Can I message an InReach from the Garmin website?

2042039 over 2 years ago

I have an InReach with a paid up account but I don’t have the device with me. I would like to message someone else that has their InReach with them and is out of range of other modes of communication and want to know if there is any web interface that will do this? I’ve logged into my Garmin account and can see messages sent InReach to InReach between us 24hrs ago. It seems like it would be an obvious feature to be able to message from here too?

0 twolpert over 2 years ago

On your account at explore.garmin.com, open the Map tab. In the left sidebar, look for the line with "your name" on it. At the right end of that bar, you will see an eyeball icon and an icon which looks like a rectangular cartoon balloon with lines in it. (Hover over each of these cryptic icons to see what they do.) Click the cartoon balloon. This opens another line of options, which include the ability to locate the device, send a message, and start tracking. Click Message. In the resulting pop-up, enter your message text, then click Send.

In my experience, "locate" is a crap shoot. The device must be on and have a clear view of the sky at the time of the request. If it is not, the servers do retry (at successively longer intervals). Bottom line is that if the device "misses" the first locate request, it may take a LONG time for the locate to work.

I do not have an experience with starting tracking. Best guess is that this has the same issues as location.

0 skyeye over 2 years ago in reply to twolpert

start tracking or stop tracking, changing the tracking interval remotely, those work rather OK when compared to the crappy location request

sure, to get tracking start, somehow the device will need to receive this command first, so still will need at least one mail check