FitContributor :nativeNum functionality

Downvote me all you want, even though I basically agree with your premise and share your frustration. And the comment you responded to definitely did not contain an opinion (other than saying I share your frustration.) All I did was say that Stryd did something very similar to what Garmin has done. (Closed off their platform to 3rd party data.)

All I can do is reiterate that most of the runners I know (including hobby joggers and ppl who run in competitive groups) don't care about Connect IQ apps. They buy Garmins because that's what their friends use. Or they have a 220 or 230 that they bought years ago.

And a lot of casual runners are happy to run with an Apple Watch. Lots of ppl don't even understand why anyone would buy a Garmin running watch. You might find this hard to believe, but a lot of ppl just "run for likes". That's the crowd that's happy to run with their phone or apple watch, if they have one.

If you think this one issue is going to make or break Garmin, you're entitled to your opinion.

You don't undersand what you don't know, You never did say how long you've been using Garmin devices.

At the 2018 CIQ Summit, I was in the breakout about things like fitcontrib, and not one person raised a concern about how nativeNumber was used by Garmin..

looks like I might have triggered a few folks. sorry if you are offended and off on a tangent that does nothing to solve our issue here.

I don't care a hoot about other watches, Apple anything or what newbie atheletes or whover are buying or using.  and I have had many other products, on Garmins for many years,  and even beta tested some Polar products and MIO Alpha and others over a decade ago before Garmin had a precense.

All I care about is the Garmin watch and their providing equal functionality for all their programmers and supporters so their customers like me can get the maximum value and capability form these fairly expensive "instruments"

the end

good for you. sound like a great social gathering.  it solves this issue zero though right? 

a legit well written app recording activities just as well as others (or just as inaccurate) should be able to post and report within the standard architecture and framework as any other app or API.? 

That's the point.   

the end.  <smile>

I'm not triggered although I am a bit annoyed. I wanted to make a somewhat supportive post which also provided some additional context: "Stryd used to allow 3rd-party power but now it doesn't, for ostensibly similar reasons to Garmin." I figured this might be of interest to some people, since Stryd is becoming fairly popular amongst "serious" runners. I actually wrote a data field for Stryd support in run mode (not the first one, but it did do a few things differently than other apps), and this very question of native num functionality came up in regards to both Garmin Connect and Stryd PowerCenter.

As a user and dev I've also been very frustrated by this issue but I'm trying to understand it in the larger context of why Garmin would make that choice and why they wouldn't necessarily make "first-class support for nativeNum fitContributions" their first priority. Just look at what they've done in the past couple of years: music and an AMOLED display on a watch that has the same form factor as an Apple Watch. Sorry if you're offended that "newbie athletes" don't have the same priorities that you do when it comes to sports watches.

I've trained with a group that includes someone who won a large 10K (first overall female) in a major North American city. They're not elite, but they're definitely sub-elite. I've run with the whole spectrum of ppl ranging from "sub 5-hour marathon' to "2:30 marathoner". I can tell you that not one person I've run with thinks that Connect IQ apps are a priority, if they've even heard of them. Ironically, I'm usually the one telling other runners about CIQ apps (like Dozen Run), but usually nobody cares.

All they want is something that can record their run and upload it to Strava. If they're fancy, they might care about having an altimeter so they can record accurate elevation gains for their hill runs. OTOH, I've talked to ex-elites who trained with nothing but a Timex. (They're young enough that they could still be competing as elites if they hadn't retired early.)

To be clear, I probably agree with you on a lot of points (especially as both a user and dev of Garmin products):

- Garmin products are very expensive (even overpriced)

- Garmin has lots of software issues, both user-facing and on the dev side. (I've personally encountered a ton of CIQ bugs over the past few years)

- Garmin sometimes makes a few decisions which annoys small parts of its dev and customer base

If you don't think my input is relevant, then fine. Go ahead and continue to post in this four-year old thread about how Garmin is dumb and needs to provide this one crucial feature to keep customers like you. Maybe in an another four years it'll be rediscovered and we can all complain about it again.

Maybe I should've just posted "I too think garmin is dumb". That would surely cause them to change their minds about what was clearly a deliberate decision.

I'm out.

@AlphaMonkeyC Please add this functionality. Being a Garmin user on a daily basis for many years. To not allow this field to be updated is restrictive for good developers like ftbbrown. These developers can provide apps to watches that have been restricted in their functionality. Is this not what developing IQ apps is all about! I have a Venu and cannot do open water swims using it natively. I either had to upgrade to a much more expensive alternative or find an app that can measure open water swims. Luckily I found this very good and inexpensive app. Now to hear that it has been restricted by Garmin is disappointing! 

RhinoRider said:

 I have a Venu and cannot do open water swims using it natively. I either had to upgrade to a much more expensive alternative or find an app that can measure open water swims.

I think you just gave one of the reasons that Garmin won't add this functionality.

Yes, Open Water Swim is really only an option with Tri watches.  There's much more to it than the data in the fit, including "smarts" in GPS for losing signal when an arm is under water, and the batch download of HR data from a strap at the completion.

Yes I do understand. Although, based on the reviews, it does seem like fbbbrown has down a terrific job with the app to be useful to open water swimmers. I am doing my first one this weekend so will have better feedback after this.

@AlphaMonkeyC Please add this functionality.
I use a Fenix ​​6x Pro for swimming in my SwimSpa. This swim can only show a correct distance if you determine the distance through the strokes. This currently only works with the fbb swimsport app. Please Garmin, allow developers to further develop their products or bring an app to the market yourself that calculates a swim distance by the strokes.