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What phones does Garmin work with?

tl;dr: My Vivoactive 4S does not work with my phone, and I'm considering buying a phone that will work with my watch. (Excessive details at bottom of post.)

As I see it, my options are to:

  • have someone point out something I've missed;
  • give up on Garmin;
  • buy a new phone

(I can't use my husband's phone which does work with Garmin - it's physically too big). I am of two minds as to whether buying a new phone would be throwing good money after bad (I would be buying a phone for the watch; this is not ideal as the watch itself was an expensive investment where the price tag caused me to spend a few months umming and ahhing over whether to purchase). (I have my eye on the Pixel 4a as that feels like a nice size.) 

If I buy a new phone, I want to know that it works with Garmin.

Garmin does not provide a list of working phones. (I elaborate on this below)

So... what phones does Garmin work with?

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Debugging steps I have taken:

  • reset my watch to factory settings, and tried pairing both before and after updating its software using the Garmin software on my computer
  • forgot all Bluetooth connections on my phone, and deleted the Bluetooth cache
  • deleted and reinstalled the Garmin App
  • restarted my phone and restarted my watch

I have tried the above steps in different combinations of orderings.

I have done my best to systematically go through most of the debugging resources both Garmin and users have made available. I screenshot my phone and took photos of the state of my watch while stepping through the debugging process, and would be happy to upload if requested. I believe I have been reasonably thorough, but I would be incredibly relieved to have something silly I have missed by pointed out to me.

The only thing I have not done is hard reset my phone - I am reluctant to do this as it would take at least an hour to record all my settings and data, and then restore after the hard reset. I am also of the opinion that if I am going to need to debug regularly and each time my phone will require a hard reset, I am not interested in using Garmin.

My phone / my husband's phone details:

  • Garmin's stated requirements:
  • my phone (does not work):
    • Alcatel (subsidiary of Nokia); Model 1S
    • Bluetooth 4.2
    • Android 9.0 (updated to 9-01004)
  • my husband's phone (works)
    • Realme C3
    • Android 10
    • Bluetooth 5.0

Details of my watch / phone history:

  • I bought a Vivoactive 4S in June of 2020
  • at the time I was pregnant and throwing up at the drop of a hat; I couldn't get the phone and watch to pair and assumed user error due to, well, throwing up at the drop of a hat; so I put the watch in a drawer to deal with at a later date
  • in February I managed to get my watch and phone to (reasonably reliably) talk to one another; however, after about a week one of them ran out of battery (I can't recall which I had failed to charge) and once I had charged and turned it on, the pairing failed and continued to fail
    • side note - I have a hazy memory of finding some blog that told me to try this one thing I hadn't yet tried (I think it was deleting a file on either my watch or the phone) and that seemed to make it magically work
    • qualification of side note - I had a newborn; so my memories of that time are unreliable (to put it kindly)
  • in late March I decided to use my watch without the bluetooth functionality, and have used it (uploading data using a laptop) in this manner since
  • two weeks ago I decided to get the [blank] thing to finally [blank] work; after a day of debugging I admitted defeat and tried to get it to pair with my husband's phone - it paired perfectly
  • after a few days of being paired to my husband's phone, there was an update that caused my watch to freeze in the middle of a run (apparently many people were affected by this)
  • I contacted Garmin (finally) and asked for assistance; their response:
    • by phone: we will send you a list of tasks you need to do to try to debug it before we will help you (would not listen to my list that I had methodically documented; never sent me the email)
    • by email: sent email that I should try turning it on and off again
    • by phone: told me that as it was outside of warranty (not strictly true by Australia's consumer protection laws), they would exchange my current watch for a refurbished watch; when I pointed out that as my watch works with my husband's phone, and thus it was likely as not that a refurbished watch would face the same problems and I wanted some assurance that a refurbished watch would be meaningfully better, was told that it was probably the fault of my phone and a refurbished watch would also not work; when I said that I had checked the list of phones that were incompatible with Garmin to ensure my phone would work before I bought Garmin, was told that the list is not comprehensive, and that Garmin only checks "the major companies' phones"; to this I pointed out that Garmin's messaging feels misleading, as the way the information is presented makes it seem as though, provided your BlueTooth and Android meet the requirements and your phone is not explicitly mentioned, it seems fair to assume your phone will work (information here: https://support.garmin.com/en-AU/?faq=pvL8aWsaLU2iKyvF8VrpP9); we had reached an impasse (the person I was talking to is not responsible for this!) so I wrapped up the conversation
  • Can't see any reason why your alcatel 1s would not work, assuming it's this one - https://www.gsmarena.com/alcatel_1s-9598.php. And no reason to reset the phone (yet). Email responses from Garmin typically take a while. I prefer using the chat method if possible, as that is instantaneous and you have a transcript for your records.

    Usually what people miss is that after unpairing the watch from BT settings and clearing the cache, they should use only the app to pair the watch to the phone, not the BT settings on the phone.

    I see you've already tried some, if not all of these tasks but to make sure, see thread and response from  -  My forerunner 30 is not connecting

    This video might help

  • Thanks for your response seilogramp.

    My debugging list is not comprehensive - I've gone through the Garmin Singapore video. And the very long debugging list on the front page.

    I have been in touch with Garmin - via email they told me to, quite literally, turn it off and on again (I have the email - there's no other way to summarise it). Via phone they told me it's likely Alcatel is not supported. Thus why I'm trying to get a short list of supported phones; or find someone with an Alcatel that works with Garmin.

    (It's worth noting that there's no reason to assume every phone with the required specs will work with every update Garmin pushes through - developers make errors; phone-makers do weird and wonderful things under the hood with unforseen consequences - frankly, knowing what I know of software development, I'm often surprised there are as many compatible pieces of tech as there are!)

    Thanks for your time!

  • I've tagged Garmin-AmberD in my previous post in hopes of getting a Garmin response here. 

  • Hey there! First, I just want to apologize for everything you have had to go through in regards to support and all of your troubleshooting. You did the right troubleshooting. You do not need to exchange your watch for a refurbished device as it does pair with your husbands phone. The support article you posted is in regards to the Garmin Explore app and not the Garmin Connect app. This article is in regards to the Connect app that I posted below. I do not know much about this phone, I did a little reading on this and it looks to be a Android Go edition, with that being said, the device is not likely to work with the Garmin. I sincerely apologize all the trouble you have had to go through. With the amount of phones on the market currently and ever changing we do not have a list of phones that show what is compatible. I hope this helps. 

    Compatibility Support Link

  • Thank you so much - it's nice to know that it's not that I'm incompetent.

    Do you know if there's something I can apply to Alcatel to fix that would make it compatible with the Garmin?

    The link you've provided appears to be broken - would you be able to tell me what it's about and perhaps I can find it by Googling?

  • Hey there! We fixed the link and it should work now. As far as contacting Alcatel, I am not sure. It does not hurt to communicate your feedback with them. 

  • Do you know if there's something I can apply to Alcatel

    Looking up Alcatel 1S - https://www.alcatelmobile.com/product/smartphone/alcatel1/alcatel-1s/ some  of their phones are running android go edition, but this one looks like it's running Android 9.0 Pie. You should be able to go to your phone settings >> about phone >> Software information >> Android version

  • Yes, as I say in my above post my phone is running Android 9.0 (updated to 9-01004) (according to its current settings).

    Garmin-AmberD's response is a little unclear as to whether it's the fact that my phone runs Android Go that means it's unlikely to work with Garmin (if that were the case my issue would be downloading the Garmin app - that's not my issue).

  • For what it's worth, my Asus phone is running Android 8.0 without any Connect issues.

  • Just out of interest, what kind of Asus phone is that? Asus has quite a few that might be running Android 8.0: Zenfone 5Z  / Zenfone Max / Zenfone Live / ROG Phone.... etc.