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[BUG] Sync DND (Do Not Disturb) Mode Between Android and Garmin Device Settings

2873359
7 months ago

Description:
I’d like to bring attention to a long-standing issue with syncing the Do Not Disturb (DND) mode between Android devices and Garmin devices—something that's been reported on this forum for over six years. This is a bug report (not a feature request), as there is inconsistent behavior between the Garmin Connect app on Android and iOS.

Problem Summary:

  • iOS Behavior:
    When Smart Notifications are enabled on an iPhone, all system notifications are forwarded to the Garmin watch
    If you enable DND mode on the iPhone, both the phone and the Garmin device will not display, ring, or vibrate for any notifications filtered by DND iPhone settings.

  • Android Behavior:
    When Smart Notifications are enabled on an Android device, notifications are also forwarded to the watch.
    However, if DND mode is enabled on the Android device, the Garmin watch does NOT respect the DND setting. The watch will still ring, vibrate, and/or display notifications—regardless of the phone’s DND status.
    The only workaround is to manually enable DND on the Garmin watch, but this blocks all notifications, even those allowed by the phone’s DND settings.

Result:
Users must manually adjust DND settings on both devices to ensure proper notification control, which leads to the risk of missing an important notification or being disturbed by less critical ones.

Users CANNOT recive notifications in the garmin device that have been properly filtered by the Android DND setting.

Previous Discussions:

This issue has been brought up for six years with no resolution, and I wanted to highlight that handling notifications is a core functionality for a smartwatch. It's concerning that it's still unresolved.
Below are two links to forum threads discussing the same issue:

Request:

Could we get an official response or fix regarding the syncing of DND settings between Android devices and Garmin watches? This would significantly improve the user experience.

Device Information:

  • Garmin Forerunner 945
  • iPhone 8 (iOS and Garmin Connect app updates for the last 5 years)
  • Pixel 8a (newer device, OS and Garmin Connect app updated for the past year)
  • 0 2 months ago in reply to Marcelvb

    I'm wondering if any Android devs here might tell whether this (not following DND) is actually caused by Garmin just not implementing it or a limitation in Android? I mean, can a regular app like Garmin Connect detect whether a notification that happens under DND is something that the phone is set to pass through and notify, or block during DND?

    The fact that Fitbit does it doesn't tell much, since both Fitbit and Android are by Google, so of course the company can provide any secret shortcuts it wants to its own devices.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to Bitti

    I'm not an Android Developer, but if Fitbit can do it, so should Garmin. You are right about the Fitbit - Google connection but this has been working fine for many years, so before the takeover by Google.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to Bitti

    It shouldnt be a problen, if garmin just take notifications from the notification bar instead of notification centre. 

  • 0 12 days ago

    I'm so mad about it. I LOVED how these 2 were separated. I had DND on my phone all the time with some exceptions added for emergency contacts, because I hate constant ringing of notifications, but the ones I'm interested in knowing about right away, I set up to be passed to my watch.

    I discovered this "feature" 2 days ago when courier called me 3 times and I didn't know, because watch didn't vibrate (and phone on DND as always).

    I understand there's a group of people who want this to be synched. But there's also group of people who don't, I aldo know a few of young mothers who had the same setup (phone on DND not to wake baby, but watch gets notifications so they stay connected).

    All I'm saying is please PLEASE make it optional.

  • 0 10 days ago in reply to 2730097

    Wow, I'm super happy this has been solved! But I absolutely agree it should be optional,.

  • 0 10 days ago in reply to 2730097

    You can silence the phone, i.e. vibrate only or even vibrate and volume both off. Notifications should then still come through on the watch.

    Silencing is something different than DND, when DND is on, volume and vibration can be on, but you are not getting notified. The watch should respect that setting.

    Instead of "phone on DND always" turn off DND and set your phone to vibrate only. You will not wake anyone up and you will still be notified on your watch.

    If you don't want to get notified on either your phone, or your watch. Turn DND on.

  • 0 10 days ago in reply to 7098910

    I cannot set exceptions to a silenced phone. I want to still have a loud ringing if one of my emergency contacts is calling so that I react even if I'm out of bluetooth reach. I want all apps to have quiet notifications except of my camera app notifying me about intruder at night.

    DND is not the same as silenced phone and I now use silenced phone as a workaround to this "bug fix", but it's not as good as the previous setup. I have not found any way of getting just camera app notifications to be loud at night and I don't want to get any vibrations on watch at night.

    I do not request this to be removed completely, simply to be made optional.

  • 0 4 days ago

    Nooooo, I'm sooo mad they added this!!

    I loved the feature to have DND on my phone and would still see things on my watch to keep up to date while not looking at my phone all the time.

    Why could they not make it optional.

  • 0 4 days ago in reply to 5860257

    I cannot find the source for this fix.. when and how did this fix become a reality?

    Is this a recent update on garmin connect thats currently rolling out?