Messaging with InReach Messenger and Fenix 8 without taking your smartphone to training.

Hello.

Is there a chance that the InReach Pilot will be added as a compatible application on the Fenix 8 to support the InReach Messenger? I was hoping that I would finally be able to train without a phone because the InReach communicator is much smaller, but there is no option to handle messages from the Fenix 8.

The InReach Pilot application installed on the Fenix 8 does nothing at all, you can't load messages or check-ins, or choose your own. However, the Garmin Messenger application requires a connection to the phone. This is the bottleneck that I would like to avoid. The InReach Messenger itself has the ability to write messages, but the screen is so small and the writing system so inconvenient that it is easier from the watch.

Apart from mountain expeditions, I also train running and cycling. It is easy to hide the phone on a bike, but when running it interferes terribly.

I ask the administration for suggestions whether I can count on some possibility of using the Communicator from the watch position?

0 Volker 16 days ago

What do you mean with “inReach pilot“?

Try this: https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=TvuP5A64nw33n1cAFKwvy8

Or are you talking about it?

0 Volker 16 days ago in reply to Volker

There are two Garmin iR widget available on the F8 Serie:

MFW on wearable as remote for the Messenger app on phone

IRM on wearable as remote for the iR device

0 Mierzej87 16 days ago in reply to Volker

Unfortunately, the InReach Pilot does not work properly. Moreover, according to the specification, it is incompatible with the InReach Messenger. Yes, I mean not to use the phone as a bridge between the communicator and the watch. That is, full autonomy and writing a message in case of anything, calling for help, a family member. Yes, I know that I can use SOS, because I have an active SAR plan, but it is not only about accidents. Sometimes I need to communicate with my wife about the child, etc., and I train for a marathon and triathlon. My training often lasts a long time and I disappear for a long time.

0 Mierzej87 16 days ago in reply to Volker

What does MFW mean? I don't know the English abbreviations, I come from Poland. If you mean the Messenger app on the watch, it doesn't work without the phone. The app on the smartphone is the hub that communicates between the messenger and the watch. However, the InReach Pilot on the Fenix 8 is broken. It can be installed, but none of the options pressed on the watch work.

0 Volker 16 days ago in reply to Mierzej87

MFW (messenger for wearables) is a remote on the watch for the Messenger app on the phone.

0 Mierzej87 16 days ago in reply to Volker

Only it does not work on the same principle as the InReach Remote. It needs Bluetooth communication with the application on the phone. I had already checked both of these options before writing. The question is not whether I tried and should try, but when Garmin will extend the compatibility of the InReach Remote to the rest of the communicators and watches and fix its malfunction. And I would like one of the developers to comment.

0 twolpert 15 days ago in reply to Mierzej87

Forums are not an official support channel. You might or might not get a response from Garmin here. If you do, it will not be from a developer. Garmin-Christopher?

0 Mierzej87 14 days ago in reply to twolpert

I have always participated in Beta Tests and it is through Beta Tests that I report bugs. And there is even information on the forum to report bugs in the appropriate sections. Unfortunately, InReach devices are not part of the Beta Tests of the software. However, even they have bugs. But yes, I will report it to the Garmin branch in my country, we will see what they say. Although I doubt they will be more knowledgeable than people and admins here, because it has always been and is that information reaches them later than what is happening on the international forum.

0 twolpert 11 days ago in reply to Mierzej87

Understood. But this is not the beta forum. That is a separate forum to which you may or may not have access. If you do, that is the appropriate place to post bugs discovered in beta.