New to Garmin and I am pretty surprised what a mess the navigation/mapping ecosystem is. I'll try to write up my biggest pain points in an attempt to get the developers/managers to improve them or for someone to tell me that there is a better way to do things.
1. Rout planning: I am generally fine in using Connect for 'analytics' and Garmin Explore for 'planning', but if planning with Explore, I loose advanced features like PacePro. And planning with Connect is just so much worse, mainly because of the Google maps backend.
2. Organization: If using Explore I have the possibility to create collections of routes, which also show up on my device. I find this a very useful feature because routes quickly add up and it's hard to find the route you are searching for on the device. Is there a possibility to organize routes with connect?
3. Route sharing: to get both features (organization and stuff like pace pro) I'd have to create the route in explore, sync it to the device and share it to connect... Which is not possible? Connect doesn't show up if clicking "Share route", neither does the 'Files' app for downloading. Can the routes be shared?
=> Now what do I expect? My suggestion would be to either integrate the Explore route planning directly into connect OR make Explore sync not only to the device but also Connect.
=> If I were to use a third party app for route planning (both are not good for "I want to reach my destination as fast as possible while using bike lanes/small roads), I see no other possibility than to create the route, export it to Explore and assign it to a collection, export it again to Connect with the (and for example create a Power Guide for it) .
I am referring to the mobile apps only, haven't really used the web versions (but have heard they differ in functionality again)
Please tell me if I missed something or if really is the current state of the ecosystem? If that's the case, I really hope there is a update planned, because the first experience with the apps is really bad.