Software BETA Garmin Connect - Suggestions and Improvements

7407939 said:

Hopefully Garmin will not close this discussion

That's fine, as long as the discussion doesn't evolve into a "please invite me to the Connect beta program" thread.  

Thoughts on the Mobile App:

1) Make the Activity List populate itself by pinning the users most actually used Activity Types. Currently you pinned a lot of activities regardless if the users has ever done any of them and therefore wasting space.

2) Add a word filter to search for activities.

3) Allow more overlays for the track graphs for example sup (no speed overlay), or basically allow it for any activity with a recorded track.

4) Users should be able to select if they want a speed or pace graph (again SUP only supports pace, no speed on mobile app, both are available in the web interface)

5) Do a different evaluation if an activity is recorded as an indoor variant (GPS off), currently you still try to evaluate speed, distance, moving time based on GPS that of course all shows 0 as GPS was not used, better: if GPS is off in the activity, give us other stats, instead of showing us all those empty GPS based data-fields, like heartrate, movement time based on intervals (active / pause), steps per interval

6) Bring back the lap view for "other" and fix that that first interval is falsely labeled as "pause"

7) Allow track trimming in the mobile app (don't repeat that annoying bug the web interface has where it zooms out to show the whole track once you move the slider to adjust a little bit at the end, making it impossible to see what you are doing)

8) Add some more cool Instagramable templates to share activities with friends, those work as advertisement for Garmin too.

Overall Web App:

1) Allow default gear to be setup for every activity- and subtype. Maybe even allow photos of the gear. And more gear statistics, not everything is measured with GPS, sometimes usage time could be valuable (overall time, active time, pause time for example climbing shoes).

2) Give us evaluation tools for strength training progress like: strengthlevel.com/ 

Is there a way to join beta testing program? according to https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=3Zi7kCQvxn4M1DCCgQqLI9 its to selected users, but is there a way to suggest yourself? 

I want to test out the new layout and potentially provide feedback. I am quite experienced tester for iOS apps and am part of many beta programs with hundreds of bug reports captured, but there is no way for Garmin to know that and select me. 

Firstly can there be a section for threads that are just for the beta mobile app program in the Beta Program tab within these forums? It would be easier to search and source information. 

For my official request(s) I'd like to see the ability to turn on/off the visibility of my goals and equipment timing/mileage on the home screen. I could see this in the old web version and it was a great way to track progress as well as time/mileage on gear before they may require maintenance or replacement. Also, for those of us who use the calendar to schedule workouts or to utilize training plans it would be nice to see the week in advance so that we are more aware of what activities (not events) are coming up. 

I have sent the request via the feedback option but thought this may spur more discussion here. 

I didn't realize that the web version would mimic the mobile version for the home screen. That said, I'd like to see the ability to turn on/off the visibility of my goals and equipment timing/mileage on the home screen. I could see this in the old web version and it was a great way to track progress as well as time/mileage on gear before they may require maintenance or replacement. Also, for those of us who use the calendar to schedule workouts or to utilize training plans it would be nice to see the week in advance so that we are more aware of what activities (not events) are coming up. 

Fix all the issues with the courses page that were introduced with the last revamp versus prior functionality.

Got my beta access today, this is so bad:

Who thought it’s a good idea to have the same interface on mobile and web? Phone is a small low res screen mostly in portrait orientation, Desktop is large high resolution screen in landscape orientation. Why on earth would I want them to show the same things, this is just dumb.

You need to add an option to keep the “overview” open, having to enlarge it manually every time is a step back (on the phone and desktop). Also keep “focus” and “overview” open, there is enough space, no reason to collapse/scroll it (you could make that optional for low res desktop devices or phones, but on my 4k 40” screen this just looks stupid with that much wasted/dead space to the left and right. Who is designing this? Old web interface was able to show everything without needing to click something open, this is a huge step back.

Dividing statistics in “focus” and “overview is dumb, I want to view them all at once (on desktop), not switch between those too.

Where is (on Desktop):
- the last activities list (used to show 10 entries)
- where is the calendar
- last activity statistics (it’s just empty)
- 7 day steps graph
- fitness age graph
- heartrate graph with activity icons
- badges
- solar intensity

It sucks so much that 500  characters are not enough for the feedback. On the upside your old interface setup is still there i you leave beta, I would have not been surprised if this would have been reset.

Kudos to the Garmin designers that likely put lots of time and effort into the new app platforms. And further thank you to them for seeking feedback on their work--not an always comfortable thing to do.

The Garmin Connect Beta app's mirroring of its look on the phone and web is well coordinated. Unfortunately though there is a considerable amount of unused screen real estate on the web version. More than half of the web screen is unexplainably white space with no apparent ability for adding or modifying widgets to fill it.

Further frustrating for me is while my daily activities are shown at the top of the apps, only one is visible at a time on the phone app, requiring side scrolling simply to view information about my workouts. The non-Beta version of the phone app allowed me to see two or three activities on the screen at once and more with very minimal down scrolling.

And while the Sleep and Body Battery app widgets have relatively large forms, the activity widgets are small and lacking in the rich detail given to the In Focus items. These daily activities of running, biking, etc. are the lifeblood of my Garmin 955 and should be displayed a large and easy to read format.

A small side note, one of the recent changes to the Connect phone app was to shrink the 'Edit Activity Name' font to an uncomfortably small level. And to not capitalize the first letter of the entry. It is a very curious change that I'd love to hear the rational for.

The new At a Glance widgets are great but could be 3 to 5 times larger for easier reading. And my preference would be to Show All without requiring me to click 'Show All', having it move me to a new screen, and then click 'Home' to go back. These extra steps are unnecessary.

Thank you again to the Garmin developers for their hard work and for letting grumpy old men like me to provide feedback.

1. Editing at a glance it is not possible to add multiple items at once but you have to add one at a time which is not practical.

2. I miss the button to add (+) weight, hydration, and other metrics manually from a central point without having to find the specific field.

It needs improvement.  Adding biometrics needs additional buttons to be pushed. I want to see all my stats and not have to expand the windows. The old layout was good, the new boxes are a nice look, but does not allow me to customize it much.