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Vivoactive 4- initial impressions and some firmware suggestions for Garmin

6447640
over 5 years ago

Hello everyone,

I just got a Vivoactive 4 smartwatch a few days ago, coming from a bunch of WearOS devices and (best smartwatch I have ever had before) a Pebble Time (now defunct - company sold to a Garmin competitor).

While the WearOS smartwatches are mostly useless, the Pebble OS is incredibly well thought out and useful. I was surprised to see that Garmin is also top notch in usefulness.

But I do have some firmware suggestions for Garmin firmware developers (and product managers):

1. Regarding display functionality

The particular transreflective screen used by Vivoactive 4 is not very visible in typical indoor light without the backlight. This is unlike the Pebble Time (similar but better) or Pebble 2 (stellar visibility indoors). Remember, this is a smartwatch so it will be used a lot indoors. 

The backlight usage could be greatly reduced and overall display ergonomy could be enhanced with some simple firmware changes:

- Add a "white background" theme as an option throughout the whole UI. Black on white is much more visible indoors (and outdoors !) on a transreflective screens compared to white on black.

- Add a "thicker font" option at least for notifications if not for the menu too. A thick black font on a white background would add a lot of visibility. 

- Add an optional second gesture (wrist flick) for operating the backlight, in addition to the "raise the arm" gesture. Operating the backlight optionally only on demand with a flick of the wrist would avoid accidental backlight triggering during sleep, for example.

2. Regarding notification functionality:

Remember: not everybody works out, but everybody receives notifications :)

- When the Do Not Disturb mode is on, there really is no need to disable sending notifications to the watch. Disabling vibrations and backlight would suffice in not disturbing the user. This comes with many advantages, for example if someone (Joe the business user) wakes up during the night he can check the notifications present in the notification history, even if the DND mode is on. 

- I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Garmin OS has a notification history, which few other smartwatches have. But an option to let the notifications in history until the list is specifically cleared by the user would be very useful.

- Add an option to clear the whole notification history in one step.

- Most watch faces do not take notifications seriously. I could not find a watch face that displayed the number of notifications very clearly and with a big font. Also I don't think there is any watch face that displays a list of multiple icons for multiple types of notifications. This would be a great addition for notification functionality.

3. Regarding health functionality:

Remember, not everybody works out, but everybody sleeps :)

- So then, why not have a native sleep stats widget on the watch, and only inside the app ? The Pebble notified me in the morning after waking up regarding how much time I have slept, which was incredibly useful. A native sleep stats widget on the watch would be great.

Hopefully some of my suggestions would prove useful.

Thanks ! Slight smile

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    1)  While indoors, the display may not be as readable as with other watches, take it outdoor in the sun with another smart watch and there is no comparison.  Not sure about the va4, but there could be an option to turn on the backlight with a gesture (there is on other watches) to help indoors, or changing the color scheme of the watch face could also help.

    3).  Sleep data is not processed on the watch, but is done on the Garmin Servers when the data is uploaded, where you can adjust your sleep and wake times, etc.  This is why there's no widget on the watch.  The watch doesn't have the data.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    It is not needed to process sleep data on the watch in order to have a sleep stats widget. It can simply be uploaded to the smartwatch from the phone when it is ready (this is probably how many other smartwatches do it). But having the information available on the watch would provide a very easy way to see it at a glance.