. It seems the designers wanted to somewhat mimic to the round face of the cooker itself, but this decision has created a pretty, but dysfunctional combination of small text and wasted space. As a user, I feel that given the limitations of the device’s UI, the purpose of the companion app would best serve to expand on the capabilities of what the device does. It has the opportunity to create value by adding more information and functionality. The enhanced usability and functionality of departing from the device UI out weights any value introduced by mimicking it in that, since the app and device UI’s are not 100% the same, I have to learn how to use both UIs anyway.
Honestly, except for some nitpicky things that are more or less personal preference (like unnecessary modal dialogs that force me to interact when it really isn’t critical) the cooker works fantastically. The timer is really where the userX falls apart and creates uncertainty and, if you are doing a 5 course dinner with multiple side items, additional unneeded anxiety. I hope you find any or all of the above feedback as useful as I’ve found my Anova Keep up the good work!
Not app related, I know. But in a cooking method that is all about accuracy, I find it wrong that the manual temp control is only in increments of 0.5C. Yeah, sure that it accurate when it comes to F, but most of the world deals in metric measurements.
Hi @kniahlz, thanks so much for all that detailed feedback! The time and temp input is actually something we are currently working on improving, and we have heard a lot of people with similar feedback to you.
We will definitely make it easier to tell that the timer has started, I have even been confused by that. Also, we are working on making some educational content around how and when the timer starts after preheating, as well as giving people the ability to adjust their preferences. It will also be bigger and a lot more intuitive to set.
I hope that all the changes we make will improve your cooking experience! we are all ears if you have any other suggestions!
