Activity Tracking and Mapshare Messaging

I am a newbie to InReach Mini 2 and am confused by the manual re simple tracking of daily activities and Mapshare tracking ( I have a Safety Plan). My questions are:

1. I want to track daily movements and privately review them at the end of the day - If auto tracking is off do I do that by pressing the Start and Stop Tracking menus ? Does this cost anything ? 

2. When I manually send a preset message with embedded location data does this cost anything ?

3. Does Mapshare get triggered manually through the Send Message menu or is it activated when the Start Tracking menu is pressed ? Are Mapshare message intervals automated or do Mapshare messages get sent manually ?

Thanks and apologies if these are a bit rudimentary but I don't find Garmin Manuals very (new) user friendly 

    1. Yes, if Auto Tracking is off, you have to start tracking manually. You need to stop tracking manually either way. Tracking under the Safety Plan will only cost you nothing if you set the Settings -> Tracking -> Send Interval to Off on your Mini 2, which will disable the transmission of tracking points over the Iridium network. Otherwise, these points will cost you $ 0.10 apiece (or local currency equivalent).

    2. No, preset messages are free under every subscription plan.

    3. MapShare doesn't get "triggered", but will be sent information according to the settings under Social -> Filter MapShare Data on the Explore website. If you disable the sending of tracking points on the inReach Mini 2 then you'll effectively only be recording an Activity on the device itself, which you can then synchronise to the Explore site using the Explore app. If you've enabled the display of the Library or the specific Collection you're syncing to in the MapShare filter, that Activity will appear on your MapShare page.

      As far as I know there is no such thing as a "MapShare message interval".

    Hope this helps.

  • Thanks very much that's very helpful. 

    1. Got it. If Send Interval is set to OFF then Mapshare messages dont get sent by the device.(Even if Mapshare is set to ON on the website/App see 3 below)

    2. Agreed thank you - I was nervous that the embedded GPS location data in an SMS Preset Message effectively made the message into a Mapshare Message which costs.

    3. If Mapshare is set to OFF on the website or App then Sending of messages from theDevice is disabled even if the Send Interval is positive on the Device ? Am I correct that for Mapsharing to be activated both the Website/App must be set to ON and the Send Interval needs to be positive (ie not OFF).  Then Mapsharing automatically starts when you press Start Tracking ?

    Your help is much appreciated 

  • Re. #3: You're almost there, but seem to get a couple of related but distinctly separate concepts mixed up. Granted, this stuff is confusing, so I don't blame you. Please bear with me:

    • Tracking points: these are position updates sent by the inReach device over the Iridium link to the Explore website if Tracking is enabled on the device and the Send Interval is not set to Off.
    • Messages are short fragments of text, of type preset or custom, entered by you on the device and transmitted over the the Iridium network. These are completely unrelated to the Tracking Points mentioned above.
    • The Explore website is the Garmin site where both data received over the Iridium network as well as data synced via the Explore app is collected and displayed to the account holder (i.e. you).
    • The MapShare website is a public facing website onto which you can publish a subset of the data present on the Explore website (determined by the MapShare filter settings).

    So, the MapShare settings on the Explore website are completely unrelated to the sending of Tracking Points from the inReach device. The only settings that determine if, and how many Tracking Points will be sent, are Tracking Enabled and the Send Interval value.

    Whether Tracking Points that are received by the Explore website will be displayed on the MapShare site, is only determined by the MapShare settings under the "Social" tab on the Explore site, and not in any way by the settings on the inReach device.

    Therefore, if you want to send regular Tracking Point updates from your inReach device and have these made visible on the MapShare site, you need to have:

    1. Tracking enabled on the Mini 2
    2. A Send Interval setting greater than "Off" on the Mini 2
    3. MapShare enabled on the Explore Site
    4. A MapShare filter on the Explore site that has the correct date range and selected Collection (by default all Tracking Points get displayed, so you shouldn't need to mess with this setting if you don't want to)

    As said, under the Safety Plan this will cost you $ 0.10 per Tracking Point.

    Garmin made all this a lot more complicated than it needs to be, and I'm not 100% certain that I've got everything correct myself, so if anyone else has a better explanation, feel free to chip in!

  • Thanks so much for spending the time to explain what Garmin's support material should have explained in the first place ! Hopefully I am not the only one that finds it confusing and some design and UI improvements will be made. 

    I (think) I now get it and will also do a few trials and tests to confim I do. Again, many thanks for your expertise it is really appreciated.

  • This support article has a general discussion of tracking settings.

    https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=fxpOTJ33Kf60kr4BnAWU4A&searchQuery=inreach%20tracking&textPage=3

    Unfortunately, most of the support articles on this topic are specific to individual devices. Because no two are actually alike.

    I'm sure that has a collection of useful general links. Hopefully, Leslie will post here.

  • Here are a few links that hopefully show and clear things up a bit for you. 

    Getting Started With Tracking on an inReach Mini 2
    Setting Up MapShare for an inReach Mini 2
    Sending Messages, Locations, and Location Requests for MapShare Visitors

    Frequently Asked Questions About inReach Preset Messages
    What Messages Do I Pay For With My inReach Plan?
    Frequently Asked Questions About inReach Message Charges

    To be clear if mapshare is turned off on the explore website then others will not be able to see your tracks while actively tracking. The tracking send interval on your device is what goes to the mapshare page for others to view. Therefore if you do not have tracking started and a send interval selected then nothing will appear on the mapshare page even if mapshare is turned on. 

    With preset messages you are also able to select mapshare as a recipient on the website which sends the preset message to your mapshare page for viewers to see. 

    I hope this helps clear things up a bit more and please keep in mind you can find more information at our Support Center.

  • thanks all for your support. I am left feeling that with so many articles and forum threads on this topic that Garmin should maybe reassess the intuitiveness of its user interface and menu design. Cheers !