Widgets

Before iOS 14, you could add widgets to the Todays View screen. This type of widget has been deprecated by Apple but they are still available. OctoPod displays all printers in the Todays View Widget and they get updated when you open the Todays View screen.

Starting on iOS 14, iOS let you add Widgets to your Home Screen. OctoPod supports different type of widgets for you to choose from. If you have multiple printers or want to select which camera to display in the widget then you will need to long press on the widget to enter its Configuration screen from where you can complete the widget configuration. To conserve battery, Apple places restrictions on the frequency widgets can be updated. OctoPod will refresh this type of widgets every 5 minutes if printing or every hour when not printing.

Starting on iOS 16, you can also add Widgets to your Lock Screen. Apple does not support configuring this new type of widget. OctoPod will display information for the currently selected printer in the iOS app. To conserve battery, Apple places restrictions on the frequency widgets can be updated. OctoPod will refresh this type of widgets every 5 minutes if printing or every hour when not printing.

Apple Watch Complication

You can configure you Apple Watch to display complications. To conserve battery, Apple also placed restrictions on how frequently you can update complications. There is a limit of 50 updates per day. OctoPod plugin is required for more immediate updates. This includes updates when printer changes state or to receive updates every 10 minutes if progress made increased 10% since last update. When budget is consumed then refreshes are not guaranteed and is up to the Apple Watch to decide when to do an update.

Complications also have a background refresh. If printing then they will refresh every 15 minutes and if not every hour. Once budget is exceeded then refreshes are not guaranteed.

Live Activities

Starting on iOS 16, if you start a print from OctoPod app or if you open the OctoPod app while printing (even if you started the print from the web interface of OctoPrint), a Live Activity widget will appear in your Lock Screen. This feature is only available, as of today, on iPhone and only on the Pro versions.

To receive updates you need to have the OctoPod plugin installed. Apple also placed restrictions on frequency of updates for Live Activities but the overall experience is better than with widgets. Live Activities can run for up to 8 hours. After that they are ended. However, if you open the OctoPod app then a new Live Activity is created. OctoPod plugin will update Live Activities whenever the printer changes status or every time the progress increases by 1%. To not exceed the updated budget set by Apple, changes to printer status, progress at 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% are updated at high priority. Progress changes are sent at high priority after 7 minutes elapsed since the last high priority notification. High priority notifications, as long as they do not exceed the updates budget, will immediately update your Live Activities. Any other notification is sent at low priority which means that the iOS decides when to update the Live Activity.

All of the above sounds complicated, in my real world testing I see Live Activities being updated almost in real time without exceeding budgets. After all, 3d printing is a slow process. :)

Push Notifications

If you want to receive alerts when print is complete, or when you run out of filament, or when printer is asking for change of color or when there is a potential fire hazard due to thermal runaway then install OctoPod plugin. Plugin has also support for IFTTT and notifies for many other convenient events. As stated above, this plugin is also required for correctly updating Live Activities and have better experience with your Apple Watch complications