Vire - Frequently Asked Questions
Here we present answers to some frequently asked questions about Vire. If you are participating in a study and have a problem that is not explained here, please contact your research project contact person.
Vire is currently being tested and is not available yet for commercial use. If you would like to try Vire or explore a collaboration for further development, please contact us at info@onmi.design.
01
What is Vire designed for?
Managing your health requires you to make some lifestyle changes. But this is not always easy. We all tend to stick to our habits and routines. We find it hard to change the way we have been doing things for years. But help is on its way to you now.
Vire will support you in taking responsibility for your health and in making the lifestyle changes you desire. It does this in several ways:
Do's
Vire sends you Do’s: small positive actions designed to disrupt some of your old habits. You will receive up to 3 per week for the duration of the programme, depending on your personal needs.
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Do’s – or micro behaviours – encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and try new behaviours. By learning new behaviours – we call it becoming more behaviourally flexible – you have more choice over how you react to different situations.
Awareness
Vire gives you insight in your existing habits in three key areas. The bubbles on the home screen represent your score: the bigger the better. You can also see your scores over the past 14 days.
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Variety: becoming flexible is necessary if you want to change habits, create diversity in daily life and be explorative
Activity: physical activity is important for your health, so be active and reduce the amount of time you sit still
Social Opportunity: socialising is important for your wellbeing, get out to meet new people and to strengthen existing relationships
02
* We analyse all data pseudonymously and never share it with anyone *
I have installed the app, what do I do now?
Your Do’s will be personalised based on a questionnaire and based on near real time analysis of your behavioural data from Vire and Fitbit. So it is important to complete the questionnaire and to provide access to the data.
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Follow these steps and you’ll be ready to use Vire:
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Go to your Do’s screen to find your first Do: PERSONALISE YOUR PROGRAMME.
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Click on the link to start the questionnaire.
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Go to the settings screen to connect your Fitbit to Vire.
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Use your Fitbit account to authorise sharing of data. (this only needs to be done once)
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That’s it! Remember to mark your Do’s as completed.
How will I know when I have received a Do?
03
After you complete the intake questionnaire, you will receive personalised Do’s for up to 6 months (depending on your programme). Every time you receive a new Do, Vire will notify you by showing a blue Do bubble in the home screen. When you click this it will take you to the new Do.
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Depending on your settings, your phone will also send a push notification to bring your attention to the new Do. We recommend you enable push notifications so you don’t miss any Do’s. The more uncompleted Do’s there are in your list, the harder it becomes to catch up with the programme.
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Click here to learn how to turn on push notifications on iOS.
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Click here to learn how to turn on push notifications on Android.
04
How can a Do help me improve my lifestyle?
Do’s ares designed to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and try new behaviours. By learning new behaviours – we call it becoming more behaviourally flexible – you have more choice over how you react to different situations.
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Habits are often made up of a chain of actions and thoughts. One behaviour (or thought) automatically cues the next one in the chain. A bad habit can start earlier than you think because the habit chain may be quite long. For example, you might always drive the same way home after work, you might pass the shop that triggers a thought about eating biscuits, you buy biscuits meaning to be good about when you eat them. Then you go home and turn on the tv and get a coffee. The eating of the biscuits that is likely then will have started with a habit chain going back many apparently independent decisions, such as which route to drive to get home. Do’s break the habit chains earlier than you might otherwise do.
What type of data does Vire collect?
05
When you sign up for a Do programme, we may collect a variety of information through the programme’s intake questionnaires. This can include a variety of questions about your personality, habits and wellbeing.
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When you first use Vire, it will ask you to create an account to sign in. The account is created with Auth0, a third party identity provider. Auth0 stores your email address and provides us with a pseudonym. A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which does not include any personal reference. We uses this pseudonym to identify you in the database.
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The app will ask for your name to personalise the experience. Your name is only stored locally on your device, and is not stored in our database or combined with any other information.
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In order to provide location-based services such as the Do programme, we may collect and use precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your device. This location data is collected pseudonomously in a form that does not personally identify you directly. This is considered best practice for this type of application.
Please check our privacy policy for more information.
06
What do the scores in the home screen mean?
The three different scores in your home screen are chosen because they represent important factors of a healthy lifestyle. This decision is carefully thought through and verified with experts.
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Each variable is explained when you click on the bubble in the home screen. The scores you see under the explanation show how you can influence the score. Only two numbers are shown, but the overall score is calculated based on more factors.
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Steps taken: this is taken directly from your Fitbit and used to interpret your physical activity of that day.
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Active hours: also from Fitbit, this combines activities of different intensities and can be different from what Fitbit app shows.
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New locations: these are new locations you have visited since you are using Vire. A location is only considered new once.
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Hours at new locations: the longer you are in new places, the more chance you have to meet new people.
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Uncommon locations: you have been here before but not often, a location remains uncommon until you have visited it 4 times.
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Reach: the reach of your day, the maximum distance you have travelled that day.
07
** Vire requires adequate phone battery capacity to be able to measure the device location accurately. The GPS data collection is a process that gets terminated by the phone operating system if the battery level is too low. This is done with all processes in the ‘background’ so you can use your phone for longer. If your phone’s battery capacity is low, Vire might not be able to calculate your Variety and Social scores properly **
Vire is not showing my data.
Sometimes Vire might not show data, like the left image above. This can be due to several reasons.
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Check your settings screen to see if the Fitbit and Location data are up to date.
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If Fitbit is not up to date like the example above, go to the Fitbit app and synchronise your device. If you are not sure how to synchronise Fitbit, please check their website.
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If location does not update this might be due to your privacy and location settings:
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Vire crashes when I open it.
08
This problem can occur when you are not using the newest version of Vire or iOS/ Android. Please use the links for step by step instructions for iOS and Android.
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If the problem persists, try to delete Vire first and then install it again from the App Store/ Play Store. Your Do’s and scores won’t be lost, they will come back once you sign in again.
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How to update Vire app in iOS/ Android.
Connecting my Fitbit to Vire won’t work.
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The link between Vire and Fitbit can sometimes fail during authorisation. After entering your Fitbit account and password, a “bad gateway” error message may appear. This can be caused by the Fitbit or Onmi server. Wait a few minutes and try again.
11
Why does the AppStore say Vire wants access to calendar and photos?
Vire uses a the Expo-sensors software library. This library can provide access to your phone’s accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and pedometer. Vire only uses the library to collect pedometer data to assess your activity without the need of a Fitbit.
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In an attempt to increase transparency, Apple forces app developers to list all possible types of data that can be collected by an app and the libraries it uses. So we have to list it here, but we don’t collect it and won’t ask you to approve this collection at any time.
Why is there a difference between Fitbit steps and Vire steps?
12
Vire collects activity data from the smartphone pedometer. This is done so we can send appropriate Do’s in case you forget to wear, charge or synchronise your Fitbit. You may find that the amount of steps in Vire are different from those in Fitbit.
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This is because the Fitbit is better at counting steps from wrist movement than a phone is from leg movement. Besides, we often walk around the house of office without picking up our phone. As long as you are using and synchronising Fitbit, we will use Fitbit steps to calculate your scores. The Vire steps are used as backup.
13
Why can't I complete my Do?
You can only complete your Do's when you are connected to the internet. Make sure you are connected to Wifi or that you have 3G or 4G reception.
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On a rare occasion the server can be experiencing problems. If you are sure that you have an Internet connection but it still doesn't work, try again in an hour or so.