Garmin Connect+ backlash – your emails, comments and opinions on Garmin's new premium subscription service
Garmin has its users talking
What is Garmin Connect+, anyway?
For those not in the know, Garmin Connect+ is Garmin's new premium tier available for its previously-free Garmin Connect app, costing $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$12 per month or $69.99 / £69.99 / AU$120 annually, with a one-month free trial available.
For this privilege, Garmin Connect+ will supply Garmin users with new features on top of their free ones, including AI-powered insights dubbed "Active Intelligence" which puts all your stats into context, a Performance Dashboard that allows you to view historic graphs, and improvements to Garmin’s LiveTrack service, including a text-based alerts system.
Why has this angered Garmin users?
Existing Garmin users are angry, in part, because they feel like their app is going to slowly get taken away. While Garmin has been very careful in its messaging, insisting that everything currently free will remain free, users believe they will eventually have to either leave the platform or resort to paying for a usable version of it.
Even if all current features remain free, as new ones are added and older ones are no longer supported, the existence of a Connect+ tier invites the possibility that future features will only be available to premium subscribers, a galling prospect if you bought an expensive smartwatch with the expectation it would be supported for years to come.
One of the top comments on the video above reads: "No. Bait and switch. We pay premium prices, like my £800 for my Garmin Descent Mk2s, with the understanding that the extra price is subsidising the Garmin Connect platform and its development. Now with just the existence of this, there's little to no chance we'll see any meaningful updates to the free Connect platform from now on. Class action anyone?"
Another commenter puts it more succintly: "Is this the beginning of the end?"
Garmin Reddit is furious
With 7,100 upvotes at the time of writing, this thread has prompted an enormous outcry from the community determined to make their voices heard. Here are a few comments from the 431 and counting:
Comment from r/Garmin
Comment from r/Garmin
Comment from r/Garmin
Garmin's AI-powered insights
What exactly is "Active Intelligence", anyway?
Similar to Strava's Athlete Intelligence (also on a premium tier: AI's apparently expensive to run), Garmin's Active Intelligence will offer personalized in-app advice based on your training metrics.
The example above is a good indication of the kind of AI-generated advice you can expect: top-line, general, quick-fire tips to guide your training based on past and current performance, rather than anything too granular and concrete like a workout plan. You'll reportedly be able to get these messages multiple times a day as your activity and recovery levels change.
It's worth noting a Garmin representative emailed and confirmed that the AI was built with user data security in mind. Garmin's aware how sensitive health data is, and the need to keep it secure – especially after a high-profile cyberattack five years ago.
The Garmin subreddit is not taking this well
Garmin is getting rid of what makes it special from r/Garmin
The Reddit post above has some particularly poignant things to say.
"They were different than smartwatch companies locking you to a specific phone. They were different than smartwatch companies forcing you to pay a monthly fee just to use the watch. Heck, they were even different than gaming companies providing you games on a platform and then being able to ban you or change the rules after the fact.
"They felt like one of those companies you loved being associated with.... Yet another great company losing track of its identity and tacking on or removing things that just don't speak to its customer base."
Below are some more examples of negative, highly-upvoted feedback from the subreddit.
I paid $700 for a fenix to avoid the subscription bullshit from r/Garmin
It’s the beginning of the end for Garmin. from r/Garmin
I mean, you've got to laugh...
Me buying my first Garmin watch 2 days ago and joining this sub from r/Garmin
Has LiveTrack changed?!
More discourse in our TikTok video, with one user sounding very optimistic: "Probably not for the AI, but I would be interested in the Live Track, I use it anyway as I cycle a lot in the mountains, so would be keen to see what the difference is".
The updated Live Tracking service offers a personalized LiveTrack profile to share with followers (useful for cross-posting on Strava, for example) and the ability for family and friends to be notified via text when a workout has begun, along with the usual link to share your current location that you get in the free version.
However, our Homes Editor (and former Fitness Editor) Cat Ellis, herself an avid user of the Garmin Fenix 7, uses LiveTrack a lot, and told me her LiveTracking recently changed. The LiveTrack text messages to show auto-starts and finishes used to be part of the free version, but seems to have been removed this week ahead of the GC+ announcement.
Check out her screenshot from this Monday, then swipe to check out Tuesday's:
While Garmin mentioned that all features currently free will remain so, this may indicate a feature was changed shortly in advance of the announcement, which is very disingenuous if so. TechRadar has reached out to Garmin for comment, but email in and let us know if this has changed for you.
Two very different reactions with the same sentiment there
How much does Garmin Connect+ cost, and what do you get?
Garmin Connect+ will cost $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$12 per month or $69.99 / £69.99 / AU$120 annually, with a one-month free trial available.
"I’m a long term Garmin user recently replacing my Enduro 3 with the Fenix 8, both premium watches. Strong advocate of Garmin to anyone who will listen.
A disappointed reader
Another reader, George, emailed in with this to say:
"I feel like this is Garmin really pushing their luck, they're the dominant player amongst runners in particular and I believe most of us were under the impression that you pay a premium for Garmin devices to keep the backend services free and available for everyone.
"It's especially annoying for those of us, myself included who are well-invested into their ecosystem. I have a Garmin watch along with some of their accessories like the running pod as well as an Edge cycling computer, which allows for integration between the two devices and Connect.
"I feel like when my watch packs up, which probably isn't too far off as it's 4.5 years old, I will likely move over to Coros. Garmin seems to want to be more like Whoop now and I feel like they've lost their community's trust."
While I've always been a Garmin fan, I think Coros make superb watches. The Coros Pace 3 tops our best cheap running watch list thanks to its absurdly long battery life and powerful insights.
In the Garmin subreddit's megathread on the issue, one user had this to say. It really hammers home the argument some users have about the high price of the base watch, then being expected to pay more on top:
Comment from r/Garmin
We rated Fitbit Premium very highly in our review, but it's worth noting the base Fitbit devices are much cheaper than Garmins, and tend to come with a six-month subscription to the service rather than one month. However, this is offset by the fact that Fitbit lock more features behind the paywall than Garmin do, and faced a very similar backlash when the Premium tier was implemented.
We're wrapping up this Liveblog now, but you'll still be able to read all the historic posts below without paying an additional fee.
I'm back!
Matt here! Over the weekend, we've had an influx of comments and emails giving your thoughts on Connect+. So we thought we'd reopen this Liveblog and post a few of your responses. for example, we had an email from Mike, who was considering picking up a Fenix 8 until the news:
"Hi Matt, I just read your article. I have been a Garmin fanboy since I bought my Fenix 6 over 3 years ago. With any tech stuff I always skip a generation and then like to wait for all the initial bugs to get ironed out when I come to a new launch.
"Anyway, long story short: I was just about to get my hands on a top-end Fenix 8, but I'm certainly not going to bother if an £800+ quid watch, which due to gadgets/tech being what they are is bought with a knowledge of future replacement anyway, if I need to pay a subscription to get its best features. What an absolute scam.
"My Fenix 6 is still going good, and I'll go elsewhere now when it dies."
The conversation extends to the water cooler in TR Towers: homes editor Cat Ellis' running club suggested getting the free trial of Garmin Connect+, getting the exclusive badges (many reportedly worth a hefty four points) – and then cancelling it!
"Garmin will die, like HTC"
Strong words from Jagdeep, who reached out via email: "Everything free will remain free. Yes, true. But this is a very grey, vague and hollow statement.
"There will be no improvements, there will be no updates. And the free will eventually become out of date. Also, the free will gradually not be compatible with new software. Garmin will see a massive exodus as users migrate to other platforms. Garmin will die, like HTC."
Anyone else miss their old HTC Desire? I know I do.
Our reader Ben is eyeing up a potential switch to Samsung, while acknowledging he'll be leaving behind an incredible battery life difference.
An email from Stephen:
"Over the past 10 years or so, subscription models have become ubiquitous – an inescapable and increasingly frustrating part of our lives. But, through all of this time, Garmin stood out as one of very few sports tech companies who had not given in to this trend after so many others had; Fitbit, Whoop, Oura, Withings, Amazfit, even Apple, to name a few.
"I would attribute much of Garmin's success to this exact reason – even despite excruciatingly overpriced hardware, software updates and "fixes" that have introduced more bugs than they have squashed, a completely baffling decision to gatekeep features from flagship products that are barely even 1 year old, and, dare I say, Garmin Connect app outages. Still, people could justify these tradeoffs, considering the one key benefit. That has now been lost.
What do you actually get as part of Garmin Connect+?
With all the furore around the new service, it's easy to lose track of what Garmin Connect+ actually is, and what you get for your money.
For starters, reportedly nothing has been moved behind a paywall: Garmin Connect+ is simply charging for a handful of new features, such as AI guidance. We've just published a full breakdown of all the new Garmin Connect+ features here, although unfortunately the list isn't terribly extensive.
We're going to go dark again for now. Thanks so much for sharing all your comments via email, on our TikTok page, and our articles covering the Garmin Connect+ reaction.