The ask: Let Android users share a pin or destination from Google Maps to the Garmin Connect app, and have the watch navigate to it natively using Garmin's onboard maps and routing exactly like the Apple Maps share integration that already exists on iOS.
What exists today, and why it isn't enough:
- On iOS, this already works beautifully: share a point of interest from Apple Maps → Garmin Connect → the watch pops a notification and starts real navigation with Garmin's offline maps. Phone goes back in your pocket. This is the right UX — it just doesn't exist for Android/Google Maps.
- The Google Maps Connect IQ app (released June 2025) is not the same thing. It only mirrors turn notifications from an active Google Maps session on the phone. There's no route on the watch, no Garmin map, no onboard routing. If the phone connection drops or the app closes, navigation is gone. It also doesn't support all devices.
- The manual workaround building a course/waypoint route in Connect or Explore just to get to a single destination is far too cumbersome for spontaneous use. Nobody plans a course to navigate to a restaurant.
Why this matters: Finding a destination is a solved problem using Google Maps. Garmin's strength is what happens after: offline maps, onboard routing, and navigation that doesn't depend on a live phone connection. Right now Android users get the worst of both: great discovery on the phone, but no clean handoff to the watch. The Apple Maps integration proves Garmin has already built the hard part (receiving a shared location and navigating to it natively). All that's missing is registering Garmin Connect as an Android share target and parsing the Google Maps share payload.
Concrete request:
- Add Garmin Connect as a share target for locations shared from Google Maps on Android
- On receipt, push the location to the paired device and offer "Navigate now" using the device's onboard maps (the same behavior as the existing iOS/Apple Maps flow)
- Stretch goal: support sharing a full route (not just a pin), on both platforms
Device: Fenix 7, phone: Pixel 10. Happy to beta test.
