I messaged Garmin about this. The new much cheaper vivoactive or whatever its called coming out soon has everything this watch has apart from a few running metrics, and it counts stairs has many modes including swim mode etc. Garmin needs to look after its Forerunner customers. Implementing a swim mode, gym mode etc is no problem it's just a case of using the software they already have and adapting it a bit. There's no justification for not implementing the swim mode or indeed the training parter mode they seem to have removed before release but still advertised! Garmin seem to be deliberately dumbing down devices in software in some attempt to get you to buy something more expensive even though the sensors are already there, or buy multiple devices.
I messaged Garmin about this. The new much cheaper vivoactive or whatever its called coming out soon has everything this watch has apart from a few running metrics, and it counts stairs has many modes including swim mode etc. Garmin needs to look after its Forerunner customers. Implementing a swim mode, gym mode etc is no problem it's just a case of using the software they already have and adapting it a bit. There's no justification for not implementing the swim mode or indeed the training parter mode they seem to have removed before release but still advertised! Garmin seem to be deliberately dumbing down devices in software in some attempt to get you to buy something more expensive even though the sensors are already there, or buy multiple devices.
They're just differentiating their product lines, which can be done via software just as much as it can be done via the hardware.
Case in point: there are many things the vivoactive HR doesn't do but could with a simple software update. But then it would look more like the 235. So why then have two similar watches? ... this would just confuse their customers.
Hence they differentiate by keeping (a) the vivoactive more general but simple, and (b) the 235 more focused on running with some extra (mostly) generic options. If you want everything go grab a Fenix HR which ticks all the boxes and then some.
Finally, the SDK is being updated soon in a way that will allow dedicated swimming (or other) apps to be written and downloaded from the Connect IQ store. So Garmin hasn't totally blocked such options, more keeping the headline features separate between their different product lines.
Finally, the SDK is being updated soon in a way that will allow dedicated swimming (or other) apps to be written and downloaded from the Connect IQ store. So Garmin hasn't totally blocked such options, more keeping the headline features separate between their different product lines.
With Swimming, the current SDK basically just exposes data collected by the FW (the Act.info stuff in CIQ), and if the FW doesn't handle swimming, neither will a CIQ app.
Today you can add some sports that aren't native to the watch though, like hiking and walking. They are close enough to "running" that the FW supplies the correct data. (I have such an app in the App store today, and there are a few others for "fitness equipment, etc)
It could be that a future SDK will allow new stuff to be calculated in a CIQ app and injected back into the .fit file, but no one knows when that may be available, but there has been talk about it for a few months in the CIQ forum.
Appreciate differing product lines but Garmin wouldn't be confusing anyone with a swim mode- the watch is totally waterproof.
Would be great if they updated the background program to enable third parties to do this. A third party app would satisfy me, much like the Hike app used for walking.
Cheers for info. Hopefully changes will come soon.
