Tell Us What You Think About Our iOS App

Anova Support
1

Hello Anovies,

Thank you all for the feedback about the iOS app - we’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions!! We want to keep an open dialogue flowing so we’d like to invite all of you to share your thoughts and suggestions here. We’re listening to everything you share with us because we want you to get the most out of the app and have the best experience possible with it. To start this off, we’d like to share the top three features requested for the app. We’ll update the list on an ongoing basis.

Currently, the three most requested features include:

  • Bookmarking recipes as "favorites"
  • Sorting recipes by categories (similar to the website)
  • Receiving push notifications of the Precision Cooker's status

We invite you to join in on the conversation to share whatever you’d like us to know about the app experience. As a guideline, we won’t be using this as a thread as a place to post updates we’re making on the iOS app nor will we post about the Android or Windows apps, so please refrain from questions and comments about future releases, timelines or specific product details as we will delete them (sorry!). We have many other threads where related comments are happily welcomed but we’d like to make sure this one remains an open dialogue about what YOU want and how we can make your experience using the app as AMAZING as possible.

Anywho, let’s get right to it - please send any app questions - concerns - feedback - random ramblings - etc. (within guidelines) right on over in the comments below.

THANK YOU!!

2

I haven’t seen the Apple app as I don’t have an iPhone, and I haven’t seen the Android app for other reasons, but I do have a software request for some point in the future.

  1. from the phone touchscreen select the ingredient you are cooking. For this example I will use steak.
  2. It asks you what cut
  3. It asks you the number of serves
  4. It asks you the weight and thickness per serve
  5. It asks you “rare, medium or well done”
  6. It asks you what day/time you want to serve.
  7. It calculates and then sets temperature and start time
  8. It sets a timer in your app so you don’t have to be within Bluetooth range that gives you:
    a) User-definable alarms before finish time so you can prep side dishes
    b) makes suggestions (via website) ranked by popularity for side dishes, sauces,
    serving suggestions etc

This sounds complex when written out long-form but could be made very simplified with good UX design.

3
  1. Add generic cooking profiles - ie. Beef, Tender or Chicken, Dark then cooking time and temp based on thickness and preferred level of doneness.
  2. Add option to favorite recipes.
  3. Option for delayed start.
  4. Option for “keep warm” after cooking. If you are away from home longer than planned, when the food completes cooking based on the set timer, the Anova brings the water temp down to what is still a safe temp range to prevent food-borne illness, but does not continue to cook the food any more.

Thanks,
Chris

4

@Fudspong & @chrisgoud - Thank you for sharing! All great requests. Keep 'em coming!

5

So I have been very critical on not seeing the Android app available. My company sent me an iPhone 6 to play with and I was able to try out the Apple app tonight.

Honestly, if this is as good as it gets then don’t even bother developing the others…

I have 2 Anovas and can’t connect to them at the same time. It looks like you have to break the pairing every time you want to see the other unit.

When I tried playing with setting the temp of one unit the initial setting was 41 degrees. I thought it was showing Celsius until I realized it was in Fahrenheit, but starting at a insanely low number. Honestly, is anyone ever going to cook at 41 degrees? How about starting at the actual set temp of the unit?

One of my dishes was a pork tenderloin. I looked up the recipe, it was there, and it set the cook for 2 hours. That would be fine if you knew the thickness of the meat. There needs to be adjustments for food based on the thickness.

If you hit the search icon the search box opens up, but you have to hit the box to get the keyboard to come up. Make that 1 fluid step.

My other dish was carrots. You have 1 recipe that calls for 180 degrees for 45 minutes and another that is 190 for 1.5 hours. Really???

I think that in the end I would rather do my own research and figure out what time/temp settings I like and save them as a custom setting. And then let me hide the built in recipes so they don’t get in the way.

6

@celltech Lots of very helpful insight, thank you! Please excuse my long and lengthy post: I’ve added in responses and questions and what-not below :slight_smile:

I have 2 Anovas and can't connect to them at the same time. It looks like you have to break the pairing every time you want to see the other unit.

Unfortunately, due to the limitations with Bluetooth, it’s not possible to pair and operate multiple devices simultaneously; however, as you already mentioned you can still connect to more than one device, provided you break the connection each time.

When I tried playing with setting the temp of one unit the initial setting was 41 degrees. I thought it was showing Celsius until I realized it was in Fahrenheit, but starting at a insanely low number. Honestly, is anyone ever going to cook at 41 degrees? How about starting at the actual set temp of the unit?

Great insight, I haven’t heard this suggestion yet but you make a valid point. Beyond the temp it starts off at, how do you feel about the overall experience with the rolling dial?

One of my dishes was a pork tenderloin. I looked up the recipe, it was there, and it set the cook for 2 hours. That would be fine if you knew the thickness of the meat. There needs to be adjustments for food based on the thickness.

This sounds a bit like a time/temp guide. We’ve received many, many requests for this. Were you thinking of something more interactive than, say, a table?

If you hit the search icon the search box opens up, but you have to hit the box to get the keyboard to come up. Make that 1 fluid step.

This is one we haven’t gotten much feedback on, although it’s another great suggestion. I didn’t notice its lack of fluidity myself until one of my teammates pointed it out so he’ll be happy to hear that there is someone else who feels the same about it.

My other dish was carrots. You have 1 recipe that calls for 180 degrees for 45 minutes and another that is 190 for 1.5 hours. Really???

Can you send me a message with the recipes you’re talking about (the conflicting carrots) so I can take a look?

I think that in the end I would rather do my own research and figure out what time/temp settings I like and save them as a custom setting. And then let me hide the built in recipes so they don't get in the way.

Have heard this one a lot - both the ability to save custom time/temp settings and also add full custom recipes. It’s definitely in the top ten of most requested features.

Do you want to hide individual recipes or would you like to have the option to navigate away from the recipe content completely. Maybe having another home screen instead of the recipes would help with this?

7

I don’t want to re-quote the quotes so maybe we can make this simple…

The rolling temp setting is fine, but starting at 41 is nutz. Maybe have 100 as the minimum? Just what is the lowest temp you would truly ever sous vide at?

Meat thickness - I don’t think a table is necessary, just a drop down box to enter the thickness, then it adjusts the time accordingly.

Carrot - Just search for “carrots”…it’s the 1st and 3rd ones…baby carrots glazed with harissa and maple syrup - petite pickled carrots

I don’t want my recipes mixed in with the built in ones…a different home page would be fine

8

It will not run on my older Ipod Touch so I cannot use it…

9

The only feature I would like to request is “a working app.”

  1. It looks like it was designed to only work in landscape mode, but it only works in portrait mode, with 1/3 of the stuff off the right edge of the screen and an empty 1/3 at the bottom.
  2. However setting the temp and timer together is supposed to work, it doesn't: if you're at temp, setting the timer turns the unit off and says it's waiting for temp to start the timer.
  3. Pushing the start button turns the unit on, but turns off the temp or timer control.

I haven’t even tried any advanced features yet like recipes or such because the most basic function doesn’t work. I tried using the app twice and decided it was untrustworthy and counter-intuitive.

Also, agreed that starting the temp scroll wheel setting at 41 is ridiculous, but the scroll wheel is silly anyway. I can type it in a lot faster than I can scroll to the temp. There’s no point in mirroring the design of the device if you don’t have to.

10

Some great suggestions posted! I too would mostly like to have an improved user interface. For me, that means some of what has been mentioned, and some new:

1- As you suggested in a response above @jordan, I really think the home page should NOT be recipes. Add a higher-level home page that does 3 things: links to the recipes, controls the APC time and temperature directly, and queries the status of the APC at any point for temp and remaining time. Keep the “Settings” gear on the new home page for things like Bluetooth pairing, version number, Fahrenheit vs. Centigrade, etc.

2- Really focus on reducing unnecessary keystrokes, especially for mobile devices. The suggestion above discussing the two taps needed to get to the search keyboard is an example of an unnecessary tap.

3- Broaden the search terms to include more of the recipe ingredients. I don’t think “salt” needs to be searched, but the lesser-used ingredients could be very helpful. For example, I might want to use up some kaffir before it turns, but the search reveals no recipes. However if I search for Thai, one of the recipes calls for kaffir leaves.

4- Broaden the search to be more flexible in recipe titles. For example: if I search for “Thai Salad,” I’m told there are no recipes. But if I search only for “Thai”, 14 recipes come up of which 8 are salads.

5- Recipe “categories” is essential, just like in any cookbook. “Seafood” should give me meaningful sub-categories, or at least a list of all the seafood recipes available in some order (alphabetical by species?). As it is, searching for “Seafood” only shows one recipe for cioppino.

6- As a user interface paradigm, the scroll list for temperatures is a no-no…the list of allowable entries is far too long. Worse, the default entry is the lowest at 41 degrees F. Default should be a more typical temperature to start and then be fine-tuned from there. That said, scroll lists are great for when you have too many items for radio buttons or direct click buttons. But as lists get longer, scrolling loses all its charm. For a range as large at Fahrenheit temps, it would be far faster to just type it in as others have mentioned. Tapping on the temp button should bring up an entry field, open the keyboard, and change it to numbers. And no number should be allowed outside the range of the APC itself, i.e., most significant digit can only be a “0” or “1”, decimal digit can only be “0” or “5”.

7- Lastly (for now), I strongly recommend the next version of the APC itself and without using the app reinvent the way to set the timer from the very non-intuitive approach now (hold a button for so long, set time, lose temperature setting, reset temperature, swear at device, have martini) to maybe a simple time button (the light is already there…change it to a pressable button) that allows setting time without disrupting temp.

Although it probably doesn’t sound like it, I do love my APC; it has created some absolutely superb meals (3-day ribs earlier this week was one), and the companion app has value. The recipes are well-written for easy following, the color photos are appreciated, and the ability to control the APC from the recipe is brilliant. As customers, of course, we will always want more.

11

I would like this app on my ipad. I like to use it more than my phone. A lot of great suggestions above. I just ordered my Anova and am looking forward to my first meal.

12

@celltech Good call. It took forever to set that up with all of the quotes lol. Doh!

I’ll flag the carrot recipes you referred to and will share your thoughts with the dev team. I don’t know personally what goes into making these changes but our team will be made aware as they continue to improve and build upon the app.

13

The three most requested features for version 1.0 included the following:

  • Bookmarking recipes as "favorites"
  • Sorting recipes by categories (similar to the website)
  • Receiving push notifications of the Precision Cooker's status
These features are now available in version 1.1. I will update the initial post to reflect the most current and popular feature requests so please give us your feedback as we continue to build upon the iOS app and also build them into the Android app.
14

the app is a bit of a mess post update. it’s nice that it pushes an alert when the water has hit temperature. but the alert is silent, and doesn’t vibrate. so easily goes unnoticed. plus, the precision cooker stops when it hits temp so you can drop items in and hit start to get the timer going. the problem there is that the temperate drops slightly, and then it stops again when it re-hits the set temperature and sends a message you’ve hit temperature and to drop items in. so it’s constantly stopping. the timer never starts. it’s just one big mess and a hassle.

15

  1. The search icon at the top right corner is hard to select. The selectable area for that button seem to be shifted to the left. I tried it on 2 iphone 5s and found them to be the same.

  2. Most of the recipes list temperature in either C or F. A lot of times I just want to look at the recipes and setup the cooker manually. Listing the temperatures in both scales will save users the headache of conversion.

  3. Pairing - remember the paired cooker on the iphone so users don’t have to “Device scan” manual every time.

16

@SWTester excellent suggestion of using both temperature scales to avoid conversion, I like it!

17

Another thought on the time/temp guide: consider the food’s beginning temperature before it goes into the Sous Vide bath. The guide should be able to adjust for 3 initial food temperatures: room (68ºF or so), fridge (38ºF), and frozen (0ºF).

18

@Salisbury_Sam So much great, detailed feedback - thank you! Have you updated your version since the initial download? Some of your points have been addressed - the filter option allows you to sort by categories which should help. Have you had a chance to use it?

Your recent suggestion is a really great idea - so for example, you would select “frozen” and the time for the cook would increase by ~30 minutes to account for the time it takes the food to thaw + the original recipe cook time. Is that what you had in mind?

19

I am excited to know that this dialogue exists. I am afraid however that many people don’t know that it does. I hope that the reviews in the App Store are also considered as you work to perfect the app. I found many of them to reflect my own opinions of the app. We wish that it was more food item directed instead of whole recipe directed. The app shown on the video allowing users to choose poultry, chicken, breast, etc. would be much more user friendly as well as open minded instead of limiting people to search through existing whole recipes. I am disappointed that this initial great idea for the app, that generated so much excitement, was not developed. I also agree that the home page should involve the basic controls for the device, not a page allowing you to choose recipes. I hope that you listen to the reviews and that the app becomes all we want it to become.

20

@jpitt31 - We look at all sources of feedback :slight_smile: We definitely take into account the app store, as well as the google play store, our feedback email, these forums and other sources (Reddit, twitter, etc).


We’re working towards that shared vision :slight_smile: