ZWIFT Rides No Longer Count Towards Challenges?

Ergo, bad design. I have a Tacx Neo which doesn't log through Zwift, even though the accounts are connected.

Except that as noted by many people above “as designed” it used to work just fine. As an anti-consumer, anti-competitive measure it is working “as designed” but this was a deliberate removal of working functionality, not a program functioning as it was originally released. 

G-Deuce said:

but this was a deliberate removal of working functionality

Zwift rides or other imported activities never counted towards badges or challenges, unless you've been recording them with a Garmin device, and there is also no reason why they should. You will also not get a free pizza in PizzaHut for eating 10 Big Macs at MacDonalds. Badges and Challenges are for activities recorded with a Garmin device, and it was always clearly stated in the badges/challenges FAQ. So all you need to do for getting a Garmin badge or challenge, is recording your activities with a Garmin device (or the Tacx app). 

“Zwift rides or other imported activities never counted towards badges or challenges, unless you've been recording them with a Garmin device” A patently false statement. Don’t try and gaslight those of us who were here when it worked fine for several years. 

G-Deuce said:

Don’t try and gaslight those of us who were here when it worked fine for several years. 

Can you post a link of a Zwift activity of yours with a badge awarded? Haven't seen any yet.

Sorry, but that's incorrect.  Zwift rides 100% used to count towards badges and challenges.  It did so for years.  Then Garmin 'fixed' this feature and turned it off. 

So while you MAY BE correct about what is in the FAQ, the uproar started because users complained that even if you had all Garmin hardware (e.g. TACX trainers), Garmin disallowed these activities (solely?) because they came from Zwift.  Garmin doesn't have an alternative (competitor to) Zwift, so the question was why disallow these activities.

I haven't tried it in a long time, and maybe Garmin re-introduced Zwift rides counting, but this was the cause for the massive push back (to no avail?) from users.

This is when I earned the Climber 2 badge in Zwift in 2019. connect.garmin.com/.../3320908172

Can confirm this is incorrect. Most of us were using it fine as a tool connected to Zwift, the activity counting toward badges. Until noticing that suddenly this functionality had stopped.

It was slipped in under the wire and we all had to adapt to get our stats into Garmin Connect through an intermediary, after noticing it was happening.

It's as designed sure, but it's a deliberate feature removal to drive people toward Garmin Products, whilst not developing Garmin Products to work with Zwift, or anything else for that matter. It's terrible design, absolutely on purpose, assuming consumers want to use the Garmin Ecosystem uniquely, which is demonstrably not the case.

Garmin need to sort out their worldview.

Personally, I think that whilst the Garmin Hardware is brilliant...the Garmin Software is terrible anyway. This move has actually stopped me buying anymore Garmin products as I only use Connect for integration. It's a crazy decision they made here.

It doesn't make any sense at all. Activity is still activity.

Clearly and honestly this decision is clearly unproductive. Instead of using Garmin Connect as an hub for all our activities, this will make users centralize data on others platforms who do not cherry picking what app we used for virtual activities. Plus Tacx still provide free months on Strava, nonsense!