When walking to a shop and making a short stop (i.e. to buy a coffee or drop something off) then carrying on home, Arc tends to record this as one continuous walk. This is especially the case if I’m walking around the shop (so not physically stationary for more than a minute). Is there any way to tell Arc manually that this shop is a ‘location’? The only way to do it retrospectively seems to involve ‘splitting’ the activity, which can be done by time only (which means I have to take a note of the time I arrived and left). If it were possible to point out the location on the map view, it would be easier. I would appreciate any tips on this. Thank you!
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I find that splitting still works to separate out Stationary location elements, even if you dont know the exact time, if you use the Nudge arrow, because Arc will zoom in on the split. Also, if you already set one part of the split to Stationary, it will show a location circle, which you can check for size.
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I think @Palmin has covered everything I would have said. So I’ll just offer the extra of suggesting you vote for this feature request: Insert Visit | Arc App on changemap
Basically the idea is that this new feature would simplify the process of extracting back out these short visits. It could potentially also be made to auto detect stationary segments, for cases where the activity type classifier failed to identify the movement as being “stationary” type.
With enough votes I can justify building the feature sooner rather than later!
To circle back to the original question, there is one useful piece of technical information: Arc’s timeline processing engine will preserve short visits in the timeline as long as they are at least 2 minutes long. So it’s typically only those brief under-2-minute visits that disappear and require this little segment splitting / segment extracting dance. But for things like convenience stores (or in my case the bike stand outside my condo) it can be a regular occurrence, so hopefully the feature will get enough votes to justify working on it soon!
Thank you; I’ve voted for the feature now!
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There is a sort of a similar (but definitely distinct) issue I’ve noticed: when reviewing an unconfirmed activity (like a walk or drive), small stops might actually be displayed within the activity, but if you attempt to name them, the only options are to choose from nearby locations or create your own private place; there’s no one-time visit option for these visits until a stationary point makes it to the full timeline (usually via those two options, after which you can rename it). Would be really nice to be able to have all the place naming options in the unconfirmed activity view.
I’ve just created a suggestion request on changemap, but figured I’d let you know on here as well.
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Yeah, this has been on my todos to fix for literally years. It annoys the hell out of me. But I only ever run into it on rare occasions, and those occasions are typically when I’m out and about, so by the time I get home I’ve forgotten all about it 
I’ll find the todo now and move it into the “Today” category, so that I can’t forget it so easily this time.
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