Work on Octopus Watch is never done. There are always new feature to add to make the app better than ever. This page provides an overview of the currently planned changes that are coming to Octopus Watch. This list is not a guarantee. Features are only added once they meet all quality requirements. Ideas are added and removed from this list at all times without prior notice.
All of the ideas outlined on this page get one or more tags. Sometimes a bug is found that needs fixing . Other times the idea is for new functionality . Some of these ideas only apply to users who have an active subscription . And once an idea is ready – but not out yet – it is marked with a tag. Some ideas are limited to specific platforms. If this is the case they are explicitly marked with or .
Keep track of recent changes to Octopus Watch. Changes appear here as soon as they have been submitted for review. Once the update has been accepted an additional tag is added.
- New Nix v3 prediction engine. Price predictions have been a challenge due to the uncertainty on the energy markets. The new Nix v3 engine is now available for everyone. While Nix v1 and v2 tried to predict Agile prices, the nex v3 engine predicts the UK energy mix. The mix is then used to predict wholesale prices, and from these the Agile prices are predicted. By predicting the energy mix the new prediction engine can take gas prices into account, compensates for home PV production that reduces demand, etc. The Nix v3 engine also predicts Agile export prices much more accurately and frequently.
These are the ideas that are currently worked on. There's a good chance these ideas will make it into a next update. However, until an idea gets the coveted tag there is no guarantee that it will be added.
- Support for all Economy 7 tariffs on a smart meter.
- Remove Siri integration. The small number of users, and the high maintenance cost of this feature, unfortunately means that Siri integration will be removed in the next update.
- Make the Apple Watch dependent on the iPhone. The Apple Watch app is currently an independent app. This means it can run even without having the iPhone app installed. Since Apple introduced this feature progress on Apple's end has stalled. In addition, a longstanding bug that prevent Apple Watch 3 users – which is still being sold! – from acessing Keychain prevents the app from safely storing credentials. For these reasons the Apple Watch app will become dependent on the iPhone app. All data will be handled on the iPhone (including credentials). The Apple Watch will show the information from the iPhone on your wrist, but will no longer work by itself.
- Rewritten iOS/iPadOS app. After three years the time has come to thoroughly clean up the iOS/iPadOS app of Octopus Watch. In return users will see dramatically improved performance throughout the app.
Promising ideas are listed here. These are either small ideas that require some more time to mature, or big ideas that require time to implement.
The grab bag of green pastures and blue skies. The bold ideas that hold great promise, yet which may not be realisable.
Sometimes a feature looks promising but just doesn't make the cut. This is the list of features that are (currently) abandoned and no longer worked on.
- Scroll back to see rates for earlier in the day.
The use case is limited. This requires a substantial change to both the code and the user interface. The benefits do not currently warrant the work involved.
- Provide an X axis for the widget.
Technical limitations make this impossible at the moment.
- Baseload calculation for users with export and/or electricity storage.
Smart meters measure at the edge of your property. For users who only have an import meter it is realistic to treat this as a usage meter; the meter shows the usage throughout the house at any given time. For users with both an import and an export meter this is no longer the case. You can use electricity without it ever registering on the import meter (.e.g. by immediately using generated solar power).
- Increase history beyond 4 months.
Octopus Watch has to juggle a lot of data, from consumption to rates to CO2. To keep the app working well on all devices the current limit is set on 4 months of data.
- Migrate the app back to the Amazon Appstore.
Amazon has been entirely unsupportive in helping to get the app back onto the Amazon Appstore. The Octopus Watch app cares deeply about the security of your data. For this reason, Octopus Watch requires Android 8, which is only provided on the latest FireOS tablets. However, Amazon refuses to make the app available only to devices released with FireOS 7 (based on Android 8), and keeps reiterating the app also needs to work with FireOS 6 (based on Android 7). This is simply not possible to comply with as it would require all data to be stored in plain text.
If you have a device with FireOS 7 you can sideload the Google Play store and install the Octopus Watch app that way. All Amazon Fire tablets running FireOS 7 are fully supported (with the exception of rate notifications).