Hi there,
I bought VP29 with android 8.1 for my kid and with use of google family link i am able to track his location properly, but i have a need to track it with use of Home Assistant and i was happy to see i can actually install a companion app directly on the watch and enable all location features for it.I have disabled all power saving toggles for it but still, if the app goes to background it stops to update location sensor after a while.
Have anyone tried it already and have some guidelines on how to allow homeassistant to update location on regular basis?
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Settings - more settings - battery - app standby optimizer - select app - turn off app optimized - also in this section switch standby wakeup / standby sleep and standby network to no optimize
Settings - more settings - battery - auto launch management - select app in app auto launch and app secondery launch
Settings - apps and notifications - select app - data usage - turn on background data and unrestricted data usage
The settings below on some A8.1 watches is all you need without adding all of the above as well
Settings - acceleration mode - turn on for all apps - enable all apps that you dont want to be killed in white list
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My H18 only lets me put 5 apps on the white list. Is that an H18 specific limit or is it that way for the majority of 8.1 watches.
( I only have 1 so I can’t check myself)
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I’ll check and let you know
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You are correct. Max of 5 in whitelist of all watches tested
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Thanks. 5 is an OK number
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Home Assistant is not a tracking app…
I use it to track my family and run automations around the house ( like gate open if entering home zone if also being connected to Bluetooth with mobile to make sure traveling by car. ) , or star Roomba if nobody in the house etc. getting customized notifications if someone enters or leaves a certain zone is also handy. Heavy lifting is done on my local server which mobile apps only reports locations and few other sensors every one for a while. Hoping to get it work with the smartwatch as well for my kids and not rely on external services.
Added home assistant to white list, will give it a try and report back 
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Hi. Can you confirm that on your watch you can only add a maximum of 5 apps to the whitelist. I dont have this model
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Added to whitelist but nothing has changed 
i confirm only 5 apps on whitelist.
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i think new HSC (the one with watchOS 10 UI) has a broken app whitelist system - haven’t tried on my VP99 yet but i’ll report back when needed
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One thing worth knowing is these A8.1 watches all have different butchered firmware versions.
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Any chance to get a custom A8.1 (without china stuff) firmware on it?
No. All you can do is remove the rubbish via Adb
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Yes but hard and complicate, take a look at that : [Generic][SL8541e][SC8541e] Information about generic chinese smartwatches with the Spreadtrum / Unisoc SoC | XDA Forums
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wait for a rom backup of this model first (which is being done soon by another user)
then by that point you can try installing havocos or lineage though ppl prefer havoc
ZT global and chinese are relatively the same so there’s nothing much to compare, HSC however differs a lot with v1 and v2
HSC v1 uses the android control center and retains that for a while
HSC v2 (squared) is themed after watchOS 10 and is missing a few settings functions as it could only be accessible via hidden settings; other than that the rom is the same as v1
for rounded however HSC v2 still has the old v1 UI, most of the upgrades was for system stability and QOL/fixes
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