Test RawPace

Tester guide · version 0.3.0 · October 17, 2026

Thanks for helping us out. RawPace is in testing: it works and we use it on our own outings, but it still has bugs that only show up with watches, phones and routes that aren’t ours. That’s where you come in.

Testing is free. You don’t pay anything and you don’t need a RawPace account.

What you need

• A watch with Wear OS 5 or later and GPS. Google Play doesn’t offer the app to older watches or watches without GPS. The ones we’ve tested are under Tested watches.
• An Android 8 or later phone paired with that watch. It doesn’t work with iPhone.
• Your Google account: the one you use for Google Play on that phone.

How to join

1. Email us at [email protected] with your watch and phone models and the Google account you use for Play on that phone. Send it by email: don’t post it publicly (on Reddit, a forum…).

   Email us to join

2. We add you by hand to the Google Play test and reply with your tester link. We let people in a few at a time, so it can take a few days.
3. Open that link on your phone, signed in with that same account, and accept the invitation (the “Become a tester” button or similar).
4. Install the phone app first, from that link or by searching for RawPace on Play. Then the watch app: Play offers to install it on your watch too, and if it doesn’t show up, look for it in the Play Store on the watch itself.

From your email we see your address and the Google account you give us. We only use them to give you access to the test and to write to you about it. More in the privacy policy.

First steps

1. Open the phone app once. That way the watch finds it and gets your settings from the start.
2. Open the watch app. The first time, a Permissions screen explains what each one is for; when you tap Continue, the watch asks for them one by one:
   • precise location: the GPS for your activities. With approximate location, distance and track come out wrong, and without location you can’t start;
   • heart rate (body sensors): from the sensor on your wrist;
   • physical activity: steps and cadence;
   • notifications: to follow the activity from the watch face and to see map downloads;
   • nearby devices (Bluetooth): only if you use a heart rate strap.

   If you deny one, the app tells you what stops working and lets you ask again or go to the watch settings. More in Watch permissions.

3. Record a short test activity (five minutes walking is fine). To finish, pause with a long press on the screen and hold FINISH for a second. Check that it shows up in History on the phone.

Before your first real outing

• Phone battery saving. Some phone makers (Xiaomi, Honor, Huawei, OnePlus, Samsung…) kill apps in the background. If that happens, your activities may take a while to reach your phone or not upload to Strava or Runalyze. In your phone’s battery settings, set RawPace to unrestricted, and on Xiaomi and Honor also turn on autostart. dontkillmyapp.com explains how for each brand.
• Your watch’s automatic workout detection. Turn it off if you use Health Connect, Google Fit or Samsung Health (see Known issues).
• Maps. Download the area on your phone (Maps › Download region) before you head out: maps cover the whole world. The map goes to the watch over its Wi-Fi (fastest) or over Bluetooth from the phone. Nothing new downloads without a connection.
• Routes. Import your GPX route on the phone (Maps) and send it to the watch. The watch alerts you at every turn on the route and, by default, also at junctions where the route leaves the natural way. Navigation is still being tested: if an alert comes late, is missing or shouldn’t be there, tell us and send the GPX.

Your platforms

Strava and Runalyze are connected on the phone, in Settings › Connections. Once connected, every activity uploads itself as soon as it reaches your phone (if you went out without your phone, when they reconnect).

• Strava: tap Connect with Strava and authorize RawPace. Places are limited: while we’re testing, Strava only lets a small number of people connect to RawPace. If you get an error when connecting, email us.
• Runalyze: tap Connect with Runalyze and authorize RawPace on their website. With a paid Runalyze account you can also use a personal token (Use a personal token; you create the token in Runalyze, under Settings › Personal API). By default Runalyze corrects the elevation of every activity with its own terrain model; to see what your watch measured, go to Settings › Activity form in Runalyze and untick “Automatically correct elevation data”.
• Health Connect: in Settings › Health Connect, turn on “Write activities to Health Connect” (it’s off by default) and accept the permissions. RawPace only writes your activities; it doesn’t read anything. Turn off your watch’s automatic workout detection (see Known issues).
• No platforms: you can also export any activity as FIT or GPX from its details page.

More in Strava and Runalyze and Health Connect.

What we’d like you to test

Use the app the way you’d use your usual watch. We’re especially interested in:

• Installing and opening it for the first time: anything that was hard or unclear.
• Reading your data on the move: whether the numbers are easy to read and whether you miss any data. Screens are set up on the phone, under Sports.
• Your sport: there are seven (Running, Trail running, Hiking, Walking, Cycling, MTB and Gravel). If you use one of the new ones, check it reaches your phone, Strava or Runalyze as the right type.
• The map and turn alerts: whether they come in time and point the right way.
• Interval workouts: whether the steps and vibrations make sense without looking at the watch much.
• Pausing and the always-on screen: while paused, the watch counts how long you’ve been stopped. And if your watch has the always-on screen turned on, choose what you see when you lower your wrist in Sports › (your sport) › Watch screen and button › Always-on screen: Time and distance (the default), Data or Dim data.
• Reminders and waypoints: lists to drink or eat (on the phone, under Workouts) and marking a spot from Controls.
• Battery: the diagnostic measures it; just send one after your outing (below).
• The activity getting through: to your phone and, if you use them, to Strava, Runalyze or Health Connect.
• One question after every outing: did it ever pause, resume or mark a lap when you didn’t mean it to?

When something goes wrong (and after every outing)

1. If you can, note the time and what you were doing.
2. On the phone, open the activity and tap Send diagnostics for this activity; if the problem isn’t about an activity, use Settings › About › Send diagnostics. Do it with the watch nearby and connected, ideally the same day: that way it includes the watch logs, which matter most (with RawPace open on the watch, it answers faster). If they’re missing, the app tells you and lets you Retry or Send anyway. It includes:
   • the activity, as a FIT file and with the raw data the watch recorded;
   • your settings and the diagnostic logs from the watch and the phone (battery, GPS, crashes…);
   • the versions of both apps and the models of your watch and phone.

   If you tick Remove the GPS track, it goes without GPS positions (fine for almost everything except route, map or GPS problems). Nothing is sent automatically: Prepare and send opens the Android share sheet and suggests [email protected].

3. In the same email, tell us what you expected and what happened. A photo of the watch helps a lot.

More in Sending diagnostics, and what the diagnostic contains, in the privacy policy.

Known issues

• You see the watch’s own activity instead of RawPace’s (Health Connect, Google Fit, Samsung Health…), or it shows up twice. If your watch has automatic workout detection turned on, it records its own activity alongside RawPace. RawPace still sends its own, but many apps show the watch’s, which is usually less accurate. Turn it off in your watch’s health app (Samsung Health on Galaxy Watch, Fitbit on Pixel Watch). From then on you’ll only see RawPace’s.
• If you record with two watches at once (say, RawPace and your Garmin), Strava and Runalyze get two activities for the same outing. Delete the one you don’t want to keep there.
• In Health Connect, the distance doesn’t match during the activity. Health Connect gives priority to your phone’s steps. In its data sources, move RawPace above the phone.
• The activity doesn’t reach your phone. Open the phone app with Bluetooth on: the watch sends it again. If it still doesn’t arrive, check the battery saving settings (above) and email us.
• An activity can start on its own (0.3.0; fixed in 0.3.1). It happens if you change the watch’s configuration twice (language, font size, night mode…) with an activity in between that you discard: when you get back to the start screen, another one may start without you tapping START. If it happens, discard it: pause with a long press and hold Discard.
• Galaxy Watch4 with “Always use the watch’s GPS”: on one tester’s watch, with that setting on, the GPS gave very few positions (no distance or pace). Leave it off (Sports › Running › Advanced), which is the default; we’re looking into it.
• Accidental pauses with the button: on watches with a button, one press with the screen on pauses the activity (and another resumes it). If it happens by accident, turn it off in Sports › Running › Advanced › Pause › “Pause with the watch button”.
• RawPace doesn’t pause on its own, on purpose: it alerts you if you’ve been stopped for a while without pausing, and if you move while paused. What it doesn’t do yet, in What RawPace doesn’t do.

Updates

Play updates the app like any other. We announce every new version by email, with what’s worth testing.

Update the phone app first, then the watch app, and then open the phone app once, so it sends the new settings to the watch. If the watch gets ahead, a Trail running, Walking, MTB or Gravel activity may reach the phone as Running, Hiking or Cycling, and that can’t be fixed afterwards. If Play updates them on its own and you see the watch already has the new version and the phone doesn’t, update the phone before you head out.

If you want to stop

No problem. Your activities live on your watch and your phone: if you want to keep them, export them first (FIT or GPX). Then uninstall the app from your phone and your watch and, if you like, leave the test from the same tester link.

Questions? Email us at [email protected].

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