To say that Garmin has disturbed his users with his new subscription service would be mildly. The company recently announced Garmin Connect+, a new paid premium level of its Connect app, which contains some shiny new payment-walled features, including AI-driven insight and a performance dashboard for all the best Garmin watches.
It’s not gone well. Thousands of furious Garmin fans have taken to Reddit over the news and demanded that customers take a stand.
Open has been so intense that you may have actually missed what the subscription entails, so if you are at least a little curious or you will gladly give the free try a chance, here is what you get from the Garmin Connect Plus for $ 6.99 / £ 6.99 / AU $ 12 per. Month or $ 69.99 / £ 69.99 / AU $ 120 annually.
1. Active Intelligence
Garmin Connect+ gets you AI-driven training insight. Garmin says you get personal suggestions based on health and activity data. Previews show friendly summary of your sleep, battery and more. As you could expect from AI, the insights will reportedly get better over time. Here’s one example:
You fell 1 hour and 23 minutes shortly after your sleep needs, but you still managed to charge your battery 57 points. You are ready for training today, but balances it with rest to avoid the bottom.
2. Performance Dashboard
Connect+ has a comprehensive overview of training data available on the site that allows you to compare your fitness and health data over time. Viewing examples includes your comparison of running duration, time in power zones, average pace and distance over time.
3. Live activity
Your smartphone now gives you real -time heart rate, pace, reps and videos for your indoor workouts (such as strength and yoga) when paired with a compatible smartwatch.
4. Exclusive coaching guidance
When using Garmin Run Coach or Garmin Cycling Coach, you get expert guidance from coaches, including educational content and videos.
5. Improved Life Rack
Starting an activity on a compatible device will now notify your friends and family via text, and you can create a personal liferack profile page that people can follow.
This seems to have changed the existing text feature for Garmin users, and we have had some concerns that this may have pushed some of the existing life rack features behind a Paywall. We have reached Garmin to confirm.
6. Social traits
Finally, social features include exclusive badges, some of them worth an increased amount of points and badge challenges that you can use to customize your profile.
Not much?
The Garmin Connect+ subscription is not extremely expensive, but it is not cheap either. As you can see, you won’t get a huge amount for your money, and Garmin hasn’t exactly been up to the details of these features – this is really all the information we have right now.
As such, it is possible that we get more detailed insights about some of these features in the coming days and weeks.
On the paper, Garmin Connect+ looks pretty thin, and while it’s not the main reason why people object to its rollout, I have to imagine it’s a factor.
