Texting question

I am reasonably certain that you are charged for sending a message, receiving a message, and for any location pings requested from the web portal. However, when I tried to check to be sure, I found that Garmin's simplified marketing information does not say. I couldn't find it even in the terms of service document.

You can only define 3 preset messages. And remember that a preset message must also have predefined list of recipients.

Thanks, glad I wasn't the only one that found Garmin's marketing material very vague and high level. I dug through the document, FAQs and several searches without luck.

Texting question

Hi, another quick question. I have been reviewing the plans and have a question on text messages and preset messages.

1. On the Safety plan it includes 10 text messages per month, then .50 cents for each additional. Is that 10 transmitted? Or is it a total of 10 regardless of if the messages were received or transmitted?
2. Preset messages are unlimited in the Safety plan. Does that mean you can send an unlimited number of your preset messages? How many different preset messages can you define on the web portal?

Thanks again!

Keep in mind that there are 3 types of text messages. First, and with the most limitations and cost, but the most flexibility, are the ones you type on the spot. You can enter an email or SMS address to these and add a very large number of addresses - everyone in your contact list. I only use these when I have a lot of information to send, or in an urgent situation - something like an evacuation or life and death situation - providing further information on an incident. I have had friends who ran up a big bill sending all the details of the trek to their family. ("caught our full limit of trout today. Really scrumptious", "Got to camp early, so went swimming in the lake", "Met Joe Famous and talked to him for a couple hours - he's the one who has the AT 5 times in under 3 months", "running low on batteries - meet us a re-supply lake".)

Second are the "canned" messages that you compile so that you can quickly reference them. These would be the group you set up such as "I am starting from here", "I am camping here for the night", "we are running low on fuel, bring some more canisters", "I am back at the trailhead, pick me up", " I am having a great time. Wish you were here with me". You can add as many of your contacts and add more if you wish. These are good for keeping the home folks up to date without running up too big a bill. I have 17 in my list, of which I only use 5 or 6.

Third are the messages under the PreSet moniker, These are short and only go to the attached addressees - no modifications allowed (you can change them via your account, just not in the field). The intention is to have the 3 most urgent messages right at hand and quickly going to the important contacts.

I have only used the PreSet for fairly urgent messages, such as when we are in the hills and " completed measurements, meet at trailhead", or "delayed, but all is well".

Cost of Messages

1. On the Safety plan it includes 10 text messages per month, then .50 cents for each additional. Is that 10 transmitted? Or is it a total of 10 regardless of if the messages were received or transmitted?
2. Preset messages are unlimited in the Safety plan. Does that mean you can send an unlimited number of your preset messages? How many different preset messages can you define on the web portal?

Each message sent or received uses one from your plan (or costs the $0.50 amount). This is important if you allow people to send you messages from MapShare, or if they reply to a message you send them from your inReach device. For this reason, many people include a "Please Do Not Reply to this message" or something like it at the end of the message, as even a reply such as "OK!" costs the same as a 140-character reply (consumer accounts only).

Since I'm on the topic of message costs, a basic weather request also costs one message. A premium weather request costs $1.00.

As for your three preset messages that you can set up through the inReach Website for your account, you can set each message for more than one recipient which can either be SMS text messages or emails, and you have 140 characters for each message. So there is some flexibility, and you can even find some midpoint messages between "Made it safe" and the SOS button. Maybe something like "Call your uncle Bob, the truck won't start again" or "going to be out of satellite coverage for awhile, don't worry".

Messages and costs

I can't say I am an expert on this question, since someone else pays for my usage. But I will take a shot based on what I have read on line -

1. Regular messages - my understanding is that each regular message sent or received is counted. So the first 10 sent by me are included in the base cost/time period. If I send 1 message to 10 people, that's it for the start. If I send 5 messages to 2 people, that is the same as 1 message sent to 10 people. Similarly (if I understand correctly), if I send 5 messages to 1 person, who replies to each of the 5 (hence 10 messages), that counts the same. After the total of 10 (including out and in), the cost goes to 50 cents each for the rest of the period.

2. A "regular" message, as I understand it, is one you send to or receive from another inReach, whether you hand enter the addressee or select it from your contact list, and whether the message is selected from your or your sender's "canned list". I am guessing that messages to an email or SMS address and a reply from such an address counts as a chargeable message. I do know that a friend hiking the John Muir Trail got a bunch of chargeable messages and plead with all of us to stop sending him replies.

3. PreSet messages are different - The message is already entered in your list of 3 messages, each of which has a certain number of pre-entered recipients. You can, as I understand it, send an unlimited number of these messages. Now the puzzle - I don't know if you can receive an unlimited number of PreSet messages from someone else.

Maybe a Garmin/Delorme official can clear this up.

I don't think the number of recipients counts, at least not for e-mail and SMS. Not sure about iR to iR. The vast majority of the cost of a message is for the airtime. No matter how many e-mail or SMS recipients, the message is only sent once from the device to the Garmin servers. From there, it gets split out and relayed as needed.

The number of recipients does affect the message length. But IIRC, the inReach actually decreases the available text length to account for the length of the recipient list. This is why it's to your advantage to use contacts defined on the web site rather than just typing in ad-hoc addresses. The contacts are encoded as small values in the message, whereas ad-hoc recipients have to be sent as text at their actual lengths.

I suspect that the same thing is true of inReach to inReach. But I'm not absolutely sure as I don't know how those are delivered. If they go through the Garmin servers like everything else, than I'd expect that the number of recipients doesn't matter there either. However, do note that both the sender and the recipient will be charged for such a message.

If you log into your inreach account and go to the home page you can view your plan details by clicking the Details link. Here are the details for the safety plan:

•Unlimited SOS
•10 text messages/month
•Unlimited Preset messages (predefined messages set up on the website)
•Tracking points: $0.10 USD for each point
•Overages are $0.50 USD for each text message over the 10 messages allowed in the monthly plan period.
•Text messages include free-form sent messages and received messages.
•Tracking points refer to the individual "breadcrumbs" sent by the inReach at user-selected intervals ranging from 10 minutes to 4 hours.

It does not list the weather reports so I'm not sure about them.

Pretty sure that a regular weather report is charged as a single message. The "extended" report or whatever it's called also has a surcharge, which I think is $1.

Edited to add: The above is not quite correct. According to the FAQ, basic weather is charged as a single message. Premium and Marine forecasts cost $1 but apparently do not count as a message.