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Limited Bluetooth Range - Need phone right next to watch for notifications

4708461
10 months ago

My biggest complaint with the Garmin Venu 3S is that the phone only connects to the watch over bluetooth and the range is so short (much less than 30ft). The whole point of me having a watch with notifications is that I can be doing yardwork, swimming, house work without needing to have my phone on me, but the range is so poor that even though I can see my phone 10 ft away from me, my watch is not connected. I don't see the point of having the watch connected to wifi if it's not going to be able to talk to the phone that way. Unfortunately this is a deal breaker and I will be returning it. I never had this issue with my old Fossil watches :(  Anyone else frustrated with this?

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Scott

    I don't understand why it's so bad for Garmin.

    It completely ruins their use. I'm curious about the Galaxy Watch 7, if they will have better battery life, as Samsung claims.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Keke

    I only see this with the vivoactive 5, but it sounds the same with the venu3, though with the va5 I stay connected in the next room.

    Other Garmin devices I have have a much better range.  The fr965, fr255, Instinct2, etc.  Maybe see if you can exchange the venu3 for a fr165, 255, 265, etc.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to jim_m_58

    My next watch will not be a Garmin.
    They have enough problems for what they cost.

    I could probably put up with all the ailments, but the range of the BT connection annoys me every day. Unfortunately,

    I can no longer return them. I'll wait until the new Galaxy Watch comes out and then get rid of the Garmins (if I don't do it before then)

  • 0 10 months ago

    The Venu 3 has the absolute worst Bluetooth connection I’ve experienced in a long time. Forget about answering or making calls on the Venu 3, it is totally useless.  it will automatically switch from the watch to the phone for no reason, and the phone app on the watch will close. I assume it closes because it has lost the Bluetooth connection. Same thing goes trying to use the voice assistant though the watch, 8 out of 10 times it doesn’t work. Even worse it interferes with calling up the voice assistant on the phone itself. Siri appears to come up but ignores what you say. Then if you bring Siri up again, it works normally, so it takes two times to properly activate Siri instead of the first time. If the watch is off, everything works normally. I don’t understand how something, with such poor Bluetooth was able to hit the market without being caught in development. It makes me wonder what kind of testing actually goes on.   What is the mic on the Venu 3 supposed to be used for if not calls and voice assistant?

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to 9725743

    Problem is not the mic or crappy bluetooth for using the siri. Deactivate the call audio feature in watch settings and siri will work normally. At least one of the feature works properly this way. What I think is, when call audio feature is active and you try to use siri from watch, phone cannot understand if it is a speakerphone or headphone or something else then connection between watch and phone doesn’t happen properly. I just disabled the call audio completely (I couldn’t use it properly anyway. It sometimes worked, sometimes not at all) and siri started to work properly 

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Emin C.

    Thanks I will give it a try.

    I’m very disappointed that I have to disable one feature for another to work. There are watches within the Garmin lineup that have similar functionality without a microphone, for a cheaper price. If not a cheaper price different functionality such as onboard maps.   Calls and voice assistant are used by Garmin to differentiate the Venu 3 from others in its lineup, and they don’t work as advertised. I don’t even expect it to work all the time, because Bluetooth is never perfect in my experience. It should however work well the majority of the time. 

  • 0 10 months ago

    Do you need to have Garmin app on if you want call from watch or find your phone? I have wifi and bluetooth on and if app is off i cant do this... 

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to 5251133

    Find my phone yes the app has to be open on iPhone, on android I’m not sure. I assume with phone calls the same applies, but am not sure. My app is always open and running in the background.    The phone call feature on the Venu 3 has been horrid for me. 

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to Keke

    You are Right !!! Wish I had never purchased my Venu 3. Old Bluetooth version. Disconnect at 8 feet. Bad mic. also

    not able to put Fusion-Link on it to control my Garmin head unit. 

    I am also going with a Galaxy.