Instinct Suggestions List

You buy a product knowing it’s current features but like anything, after using it you can come up with improvements and suggestions based on the watch and what is was designed for. Since we have a plethora of topics here, ideas and suggestions are all over the place, so I figured I’d create a topic to help people organize some of them.

So, below I’ll post a few suggestions based on my experience. If you agree with a suggestion (whether with me or anyone else), +1 it so Garmin knows. Post yours and let’s see what happens.

I’ll begin:

1. Timers- Give the user the ability to reorganize the Timers or have it automatically sort based on length of time (longest to shortest or vice versa).

2. Stopwatch- There is more than enough room to put the time of day. A lot of waste room on the SW screen.

3. Setting GPS- Unless I’m missing something, you have to set the GPS and it’s connection type per activity. It would be nice to set it on one (GPS or GPS/GLONASS or GPS/Galileo). Because of apps and websites like GNSS View, you can see the satellites above you and you can adjust your GPS connection settings accordingly.

4. Battery %- This is straightforward. We should be able to see the exact % of battery remaining.

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0 matt_fantastic over 5 years ago

Compatibility with Running Dynamics pod ?

0 Rick11 over 5 years ago

The off-track sensibility should be user-configurable IMHO.

There are situations (expecially when hiking in the mountains) where I prefer higher sensitivity to off-route warnings, at the cost of unnecessary alerts.

And there are situations, where there is only one clearly defined track, where lower sensibility is fine.

***

One other issue. Recently my Instinct took a lot of time to acquire the GPS signal (around 3-5 minutes instead of the usual 30 seconds). Why? Yes, I have connected the Instinct to Garmin Express for updates.

0 lj50 over 5 years ago

lj50 we have not had any other reports of this, can you please contact our support teams so we can work with you directly?

It's off-topic, but to reply to this instruction; predictably, this has been an infuriating and fruitless process.

I emailed them the issue, I was asked for screenshots; I provided screenshots. I received an email asking me to describe a "step by step" guide to what I was doing (which was visible in the screenshots anyway); I emailed with a step by step description of what I was doing.

I'm now two weeks down the line and the response to that last email was to ask permission to access my data and for me to zip my Garmin folder and send it over....

...so they could OPEN a ticket. Not to further investigate, just to open a ticket.

When I queried this and asked if they had even tried to reproduce what I am seeing, I am told that they refuse to open a ticket until "all relevant information" has been provided. If access to the data and a zip of the Garmin folder are required to even open a ticket then why wasn't that the first email I received? The last two weeks have been a waste of time if no-one has bothered even trying to reproduce it.

Honestly, for a company that makes really excellent hardware, and mainly does OK in the software department, the customer service and product support is embarrassingly bad.

0 MariHo over 5 years ago

-Battery %
-Vo2max
-Tides
-24 hours temperature

0 Danny over 5 years ago

Time-based altimeter auto-calibration. This would be most useful for general use and long activities.
It should be user configurable to enable/disable and set frequency for both general (not active) and for each activity type.

During non-active time, every X hours enable GPS and if the signal is good enough after ~30 seconds or something, calibrate the altimeter. Then disable GPS again.

During activity recording w/ GPS, every X minutes/hours (set per activity), auto-calibrate the altimeter only if GPS signal is good enough to provide a good altitude (error in the GPS altitude estimate should be less than altitude error due to barometric drift/weather during the activity for this to make sense). Elevation data for recorded activities should then be linearly adjusted between calibration points to avoid artificial jumps in altitude.
A potentially simpler alternative would be that the auto calibrate setting does a second calibration at the end of the activity then linearly adjusts recorded data, but this would not be as good for very long activities. Again the GPS signal should be within some threshold to make it a "good" calibration.

0 Rick11 over 5 years ago

Suunto has something similar (fusedAlti), so it's doable but not easy. If Garmin will do that, it will be for all their sportwatches with a barometer, not just the Instinct.

0 Lancet_Jade over 5 years ago

-Vo2max
-Battery %

PLEASE consider putting in Vo2 max! I love this watch, and it would complete it!

0 PawelM over 5 years ago

Hi!

There is "countdown" feature in "Pool swim" activity. It's works great, but only after break (for new interval). I think countdown should be implemented also before activity is starting.

0 face_bb8 over 5 years ago

Please add Ambient Pressure with existing widget or add new one.

- ambient pressure !!!
- battery %

0 gfx401aa over 5 years ago

Hi,

Wishes :

- SwimRun profile
- depthmeter (free diving)
- VO2M
- % battery display
- improvement GPS+GLONASS and GPS+GALILEO accuracy (tracks more precise)
- improvement elevation gain and elevation loss accuracy
- improvement floors climbed accuracy (this function does not count all the time the number of floors actually climbed)
- breadcrumb trail more precise on map mode (line too thick)

Thanks.