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Published January 5, 2020
There have been quite a few posts lately about ANT+, and that’s not surprising. Developers are all over the map today with what they are supporting, and we’re getting to the point where the expectation is “mobile first” such that whatever feature exists in a desktop version of an application, customers expect a similar experience in mobile, and vice versa.
The downside for ANT+ users is that ANT+ is yesterday’s news, and fewer and fewer apps are going to support it, particularly on mobile.
Let’s look at the commonly used apps, and what they are supporting as of this writing for ANT+. Unfortunately, we’re not able to test iOS devices, because we just don’t have any iPhone / iPad old enough to support the ANT+ key from a few years back. If you have any such info for iOS, send it along and we’ll be happy to add to the list.
For our testing, we used Garmin ANT+ USB stick on Windows 10 and MacOS Catalina. On Android, we used native ANT+ support on Samsung Galaxy S6, S8, S9, and s10+. RGT screen testing was also done on Apple TV 4K and iPad Pro 12.9
Zwift
** You can select the ANT+ ID of your Neo, but you will also be asked for the trainer model on the next screen. Tacx Neo is not available on this list, naturally, as it would be an odd choice to use Speed / Cadence with Neo instead of Power.
Otherwise, for all Zwift connectivity, we have only been able to get ANT+ working with Android 7. Later versions do not appear to work (tested on 7, 8, 9, 10).
Tacx Training App / Desktop App
Tacx Training App also allows you to pair the broadcast Power / Speed / Cadence from Tacx Neo as a separate device. Why you would do this, we do not know, but we understand you’ve gotta be you.
You can also pair a peripheral Speed / Cadence sensor like Giant RideSense.
We were not able to pair an external power meter with Android versions that we tested.
TrainerRoad
TrainerRoad does see the ANT+ trainer but you cannot pair the Neo exclusively as Power / Speed / Cadence sensor. You can pair your other ANT+ devices individually, including the ability to pair your power meter as a cadence-only device through settings, and the ability to use a separate speed / cadence sensor.
Some iOS devices are supported using the Wahoo ANT+ adapter, plus a 30 pin to Lightning adapter. We are not aware of anyone successfully using this method with USB-C, and can’t really justify the expense.
FulGaz
FulGaz for Windows does see most ANT+ devices, and Neo is listed as a Power device (trainer) for Bluetooth and ANT+. FulGaz was NOT able to see any external power meters that we tested, either Bluetooth or ANT+ — but our Stryd shows up as a power meter for some reason.
FulGaz for Android is a bit of a nightmare. We can see there is a bluetooth connection between the Neo and the various Android versions we tested, but no devices appear in the FulGaz pairing list. There does not appear to be ANT+ support of any kind for Android.
Surprisingly, FulGaz jumped off the Apple wagon and went to Android and Windows, skipping MacOS for reasons known only to them.
Rouvy
Extremely robust discovery of ANT+ and Bluetooth devices in Windows and Android, detecting devices we didn’t even know we had in the building. Sadly, no support for ANT+ in MacOS.
Rouvy has supported ANT+ on iOS historically through the use of the same Wahoo ANT+ key that TrainerRoad has used. We can’t confirm that it is still working on current software versions, so let us know!
BigRing VR
BigRingVR will detect a very specific range of devices. You can use an external Speed / Cadence sensor (you have the option to turn them off) but it will not allow you to use the cadence functionality of your power meter.
Sufferfest
Not much to say about Sufferfest. It just works.
ANT+ support has been discontinued for iOS users.
Bkool
**Like Zwift, we were only able to get ANT+ support in Android 7, and no later versions. Support was complete, with a distinct pairing option for each type of device (trainer / power meter / speed sensor / cadence sensor / HRM).
Whereas most apps will display trainers by their ANT+ ID, Bkool does one of two things: hides the ANT+ ID and leaves you with just “Tacx Trainer”, OR displays the ANT+ ID in hexadecimal, so if you’re not familiar with base 16 numbering, you may feel a little lost. If you have just one trainer, probably not a big deal, but when you have many… oy.
Another thing we found interesting was Bkool’s inability to detect a Neo 2T over bluetooth on Windows. ANT+ worked, but not bluetooth. On Mac and Android it, the Neo 2T was fine. Neo 2 also temporarily appeared as a Tacx Flow. Bugs!
Bkool claims to support ANT+ on iOS with the use of the Wahoo ANT+ key, but we cannot confirm. Let us know!
Road Grand Tours
RGT is a different kind of app. It uses the Bluetooth and ANT+ connections from your mobile device to pair your training devices, and then use those signals to drive the visuals on the screen app running on Windows, Mac, iPad, or AppleTV. Kind of like Zwift Companion, except instead of acting as an accessory, the RGT mobile app is mandatory. Yes – you need two apps to run RGT.
No problem pairing any of our ANT+ devices from Android, but they are explicit that speed sensors and legacy trainers are machina non grata.
RGT claims to support ANT+, but does not specifically state that it will work on iOS, so if you’re using the iOS version successfully with ANT+, let us know!
Kinomap
** Like TrainerRoad, Kinomap’s ANT+ support suffers from the Android 10 problem, throwing the non descript “Error 400”. I don’t think anyone’s quite reached an answer yet, but I know TrainerRoad is working on it. Kinomap did work with Android versions 7, 8, and 9.
Kinomap has multi-part ANT+ pairing. First, you pair your trainer, then you add any additional sensors through the Equipment Management page by editing the settings of your trainer. It’s a little weird, but we had no problem finding any of our ANT+ sensors. The odd bug is that all of your ANT+ sensors in the Add Additional Sensor screen are doubled, so you see 2 of every ANT+ sensor, but only 1 of each bluetooth sensor.
Kinomap also claims to have ANT+ support in iOS with the use of the Wahoo ANT+ key, but again, we can’t confirm. Let us know!
CVRCade
Garmin Express Mac Catalina
This was kind of a mess. The results were very inconsistent. Sometimes the paired devices would switch on their own, like Maximum Overdrive.
Although CVRCade does support both Bluetooth and ANT+, we were not able to see any cadence sensors, and all the Neo trainers were only visible as ANT+ devices for the fleeting moments they appeared at all.
We’ll take a longer look at this another time.
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