Other roads and junctions not displaying in Course

I sympathize with OP, but I can also see it from Garmin's POV as well.

- Garmin is clearly using "map" to mean 2 different things depending on the context:

-- "map" as in map page: this is the page which shows the GPS track / breadcrumb trail and current route/course. It also shows any user-saved locations. It's kind of like a map, in that it shows you where you are and where you're going, as well as any locations you saved. It just doesn't show you any surrounding features.

-- "map" / "maps" / "mapping": fully-featured maps which show streets, buildings, trails, place names, etc

Thing is, does anyone have a better name for the "map page" which is 100% clear and would actually fit on the tiny UI of a watch? "Breadcrumb trail page" or "track page" don't really have the same ring as "map".

Even COROS uses the word "map" for the page that your track / route appears on, even for devices that don't support "mapping" (like their PACE watches):

https://support.coros.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039841072-Using-Navigation-Features

I think we just have to accept that natural language is ambiguous, and people are going to use the word "map" to mean different things in different contexts.

The same thing happens with online and irl discussions all the times - half the time people are arguing past each other because two people use the same word but with different meanings.

9820003 said:

Garmin clearly states 255/265 does not support maps, only 955/965 does, nothing to be disappointed about

Yeah they clearly state that 955/965 have mapping, due to their specs pages featuring a "Maps" tab and a specs line which says "Built-in Mapping". 255/265's spec pages lack both of those things.

But is it really always "clear" that the omission of X means that X is not supported? We can probably think of a ton of little features that aren't necessarily on the specs sheet. (Then again mapping isn't a little feature).

To be fair, no specs sheet or manual will go out of their way to tell you what features a device *doesn't* support.

Strictly speaking, Garmin does not "clearly state" 255/265 does not support maps, it's implied by omission (and by comparison).

tcosta465 said:

I guess you should know what you're buying in the first place

I think one of the biggest legit complaints about Garmin is that there are just way too many models. Garmin has released over 140 watch models in the past 10 years or so, and that's only counting models which are unique from the POV of the Connect IQ ecosystem. If you count variants like Fenix vs Tactix vs Quatix, there's even more than that.

4Runner255 said:

So what Garmin calls a "Map" is only a GPS trace (Route)? That would explain why connected roads/junctions dont show. 

But the User Manual sets an entirely different expectation. It distinguishes Route v Map when it says "your route is marked with a line on the Map". All very confusing and dissapointing. A Garmin device that does not do maps.  

I def sympathize with you here.

To be fair this is what the "Map" section of the manual looks like for FR955, which does support real maps.

I wouldn't expect anyone new to Garmin sports watches to know this, but a lot of their watches don't support (real) maps. It's considered a premium feature reserved for high end watches.

I feel like a lot of existing Garmin users expect everyone to automatically know everything that they do, and somehow assume everything Garmin does is intuitive and natural, as opposed to the reality where most Garmin users are just used to what Garmin does.