Sometimes backward compatibility is not just a flashy feature request

I know the desire to get the latest features on older watches has been discussed to death and I understand both sides of the argument regardless of my preference. This is not one of those conversations.

My Fenix 5X works just like the day I bought it, if not better. But a feature like the stealth mode or kill switch on the Tactix seems a must for the current world we live in. We constantly venture into places we can't share our don't want to share especially since more and more we're seeing ransomwear attacks. This is something I currently do manually by taking the watch off and leaving it behind in a Faraday bag but quite cumbersome and a shame not to have my watch on.

I've reached out to Garmin through the existing broken system and given my argument why they should back port the feature.

But does anyone know how we can put a collective effort to request the feature?

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0 thr4 over 4 years ago

Watch in a Faraday cage? What??

0 Komeil over 4 years ago in reply to thr4

Is that surprising? If the phone goes in, so does the watch

0 thr4 over 4 years ago in reply to Komeil

You can turn off bluetooth and GPS super easily, so yes, it's surprising. Actually - doesn't make sense.

0 Komeil over 4 years ago in reply to thr4

I must be missing something. How do you turn off GPS, let alone quickly?

0 thr4 over 4 years ago in reply to Komeil

GPS is on only when you start a GPS enabled activity. Otherwise it's totally off. So unless you are in an activity, GPS is inactive.

0 Komeil over 4 years ago in reply to thr4

I was aware of that, but there's no " GPS off" or "offline" toggle. So same precaution policy as a smartphone applies

0 thr4 over 4 years ago in reply to Komeil

That doesn't make sense. GPS is off when it's not on - and it's 100% off when outside of an App/Activity (so if there is no app running, GPS is simply off). Garmin watches have a much more simplistic OS.

0 thr4 over 4 years ago in reply to thr4

... the difference in the tactical watches is twofold:

* the Tactix has a shortcut for wiping the watch (if you are a soldier and you are captured)

* the Instinct allows you to turn on GPS and not have it recorded

Both of these are largely unrelated to what you are talking about and can be achieved on other watches in a more complicated manner. The normal fenix doesn't transmit store GPS outside of an activity, does store GPS when in an activity but this can be easily deleted and/or prevented from being synced.

0 rinserepeat over 4 years ago

They aren't going to put a feature from a $1000-$1400 watch onto a (currently) $250 Fenix5 which is end-of-life.

Plus the "kill switch" is software based, how do you know it's actually doing what it says it is doing and also not buggy like many other garmin features?

Get a $20 airport x-ray film safety bag and put the watch in there if isolation is important at times, no signal is getting in and out of there as they are lead lined.

Even simple firstbeat features aren't being backported, even simple apps like respiration rate that are on much cheaper garmins now isn't being ported even though they could easily run on the Fenix5