The Store is being decimated by a handful of developers spamming low-effort apps

> Confusing name. Connect, Connect IQ, Garmin Connect... ? Why not Garmin App Store or something that clearly says what it is?

Yeah, basically every day someone posts in one of the Connect IQ forums (including this bug reports subforum) about some issue with the Garmin Connect app or website.

I also think it doesn't help that the forums still use Garmin's old names for these things, like "Garmin Connect Mobile" and "Garmin Connect Web". Most of the other references to "Garmin Connect Mobile" have been scrubbed (e.g. the product page on the Garmin site, the Apple Store page, the app itself), because in 2024 (and even 2016) nobody calls the mobile version of RandomApp "RandomApp Mobile", since most of us live in a mobile-first world. (DCR mentioned he never uses the Connect website.)

Then there's the little "Garmin Connect" vs "Connect" situation. Most users on reddit (and almost anywhere outside of these forums) will just call the app Connect, since that's how it appears on their phone. (I realize this is a tricky problem, since the name "Connect" is a little too generic to be searched reliably.)

I don't think this is the only place where Garmin has confusing naming. On Venu and Vivo watches, Move IQ is a feature that can auto-detect movement and start a timed activity. On other watches, Move IQ is a feature that can auto-detect movement, add an entry to your calendar, but not start a timed activity. So when some user switched from Venu to Fenix, they were like "how come Move IQ doesn't auto start an activity on Fenix" and they were immediately scolded: "MOVE IQ IS NOT AUTO ACTIVITY START!!!" But can you really blame the user for thinking that?

Brandon.ConnectIQ Thank you, this is great to hear.

I've been saying for years Garmin should just add native support for the five sensors that need a ConnectIQ data field.  The ConnectIQ Store has been a joke since it launched.  Every time Garmin releases a new Fenix or Edge, the store is completely empty for the new device.  ConnectIQ data fields don't get migrated to new devices when you upgrade, even if the app exists.

"They do contribute to an overburden of apps on the server with to many apps and as you can read in these topics it interferes with the use and enjoyment of the Site of a lot of people."

Point taken. I'll start an internal discussion about this topic of spam specifically.

I recognize the problem and I personally agree with many of the assessments you've made. We use the store ourselves frequently for testing, so get to experience a lot of the same things you've all mentioned here.

My intent wasn't to imply there are no solutions we're willing to consider—in fact, I created a ticket this morning to request the addition of client-side filtering to see if it's something we'd be willing to do. It sounds like a great idea to me. I know that we've talked about other ideas internally, but I'm not familiar with everything that's been discussed. My purpose was to simply describe our current approach and explain why all of these apps are on the store in the first place.

Let me address a couple of questions raised by Usul:

• Why can't there be one central way to pay? We offer a first-party payment system that was launched last month, and I'd encourage everyone to check it out because it's a much better experience for customers. However, we still allow developers to use third-party payment systems if they prefer.
• Some watch faces have multiple versions...It seems like it should be possible to group them together..." I know this question was about the store UX, but there's another solution already available. Build configurations can be used by developers to intelligently support multiple products in one project and avoid creating multiple versions of an app. I realize this doesn't deal with developers that don't use build configs, but it's the preferred approach.
• Ability to filter based on compatibility. This happens automatically based on the device you're currently using. For example, if you have a fenix 7 paired with your phone and are browsing apps in the CIQ Store mobile app, you'll only see apps compatible with the fenix 7. However, if you're browsing the web store and aren't logged in you'll just see all available apps. At one point, we had a device selector but the list of compatible devices grew so large that it was removed. Perhaps we can look at doing something else to provide this functionality again.
• "Report a problem" needs to be dramatically improved. Agreed. There are already things in the works regarding this, but I'll refrain from making any promises at this point. FWIW, this impacts me personally, so I would also like it improved. :)