Garmin Connect App ...
 

Garmin Connect App changes

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 Del
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Is it just me, or have they completely ****ed it with this update?

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 10:47 am
hot_fiat and hot_fiat reacted
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I liked it better before

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 10:47 am
anorak and anorak reacted
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i didn't like it at first, but tried to give it a fair crack of the whip and not just be reactionary.

anyway I realised today that I haven't opened the app in over a week now, and previously I'd look at it most days.  So maybe it is just crap!  I

also it seems to sync a lot less often.  I just loaded it now, there was no data from today or yesterday, and I had to manually start a sync.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 10:50 am
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Thought my garmin was playing up last night up loading a ride . Not as good  !

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 10:50 am
 hb70
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Agree. I don't like it.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 10:54 am
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I've been using it for a while - I was randomly offered to 'upgrade' when it was beta, and now I've got used to it. It's just moves the same stuff around and lets you customise the UI. Everything is still there, and you can stick to the original layout if you want (or you used to able to, dunno if that still the case now)

I think Garmin were having upload issues yesterday.  Probably been hacked again. 🙄

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 10:55 am
reeksy, J-R, J-R and 1 people reacted
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I was in the Beta testers and gave them feedback about one small thing but otherwise I like it a lot. I guess, like many things, it just needs some familiarisation. You might need to customise it to your liking too, definitely deciding what data you want brought to the fore.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 10:55 am
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Hated it at first, but afer editing the page I find it ok although everything being in blocks that make you scroll up and down to see stuff makes it worse.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 10:59 am
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same with any 'update' really, the majority of the posters above were probably quite happy with the app... all the update has really done is to allow you to customise the UI....

but.

why not offer customisation, rather that "customise" it and let all the users try to guess what it looked like before (when they liked/got used to, it)

was the stress thing useful or not, maybe it was heart rate that i glanced at, or maybe steps, i dunno - it just worked.

Ive had no sync issues tho.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:01 am
 Del
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ok, thanks. i'm generally in favour of moving forward wrt software changes but i basically have a blank homepage now. i'll spend some more time on it, which was inevitable really. guess i just needed to shout at clouds a bit!

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:01 am
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I don't think its an improvement but I'll get used to it. It seems to have stopped counting stairs tho.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:04 am
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I broke my watch a couple of months ago, and haven't replaced it yet, so I haven't been on the app for a while.

Just had a look, and I think it'll take some getting used to...

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:06 am
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The customisation isn't enough though!  I wear mine due to chronic health conditions, so I just use the general 'lifestyle' stuff.  So 'running trends' and 'cycling trends' are not useful to me.  Why not allow people to add stress, or HR to the In Focus page?  What's the benefit in removing that as an option?

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:14 am
 Del
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i've been able to make it kind of better, which didn't really take long to figure out at all to be fair! does rather seem to be change for change's sake with some odd limitations. mutter, grumble.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:14 am
 Del
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you can. when you edit the page you can long-hold on cards and move them so they appear all the time.

ah. maybe not in to the 'in focus' bit but you can arrange them at the top of the 'at a glance' bit.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:16 am
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The main screen basically breaks down into three sections; In Focus, At A Glance, and Challenges. For the first two you can customise what's seen (so, Floors can be added to the At A Glance section if you want quick access to it).

I'd have preferred if the order of the three sections could have been changed so that At A Glance was at the top.

@doris5000 go into the Settings / Home Screen and disable the In Focus area. That'll bring the next section to the top. Then just choose what data you want to see in it.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:17 am
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They seemed to have removed the last 7 day summary which is pretty annoying. Not a fan.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:26 am
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@imnotverygood you can re-enable it in the Home Screen settings

Screenshot_20240502-102947

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:30 am
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Much prefer it to the old layout...my mate was on the beta and I had a look over his screen and it just seemed to be far easier to find the info. I then got offered to join the beta and it just seems much quicker and easier to get the info I want (admittedly, the info I'm checking isn't ground breaking!).

I definitely think this is a big improvement over what it was previously.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:31 am
scotroutes, afrothunder88, J-R and 3 people reacted
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I've turned the in focus off and its much better, in fact I think I prefer it now because I don't have to scroll down so much to see what's going on. I can see that my HRV has tanked straight away now, and tallies with how crap I feel

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:36 am
TedC and TedC reacted
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the info I’m checking isn’t ground breaking!

Annoying. I wanted to record some trench digging once and there isn't a Garmin option for that.

I also did the Beta testing and honestly can't remember the difference now. And I check it every day.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:38 am
poshtiger and poshtiger reacted
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I can see that my HRV has tanked straight away now, and tallies with how crap I feel

I'm never sure if HRV really adds much, but this is my HRV for the past 4 weeks.

Screenshot_20240502-104123

A few days ago I started feeling shit, sore throat and I'm currently coughing up green gunge. It's interesting that there was such a dip just before the symptoms hit me.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:43 am
Jamze and Jamze reacted
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I think the most annoying part for me is when viewing it on a computer, all the information is on a strip in the middle of the screen only using about 1/3-1/2 of the screen, widescreens have been standard for well lover a decade now, no excuse for not using the full screen.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:48 am
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I was in the beta programme as well. I quite like it after editing the settings/panels.

If you hate it, I take full responsibility 😆

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:49 am
sboardman, scotroutes, J-R and 5 people reacted
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Ive had no sync issues tho.

I have.  Went for a ride yesterday, hit stop+save on the eTrex. Login in to Garmin Connect, and see "you have no activities this week".

Sync via the Windows app (Garmin Express?  Or Garmin something else - don't recall - they have too many apps) by plugging the eTrex in. Claims Sync OK, only to see "you have no activities this week".

Good job the main way I record activities is via Polar watch and Polar Flow, which then syncs to Strava (which it had done within seconds of me stopping activity).

No comment on the layout , until it CBA to actually get my stuff from eTrex to Android app and Web app for me to actually play around with.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 1:00 pm
 Haze
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Not a fan at first but have gotten used to it fairly quickly.

Pretty sure if they reverted it I'd probably not like it for the first few days.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 1:08 pm
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Ah, I think I have found my missing activity. It looks like it appended it to a copy of the previous activity, but decided it is chronologically before the actual saved/synced previous activity.
Time for some manual TCX editing (not for the first time, although that was due to dumb default settings in the eTrex rather than Connect)

The default new home page is pointless. 80% blank screen and a waste of space, and the only tile with any information is the one with my hardcoded weight. Just make it got straight to either the calendar or the list of activities as the "home" page.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 1:32 pm
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I can see that my HRV has tanked straight away now, and tallies with how crap I feel
I’m never sure if HRV really adds much, but this is my HRV for the past 4 weeks.

Is HRV only available on some devices? I can't find it in the app, but maybe my watch and chest strap don't support it. But I'd have thought you could work it out if you know heart rate and time.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 1:49 pm
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Is HRV only available on some devices?

Yes. My Fenix 6 records/calculates it overnight.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 2:27 pm
Jamze and Jamze reacted
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While we're on the subject of Garmin Connect, does anyone else bother with the Challenges and Badges? I started doing them during one of the 100 days of exercise until Xmas threads on here, as a way of trying to mix up my activities a bit and create a little more incentive. It has ended up with a little friendly rival between a few folks I know.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 2:32 pm
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We have a family weekly leader board for steps. Usually won by Abigale due to her job roll. The rest of us try not to be last.

I've dropped down the table since we lost the dog

However we haven't been able to access it since the last update

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 2:38 pm
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7 day summary

scotroutesFull Member
@imnotverygood you can re-enable it in the Home Screen settings

I've done that, but the only items on display are my activities & HR. All of the other stuff requires you to select the item from at a glance and tap again for the information.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 2:54 pm
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@Tracey the secret to winning the Steps challenge appears to be to own a dog.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 3:41 pm
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@scotroutes the secret to winning in our group is to be a Bike Patrol Officer at Skyline, Rotorua

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 5:12 pm
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A bike patrol officer winning the step challenge??? Something sounds off with that, surely? 🤣
I've gone down the badge rabbit hole...mainly to get myself up another level - I'm not competitive as such but I do like trying to get a bit better. Stupidly mentioned it to a mate and he has gone all in for badges and points.
I'm needing to up my game but it is encouraging me to keep doing some movement.
Don't look at the badges or challenges as they draw you in and get you doing more...and more...😉

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 6:49 pm
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That was my thoughts but she says it's down to trail maintenance 🤔

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 6:55 pm
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Agree it would be nice to re-order the sections. The way today's activities are displayed are a bit too basic on the home screen, preferred the old display there. More customisation such as change tile size (ie options for 1, ½, or ⅓ width) with amount of detail changing with size.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 7:47 pm
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It’s a very poor UI. You need to now swipe or scroll to view information titled “at a glance” when previously all the information was on a single screen. It’s the exact opposite of what it purports to be. Like websites, anything “below the fold” just doesn’t exist.

I’m guess it was designed by someone using either a tablet or a very large screen phone. There’s a lot of wasted white space.

Basically it’s making the user work more to access the same information as before. That’s bad design, no matter how shiny it looks.

Qualifications: expert in UI design and psychology of how people learn to use interfaces plus 25 years professional experience. I wouldn’t have let that out the door.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 9:10 pm
Del and Del reacted
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Are we all commenting on the app rather than website? I'm not seeing any wasted space on the Android app on my phone...

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 10:54 pm
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Nothing useful to say other than I absolutely hate this “upgrade”.  I don’t have time or inclination to poke about on any app trying to find info that just used to be there. It’s changed to green all the colours for various activities that I had set up and right now I can’t even see a use for my garmin watch anymore. Should be allowed the option to upgrade when it’s cosmetic not security.

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:19 pm
Bruce and Bruce reacted
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It's the website that's mostly just wasted blank space. Even when I have 2 windows tiled side by side, the connect one is about 40% content and 60% extra white space and a huge menu which could easily be reduced to 3 items (for my use case).

It's not the only site that does that 😉

 
Posted : 02/05/2024 11:24 pm
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I was on the beta and I fedback I didn’t like the swipey layout vs the old scroll and see everything layout. It got REALLY laggy on my phone and sync got randomly unreliable so I went back to the old one.
sounds like feedback was a waste of time.

We fear change Wayne.

 
Posted : 03/05/2024 12:24 am
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Not a waste of time, just maybe not as overwhelming as the positive feedback...I suspect the lag stuff has hopefully been investigated and reduced.
I've been fortunate by the sounds of this thread as I only use the app on my phone and think it has been a great upgrade as it works well for me.
My watch sits in the top right and that gives me access to all my devices and sensors, so dead quick. The My Day thing I've added what I want to see and it shows the overview stuff on my screen. If I want detailed stuff, I tab a tile and it shows me more detailed stuff - I don't want the detailed stuff showing constantly so more than happy with an overview.

 
Posted : 03/05/2024 9:18 am
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I really dislike the having to scoll left and right. I've no idea why you'd want to arrange the information sideways on a phone which has a narrow screen and is designed for scrolling up and down. You have to do a lot of editing the page to get it usable to how you'd like.

Previously you got the latest information near the top, and then you just scrolled down, which seems like a major feature over this scrolling left/right/up/down thing.

 
Posted : 03/05/2024 12:40 pm
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What information are you scrolling left and right for?

 
Posted : 03/05/2024 1:48 pm
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Is that the summary sections where if you scroll right you get an overview of the various sports you do? If so, unsure that is an issue as it is just grouping similar info in a section.
Aware I'm not really helping as the app seems to work very well for me and gives me quick and easy access to the info I want and a simple way to drill into more.
Reading the thread it seems it doesn't work so well for others though, which isn't good news.

 
Posted : 03/05/2024 3:04 pm
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The swiping left is the In Focus part, which appears at the top on mine. I haven't worked out how to get it to appear below At a glance, but I may end up turning it off all together as it's just slightly annoying and I'll try just using the at a glance as buttons to see the information I want. Maybe that will stop me with the left/right, up/down thing.

Previously I could get four bits of information and my eye would scroll down, and then scroll the page. Now, with "At a Glance", I have four bits of information, presented smaller in two columns, so my eye has to scan left and right and down, and it's harder to read for someone with aging eyesight. I fail to see how this is better.

Add in the confusion of it not being consistent with how to change things (edit home page is at the bottom of the homepage, but edit Tabs is at the top right on "More").

It still suffers the problem of the connect app, and that's it is difficult to find some of the meterics until you get really used to where they're hidden. Maybe even more so now you're having to search out things for your home page. I cannot say I'm that impressed with it. Still, I learn the quirks of the previous app and I'm sure I'll learn to use the quirks of this one.

 
Posted : 03/05/2024 3:41 pm
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The swiping left is the In Focus part, which appears at the top on mine.

Ah yes. I actually removed that bit. I've been using the Profile icon to get a list of my activities. Again, not the most intuitive but it's only two click (Icon... Profile)

It still suffers the problem of the connect app, and that’s it is difficult to find some of the meterics until you get really used to where they’re hidden

Ah. Would that be trying to remember what's a Health stat and what's a Performance stat?

 
Posted : 03/05/2024 4:11 pm
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Is new Garmin playing funny with Strava? Tge activity has definitely synched which makes me think it's more on Strava's end, it shows on my dashboard but not in progress or history etc.

 
Posted : 03/05/2024 9:56 pm
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Well, I've given it a decent crack, but I still think the update is a bit arse.

 
Posted : 02/02/2025 1:40 pm
 Del
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Yeah, my gf and I were talking about some stat last night and she ended up directing me to it. Not good that things are hard to find in an app that is about providing information.

 
Posted : 02/02/2025 7:57 pm
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I suspect it depends on how much your pour over the data, but I still much prefer the app now to have it was before it changed. However, I don't do much pouring over - all my stats are so poor that the overview ones are good enough for me.
I did customise the stuff it was showing me at a glance though but that is all I really check.

 
Posted : 02/02/2025 8:46 pm
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I went through a little tweaking of the "home page" when the changes were introduced and I find it pretty much spot on. TBH I can't even rememeber what the previous version looked like or why there was such a fuss when the changes were made.

 
Posted : 02/02/2025 11:20 pm
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Since getting my pixel 8pro I have to keep reconnecting to my vivoactive.

Yesterday morning it was a reconnect, in the afternoon i had to re-pair it.

 
Posted : 02/02/2025 11:33 pm
 Del
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you probably need to stop connect getting shutdown by android in settings -> apps. android shuts stuff down that hasn't been looked at for a few hours.

 
Posted : 03/02/2025 8:43 pm