This is really interesting. Looking forward/hoping we see this featured across the MARQ series.
From the article:
Garmin has quietly begun offering the ability for users to start re-broadcasting their heart rate over Bluetooth Smart with certain wearables, via an open beta program. While virtually all Garmin wearables made in the last…ever…support re-broadcasting of heart rate over ANT+, none have supported re-broadcasting over Bluetooth Smart. In fact, almost nobody in the industry supports re-broadcasting over Bluetooth Smart (using the standard BLE HR profile). Whoop started semi-recently doing so with their latest band, and years ago Polar kinda introduced it on certain wearables (but it was fraught with odd compatibility issues that mostly made it useless).
However, today’s update is a reasonably big deal. It lets you pair your wearable up to apps like Zwift or TrainerRoad, for those training indoors. Same goes for even devices like treadmills. The way it works is Garmin will now broadcast both your current heart rate but also your current pace (speed) and cadence over the standard Bluetooth Smart device protocols/standards. This is currently available in beta for the FR245 & FR945 watches. No word on whether it’ll hit other watches, though my guess would be we’ll soon see it on the Fenix 6 units. I wouldn’t expect other older watches to get it. Again, just my hunch.
Oh – and as an added bonus on the FR245/Music & FR945 they’ve added Widget Glances. Woot! This was one of my favorite features on the Fenix 6 series, which condensed down the widgets into threesomes. Instead of one large widget per page, you get basically the same information of three widgets within a single page.
Garmin FR245 beta download here
Garmin FR245 Music beta download here
Garmin FR945 beta download here