Complete
2 months ago

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

IoFace, Islandic, SunEast, Echelon, Wonderful, Saraswatches, Warm, FaceTime, Estefania83, tatu_vic

They just blatantly SPAM the heck out of the store.

This issue is now a weekly subject on /r/Garmin with hundreds of upvotes and people fuming and complaining.

This has gotta stop.

eau_de_vie
  • 2 months ago

    I appreciate this topic is "complete", but I wanted to add an idea, which would help filter out a lot of noise for the end user.

    Maybe when the watch face is uploaded / updated the developer has to flag what data is viewable on that watch face e.g. Steps, Body Battery, Sunset..... (appreciate this would need policing, but sounds perfect for AI)

    And then have the option for the User to go to secondary form to do a detailed search / filter and let them only show watch faces that have Steps, Body Battery, Sunset.....

    And then 3-6 months after implementing this any watch face that does not have this populated, falls off the Store - This means only supported WFs will be on view, spammers are unlikely to go through 100s of their WFs to update etc.. NOW I do appreciate that some big hitters like Crystal (which I don't believe is currently supported by the dev) would get caught out, so maybe some exceptions allowed.

  • 2 months ago

    I don't see any progress nor store improvement. So. Looks like case closed, time for Counter Strike.

  • 2 months ago

    > 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?

  • 2 months ago

    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.