Garmin Connect™

I recently purchased a Garmin Forerunner 235, and I enjoy everything about it! It is so useful. It is lightweight, tells you your heartbeat, your VO2 max, recovery time, your aerobic training, and more. I didn’t realize all of the features I wanted were on the watch (there is no swimming, but I don’t really care). The app is what makes the watch so cool, and it makes it easy to see your mileage. Also, there are badges that you can get, and it makes the workouts feel like a game sometimes, trying to earn the badges. My mom now really wants one of these watches. I guess the downsides are that the watch dies after around three days, with you recording a workout session in all three days that last for around an hour. I don’t know how accurate the Garmin watch is, but I’m just glad that the features are there, because if I wanted more accuracy I would need to go and make myself uncomfortable for the day (heart rate while sleeping, deep and light sleep tracker, heart rate while running, etc). Sometimes it’s uncomfortable after wearing the watch snug for a couple of days. The “move!” Thing on the watch is a little annoying, but the pros outweigh the cons by far, and you even might be able to disable it. All in all, this is a great brand, and if you are obsessed with health and working out, I would recommend this brand for a lot of people. I got my watch on Black Friday for $150, and I don’t regret it at all.

Overall I really like Garmin app & Garmin products. Am currently on my 5th Garmin watch over 7 year period. I currently use a Garmin 235 and am anxiously awaiting its replacement. I find Garmin Connect has been a very reliable application and has all the data I need. I find it has all features I need and several more that I’ve never gotten into. My only qualm with Garmin over the years is their heart rate measuring devices... to me it’s their weak spot. I have had issues with heart rate straps dating back to my first Forerunner 25 up through my Forerunner 620. I switch to wrist based on 235 and find it’s maybe 90-95% reliable - unfortunately that 5-10% comes at the most inopportune times! Like during the Boston marathon in 2017 or other critical races or workout. Actually it’s the Garmin Connect app that kept me with Garmin running watches. I know Polar does a better job tracking heart rate but I like the Garmin Connect app enough, plus have years of data on it. Am hoping that improvements to the 235 replacement will include better more reliable heart rate tracking...

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I have a vivoactive 3 for 1.5 yrs. Until recently I owned a edge 520 for roughly 4 years. The 520 does the basic features ok but when you want to use an advanced feature, it might work it might not. Both are plagued with constant glitches. I couldn’t handle the edge 520 reoccurring issues. When the charging usb port broke I got a refurbished 520 and gave it to a friend who was new to cycling. I switched to a wahoo roam and I am problem free!! I still wear the vivoactive 3. My watch always had one or two nagging quirks. Now it continues to have constant connection issues since iOS 13 was released. I’ve gone through the suggestions garmin sent out to fix this issue but still nothing. 🙄 Furthermore I had great customer service 4ish years ago. The last time I called my experience was the opposite. Things happen and people can have bad days. Why am I bringing up customer service? If you buy a garmin product you’ll have to use the garmin connect app. When issues arise you’ll have to call garmin. I know this is supposed to be a review of the app and I am giving examples of the products issues. In the end who knows if it’s a garmin connect issue or a 520/vivoactive issue.... who cares when the stuff isn’t dependable and doesn’t work as advertised. If anyone reads this the take away thought is my garmin experience has been sub par due to numerous glitches. They kinda work 🤷🏻‍♀️. Good luck

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I’ve been a Garmin fan since buying my Forerunner 935 on initial release two years ago. I take some ribbing from Suunto (climbing) and Apple Watch (running) friends, but I’ve been 100% pleased with the decision: the 935 is a great piece of tech, and I’m sure the 945 is as well. HOWEVER: the Garmin Connect app seems to be getting more disappointing to use as a training tool with each revision. The prevailing style seems to prioritize oversimplified infographics over actually allowing users to review and interact with their data. As an example, I’ve been religiously using “training status” every day for two years to monitor the relationship between my 7-day training load and my target load (based on integrated firstbeat tables), making training adjustments on the fly... Now, when I open the app, all those brilliantly helpful, adjustable, overlaid charts are gone—they have literally been replaced by a colored icon that says, “Productive.” That icon changes in response to training each day, but I can no longer view the data that underlies it on the fly, rendering this potentially valuable source of insight meaningless within the app. Dev team: you’ve had two years here. Please, please, please stop driving this app towards banal “mass-market cuteness,” and instead, try giving your devoted fanbase more powerful tools to articulate and shape our fitness goals. Would love to see you course correct here.

I’ve been a been a Garmin user for a long time and at times I really question my loyalty because their software updates for devices frequently cause new issues, loss of functions, etc. (Some issues have taken months to resolve, eg when Strava segments updates weren’t transferring to Garmin devices.) Why am I bringing up device software issues on an app review? It’s because the app has the same issues, eg I bought a Fenix 5 about 7-8 days ago and it was working great with this app, I had all the functionality that I was supposed to until I updated the Garmin app this morning. Now the weather and the Physio TrueUp functions aren’t syncing to the watch. All the rest of my software is up to date so it’s not another software issue. Stupid me, for forgetting how many times I’ve updated the app when everything was already good and only to have a month or two until it finally gets fixed. This cycle repeats itself with Garmin every few months. Apparently there is no testing before an update release. As such, I encourage all to ask “is everything working well? If yes, then do I really need to update the app?”