Garmin recommends always using the ANT+ connection on a sensor if it is available with your Garmin device. The profiles are more mature, often have more features, and there are no customer facing benefits to using the BLE connection unless that is the only option for the sensor to be connected. We are continuing to make improvements to prioritize ANT+ connections in the sensor search UI (User Interface) to better support customers in making this choice.
Connecting your sensors – best practices
There are several things to consider when connecting your sensors to your Edge to get the most from them.
Below are a set of guidelines to allow you to have the best experience with your Edge and your sensors.
What protocol should I use when pairing my sensor with my Edge?
If the sensor you have only supports one protocol, either ANT or BLE then you have no choice but to pair over that protocol. No need to read any further.
If you have a dual protocol (ANT/BLE) sensor then how should you decide which protocol to use?
When deciding on which protocol to pair over there are number of decision criteria to look at.
- Concurrent connectivity of the sensor to multiple head units or apps
- Concurrent sensor connectivity from the Edge to your sensors
- Richness of data
Concurrent connectivity of the sensor to multiple head units or apps
The ANT protocol allows a single sensor to be connected to multiple devices at the same time. E.g. Your Edge, a Forerunner, Zwift with an ANT dongle.
BLE sensors are limited in how many devices/apps they can be connected to at once. Most sensors on the market only support a single connection so if they are connected to your Edge over BLE you cannot also connected them to Zwift over BLE.
All Garmin dual sensors are unique in that they support 2 concurrent BLE connections.
- Vector 3
- HRM-Dual
- Bike Speed Sensor Gen 3
- Cadence Sensor Gen 3
If you think you might want the sensor to be paired to more than one device/app then pair over ANT on the Edge to leave the BLE channel open for use.
Concurrent sensor connectivity from the Edge to your sensors
The Edge 530/830 supports a sensor pool of 30 sensors, from that pool it can support up to 12 concurrently connect sensors. This is made up of 9 ANT and 3 BLE sensors.
If you will be using a lot of concurrent sensors, then go with ANT as you have support for a greater number of concurrent connections.
Richness of data
The ANT protocol on several sensors is more mature than that of the BLE version. This allows the ANT version to send more data than the BLE version.
A good example of this is the ANT Power meter protocol. This supports Cycling Dynamics, Pedal Smoothness and Torque Effectiveness. None of this data is currently supported over BLE.
Summary
In-short, unless there is a good reason to pair over BLE such as data content or signal strength then the recommendation is to pair over ANT.