Latest Garmin app update ruined my home page

Also, not just related to the new home page, but Garmin constantly breaks stuff with new updates to the devices, the Connect app or website, and the Connect IQ SDK..

If we just idiotically assumed that “all change is good”, then we’d have to concede that all bugs are good, too.

NicK said:

The new interface is much more intuitive and faster to load.

Too bad the rest of Connect (both the app and website) is slow af and overly complicated (like requiring a ton of extra taps to do something as simple as changing shoes in the Connect app).

Maybe they’ll get around to fixing the rest of the app and website by 2050.

Dr Phil said:

MD;DR

(More Diatribe; Didn't Read)

LOL! 

I’ll simplify it for you:

According to you, ppl who hate the changes are in the minority. That may be true, but also:

- Connect website users are a minority of all Connect users. Most Connect users use the app

- Connect users are a minority of all Garmin users (or at least runners). Most runners use Strava.

- Garmin users are a minority of all smartwatch users. Most smartwatch owners have an Apple Watch.

If Garmin went away tomorrow, the average person would not know or care.

You may not care about the people who hate the changes, and similarly, most people don’t care about Connect or Garmin in the first place.

If and when Garmin deprecates the Connect website completely, I better not hear you complain about it.

Also, clearly anyone who posts on these forums at all is in the extreme minority of Garmin users, including you and me. By your logic, none of our opinions matter.

2529455 said:

So what are you actually going to do beyond thrashing about on the forums like a toddler having a tantrum?

Now that I’ve submitted my feedback to Garmin and posted way too much on the forums, probably go on with my life ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. There isn’t much to fix, it’s just loss of functionality that can’t be directly replaced. I’ll live tho.

Seems to me that the pro-Garmin posters are the ones who are resorting to personal insults and namecalling tho. I don’t have a problem with anyone who likes the new changes, but I absolutely see why some ppl would hate them, beyond the facile explanation of “lmao old ppl can’t cope with change”. 

Garmin’s devices and Connect have a ton of problems and clearly complaining about them won’t accomplish anything, nor will submitting feedback to Garmin directly. People have been begging Garmin to support mixed metric and imperial/statute units in Connect for 10+ years, but it hasn’t helped. Yeah, we’re in the “minority”, bc Garmin’s primary audience is American, so I get it. Strange that they’ve been able to support mixed units on the devices though.

I could also complain about all the bugs / poor UX in the forum platform (which Garmin did not develop but they did choose), but that’s a waste of time too. I actually begged them to pick a platform that was modern and not useless on mobile at the time they switched from the old platform years ago, but unsurprisingly they went with a solution that’s broken in many different ways.

I’ll just reiterate that the only reason I even use the Connect site at all is bc of the few things it does differently/better than the alternatives. So for me (not that my opinion matters) the loss of the old dashboard is one less reason for me to open the site. Which is fine tbh. I know lots of Garmin users who never open the Connect website, and rarely or never open the Connect app.

Also, most people I know don’t own a Garmin, if they’ve even heard of the brand.

I do feel bad for the people who only use the Connect site and/or for whom the dashboard was irreplaceable functionality.

Also, I’ve submitted a ton of bug reports to Garmin for both the devices and Connect IQ, resulting in stuff actually getting fixed. Anyone who’s ever submitted a proper bug report knows that you have to spend time recreating the problem and writing up a useful report. It’s not the typical “why doesn’t navigation work????” forum post which can be banged out in 5 seconds.

I, along with many others, have also helped people with technical issues on the forums (that’s why the forums exist after all).

So ig it’s ok for ppl to volunteer their free time to benefit Garmin and the community, but don’t you dare say anything negative about anything Garmin does, otherwise the Garmin Defense Squad will stomp you.

It’s fine, I get that nobody wants to hear excessive complaining, so I’ll stop.

flowstate said:

Now that I’ve submitted my feedback to Garmin and posted way too much on the forums, probably go on with my life ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And that's all we can really do as customers. Submit bug reports or feature requests and if we're still not satisfied, leave the brand for another product. Cancelling subscriptions or not buying the next product is the strongest signal we can send.

Gaiginass said:

That Garmin Defense Squad though, apparently every company has those

Gaiginass said:

Apparently it's a certain type of person that can only think about themselves and what they want.

Same psychology seen in both the complainer (whose saying "Company X is done") and the defender. Both are turning a discussion into a personal battle where winning or losing an argument is somehow attached to their own value as an individual.

flowstate said:

“works for me, must be a you thing.”

Technically, they're correct. Something may actually work fine for them thus not being an issue whilst it doesn't work for you at all. In fact your watch may be completely useless such as the case with the 16.22 release. That said, blanket statements such a "X is absolutely fine. Theres no issue" are pretty useless. "X works for me. Sorry it doesn't work for you. Let's work through it" is far more useful.

Personally, I dislike people who complain incessantly but refuse to unblock themselves by either working with the company to fix an issue or simply buying a product that works for them. Rather they sit in forums and make everyone's life a misery for months on end whilst pursuing some personal crusade against a company, but never moving forward.

I'm not saying thats happening in this thread, but it happens a lot in these and other forums. Their toxicity and unwillingness to accept advice or other opinions ends up driving away those good souls who want to offer free support.

2529455 said:

that's all we can really do as customers

You can also be "annoying" on social media and involve media and influencers to create public pressure, if you have the time and resources and nerves to be sidetracked by off topic comments aka trolling.

Just read this thread... 

Here's MY opinion of the "NEW HOMEPAGE" on Garmin Connect... 

So far, I give it a POOR rating. 

WHY? Because all the effort I put into customizing it to my liking, done a little bit at a time over a long timeframe, was TOTALLY TRASHED IN ONE FELL SWOOP! 

GONE! All the bits I finally figured out and placed so I could QUICKLY SEE the BIG PICTURE that mattered TO ME were completely wiped out. 

I'm not going to list what all those things were...  WHY? 

Because I don't even know WHAT IS and WHAT IS NOT yet!

NO WARNING given from Garmin that "we are going to MESS UP your homepage completely."

Had I been advised, I might at least have saved some screenshots of what I ALREADY had arranged and was using. At least now I would be able to refer back to those screenshots and see what things I NOW HAVE TO SEARCH FOR and figure out how to SHOW THESE AGAIN! If that is even POSSIBLE!

This is something that AMAZES ME at the complete stupidity of NUMEROUS businesses that think they must CONSTANTLY CHANGE THINGS AROUND to make people happy... 

NOTHING could be further from the truth! 

Google has done it to us over and over and over and over again... 

And so many times, the changes are such PITIFUL, MEANINGLESS changes in terms of real improvements accomplished. They are more concerned with "pretty new colors" than they are about making things WORK!  But every time they do these things, they inevitably complicate the processes that users had already figured out how to work with and use the app or the site. Now users have to start poking around again to learn HOW and WHERE and WHAT all over again   And the bugs from the last several generations continue and multiply,

but meanwhile, "we have pretty new colors." 

There ARE REASONS that changes have to be made and obviously those sometimes have to be major changes, but far too often, there is no apparent attempt to maintain continuity, familiarity, and intuitive practices. This is beyond pitiful, and it illustrates a far too prevalent epidemic of complete lack of concern to make life EASIER and BETTER and more HELPFUL to customers. 

Customers have NEVER ASKED the companies they deal with to:

PLEASE COMPLICATE THE PROCESS FOR ME! 

PLEASE HIDE THINGS FROM ME! 

PLEASE PUT MORE STUFF IN MY WAY WHEN I'M TRYING TO DO THINGS! 

PLEASE TAKE AWAY WHAT I USE MOST WITH YOUR PRODUCT!  

I'm not slamming Garmin alone for these things, but this recent Homepage change was POORLY MANAGED and POORLY EXECUTED; a radical change of something that we had already figured out how to customize and access. 

I don't buy for a second that it is now faster loading. It certainly hasn't been notably different for me. 

What is noticeably SLOWER is my having to figure out what I used to have and what I now want, and how to bring that back to a homepage and arrange it so it is somewhat readable again. 

It definitely is a disappointment to me.

DouthatBiker said:

screenshots of what I ALREADY had arranged

That's what the beta phase was, I did that screenshot when agreeing to test the new one as I already suspected it will totally wreck my setup or I would at least need it as a reference to rebuild it in the new one (both wrong, leaving the beta restored the old one and, yea it's not possible to rebuilt with the new one because most of it is not available anymore).

The beta phase was the warning/advanced note. Still I'm surprised they would release something that is looks like a very early stage alpha to the public.