Last week Garmin announced the launch of Garmin Connect+, a new subscription service that adds some features to the Connect app, including an AI tool that summarizes your health and activity stats,
While Garmin stressed that all existing features will remain free with the Connect app, the new tools will cost users $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, and the Garmin user base is not happy about the subscription service.
A post on the Garmin subreddit calling for users to boycott the new service has 10,000 upvotes, with many commenters saying the introduction of Garmin Connect+ will put them off buying a Garmin watch in the future.
We want you to tell us what you think of Garmin Connect+, so dive into the comments below to let us know if you’ll be signing up or not, and whether it’s changed your opinion on Garmin as a whole.
What is Garmin Connect+?
Garmin Connect+ is a subscription service that introduces new paywalled features to the Connect app if you sign up for it.
Other smartwatch and fitness tracker brands have had subscription services for a while, like Fitbit Premium, and Garmin does already charge for some services like Garmin Outdoor Maps+, but this is the first time Garmin has charged for new features within its app that have traditionally been free.
How much does Garmin Connect+ cost?
Garmin Connect+ costs $6.99 / £6.99 a month, or $69.99 / £69.99 a year. A free 30-day trial is currently available to let users sample the new features you get with the service.
What features do you get with Garmin Connect+?
Several new features were launched with the service, with the most intriguing being the AI-powered Active Intelligence, which provides personalized insights and suggestions based on the sleep, health, and activity data tracked by your device.
There’s also a new performance dashboard on the Garmin Connect website, which shows more stats on your workouts, and you can now see live stats from an activity on your phone as well as on your watch.
Connect+ users also get expanded LiveTrack features, with the option to notify selected family and friends when you start an activity, and can earn more badges in the app through unique Connect+ challenges.
Why are people angry about Garmin Connect?
No one likes to pay more for features, especially ones that show or use your own activity and health data, and while other companies like Fitbit and Whoop have introduced subscriptions, it’s worth noting that Garmin watches tend to be a lot more expensive than those devices.
Top watches like the Garmin Fenix 8 cost over $1,000, and users might well expect to get all of Garmin’s in-house features for that outlay.
In addition, while all of the existing features on Garmin Connect are set to remain free, many users are concerned that new features that launch in the future might end up behind the paywall. We'll have to see how that pans out in the coming years.
So far other manufacturers of the best sports watches like Coros, Suunto, and Polar have not introduced a subscription service for this kind of data, so the new Connect+ paywall could push some users towards those brands instead of Garmin.
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