A musher put it to us plainly: he never has time to set up the outing. He harnesses his dogs, he leaves, and it is afterwards that he wants to correct things. Until now, leaving took six to eight taps — the activity, the line, the gear, the display — before the first metre.
What changes
On the launcher, under the decision of the day, a new line: "Start now", with what it will record — "Sled · 8 dogs · as on Sep 28". One tap, and the outing leaves: the run screen opens already recording.
What leaves is exactly what the pre-start assistant would have proposed had you tapped "Next" at every step: your last activity, the line of your last start still possible today, the rig when only one is compatible, the Pocket or Handlebar display kept for that activity, the temperature given by the weather, and you as the musher. On a session day, it is the day's session.
The chip under the line ("Sled · Change") changes the activity before leaving. The same line opens the "Start an activity" sheet, and a long press on the app icon offers "Start now" directly.
On arrival, nothing changes: the review opens as usual, and the team, the places and the activity are corrected there ("Ran: … — Correct").
What others see, and what they never see
The outing is an outing like any other: your teammates see it in the log, with its team and its figures. Nothing says it left without being set up. It is not a separate category: it is the same outing, prepared faster.
What "Start now" does not do
- It does not leave at all costs. The line only appears when the proposal is safe without a screen. If a dog on the line is resting, held back by its health log, pregnant or nursing, or already out today, it disappears and the assistant remains the way: it would show those dogs with their reason, a start without a screen can only abstain.
- It does not do races. The official timing, the format and the stages are declared: a race keeps its assistant.
- It does not leave without dogs, and it never starts by itself when you start moving.
- It does not override a weather STOP. On a STOP, the tap first opens the weather card and "Run anyway", which the app records just as the assistant does.
These are not gaps to fill later: they are the limits of the gesture.
The choices made against the obvious
- The activity stays on screen before leaving. The fastest would have been to guess it and correct it afterwards. But the activity sets the pause rule and the GPS filter, frozen at the first upload: a mistake here would distort the measurement itself, not a label. Hence the chip, one tap away.
- It is never the main button. On a rest day, the launcher keeps offering to open the kennel: "Start now" is right below, ready, but it does not have to be the call of the day.
- The icon goes through the launcher. A long press on the icon could have opened the run screen directly; it goes through the launcher, which leaves at once. The launcher is what knows whether an outing is already in progress: it then shows "Resume", and nothing else leaves.