Apple Maps on WatchOS is pretty good but the usual routine is that I get on my bike with a route set and 3 minutes in the “are you working out?” screen takes over and I can’t see the maps without stopping to turn it off. Surely that screen should turn into a notification or silently record after some time without taking over the screen.
I’m surprised to hear people at Apple work on this because surely they must encounter this issue.
If this guys maps can somehow take the screen and hold it, I think he’s got a killer feature for me. Though I glanced at the App Store page and it wasn’t clear to me which features are subscription gated and which ones aren’t and I despise apps that won’t tell me till I’ve set everything up (it just feels so frustrating that it wasn’t clear ahead of time) so I’ll probably just endure and try to remember to start a workout manually so it won’t take over.
I was looking to see if someone had commented on this. For me it sometimes even happens if I start the workout before starting navigation – it will start off in the right configuration but then suddenly switch back to workout data in the middle of the ride.
Google Maps on the iPhone has a similar problem where a banner notification can block the section at the top that shows the next turn. If it's persistent (e.g., a calendar reminder), you have to try to swipe it away while driving without clicking on it by mistake. I guarantee multiple people have crashed because of this.
Whoever at Apple thinks that anything at all should override navigation for more than a couple of seconds without explicit user action is an idiot.
You can also turn off the "are you working out" feature. It's in the settings of the workout part. Just turn off "Check In Reminders"