How to view notifications during an activity?

I own a 945 LTE, not a 255, but it's my understanding that you can't return to the watchface on the 255 during an activity (*), which means you can't scroll to the notifications widget.

(* On Fenix and Forerunner 9xx watches, you can set a "hotkey" such as "Hold BACK" to return to the watchface.)

However, I'm curious if the following would work:

1) Add the stopwatch to the controls menu (which is accessed by holding the LIGHT button)

2) Start activity

3) Hold LIGHT to access controls menu

4) Select Stopwatch

5) Press UP for stopwatch options

6) In the stopwatch options menu, scroll to Go to Watchface and press START. This is the part that I'm not sure about. Does the 255 stopwatch have the "Go to Watchface" option? If so, does it work during an activity?

7) Scroll to notifications widget and press START

I have no idea if that would actually work, but if it did, it would be a cool workaround for that limitation.

You can push up middle left ti ready message and then back to retutn bottom left

I tried this when on a walk with my wife.  I had to press the middle button and then Settings, watchface, then back out off this. It puts me back on the watch face. Then I can press the 'up'  button and access notifications. 

I tried this on a windy street (lots of bends) and it still recorded when I was off the activity screen.

It's a work around, and it is going to be a nightmare when running, but it works.

The stopwatch option doesn't work on the FR255.

I wish I could get rid off the music hotkey,  but I've just seen that there are multiple threads on this.

Thanks

Graeme said:

I had to press the middle button and then Settings, watchface, then back out off this. It puts me back on the watch face.

This is actually so much simpler and I can't believe I never tried it haha.

EDIT: actually it doesn't work with my watch (945 LTE) lol.

At least there's a way to do it for 255 watches. (Idk about 245). I was under the impression it was impossible to return to the watchface during an activity for 2xx watches.

Graeme said:

it is the up button > the setting cog > appearance > watch face. Then press back twice.

It works, thanks!

That is super obscure tho. I wonder if Garmin wants people to know about this feature haha.

I think you can also disable lap button in activity settings and then it will act like a normal back, but you'll lose lap functionality.

It works, but it way too many steps to do while you are running, biking, swimming, or whatever.  It seems just easier to hit the Pause button and then select Resume Later, and return back to the home screen, down button until you get notifications--just like normal when not in an activity.  After reading notifications, just hit Pause button again to resume.  At least this way, trying to read my notifications does not screw up my activity because it was in pause mode.

They definitely don't want people to know since they purposefully make the FR255 worse through software. Tell someone that "hotkey" is a premium feature and they will laugh at you. That's crippleware and that's a shameful practice.

2709537 said:

They definitely don't want people to know since they purposefully make the FR255 worse through software. Tell someone that "hotkey" is a premium feature and they will laugh at you. That's crippleware and that's a shameful practice.

As annoying as that is, to be fair this is a standard way of segmenting the market that's been around for a long time, and companies do it with both hardware and software. It's easiest for them to just design the most expensive product as the baseline, and create the middle-end and low-end products by removing features. I mean there was a time when only Fenix watches had a built-in stopwatch lol. I thought it was so ridiculous that these fancy GPS watches which cost so much more than a simple timex didn't even have a built-in stopwatch. (For various reasons, starting and stopping an activity is not a great substitute, especially considering how slow the UI used to be.)

I do think Garmin has way too many models for my taste (although it apparently works for them), and it kinda sucks that you don't always gain features by paying more money.

e.g. (previous generation watches)

VA3 to 245: gain running features but lose baro (you paid extra for an upgrade but also got a downgrade)

245 to 645: gain baro, but lose certain features (since 645 is actually an older watch)

645 to 945: finally you have all the software and hardware features you want (except ofc Fenix 6 had some slight differences to 945 iirc)

At least one annoyance is gone with the 255, since the 255 has a baro.