New app release iOS Version 4.1.6 includes “Thrive Mode”

post by meckisland on May 22, 2020

What is the new “Thrive Mode”? I don’t see any changes with the new app release.

Rachio Thrive now includes Thrive Mode, a new type of skip that takes advantage of the benefits of Lawn Champion to save you even more water.

post by scorp508 on May 22, 2020

I’m also curious about the the update in general. Usually there’s a community post from a team member with extended release notes and examples of new features working.

post by zachio on May 23, 2020

Hey! I can shed some light on Thrive Mode.

If you’ve got Thrive this app update exposes a new skip type for applicable schedules (I believe fixed and flex monthly schedules that include grass zones). Thrive Mode looks at when you apply Thrive and helps to calculate the changes in soil and when you can skip a scheduled run.

For additional info on the changes:

• Yard Events is kind of like the lawn smarts info we introduced earlier this year, but it’s dynamic content based on your location and the weather around you (think heat waves or cold spells). It will show information relative to those weather events with info on how to help your lawn through them.
• We’ve sped up the time it takes when you are looking to transfer ownership of a controller.
• Improvements to Wi-Fi onboarding issues is a big one that’s only around onboarding/WiFi updates. There’s been a few posts on the forums from people having issues onboarding. We’ve given some updates on the underlying issue, but this app update helps to speed that process along. If we detect that you’ll have issues onboarding due to the issue, we now give you the option to skip the WiFi process completely and get the Rachio added to your account and then tell you how you can use a computer to connect Rachio to your network. The option still remains to try anyway, but if the process fails, we give information about further steps to get your Rachio connected.
• Finally bug fixes/performance stuff. Every app update has this listed in their update notes and we’re no different. It covers super minor things like typos or a crash that only a couple people encounter or even lower level stuff that nobody will notice (like updating a mapping operation to run off the main thread). We’re always making improvements to the underlying code when we find areas that can be improved. I think in this last update, one user facing thing was fixing an extra “%%” in the schedule creation flow.

Thanks for asking about it! If you’ve got any other questions let me know. I can try and answer as best I can. Though, I’m not up-to-date on the algorithms used to calculate the thrive mode stuff.

post by meckisland on May 23, 2020

Thanks for the response, greatly appreciated!

post by scorp508 on May 23, 2020

Where does this live, Zachio? My home screen ends with the lawn smarts section. Will it only pop up during a necessary event?

post by zachio on May 23, 2020

That’s correct, it only shows when an event is happening.

post by dano on May 29, 2020

So to be clear, does “Thrive Mode” not apply to a Flex Daily schedule? That’s what I’m currently using for all my zones, and I use Thrive. If so, should I adjust my schedules? I currently have two perennial zones and two grass zones included in my Flex Daily schedule.