I use my watch to control podcast / music playback on my phone throughout each day. It's probably the single most frequent feature I've used since purchasing my first Garmin watch 6 years ago.
I find on the 265, however, that the music screen... times out?... and returns to the watch face if I'm not constantly touching it. By contrast, the music screen on my previous watch (245 Music) would stay active indefinitely once I navigated to it - whether I interacted with the watch or not, and whether music was playing or not.
I would assert the following:
- The Forerunner 265 music screen should stay active until I explicitly navigate away form it
The fact that the 265 determines for me when the music screen should disappear is a hindrance. Specifically:
- The current behavior forces me to look at the watch, whereas I could previously do everything by touch
- Looking at the watch frequently is particularly problematic because:
- The AMOLED screen turns off automatically (which I've enabled intentionally, to save battery), and;
- My natural wrist motion is not enough to activate the screen; I have to either jerk my watch hand or tap the screen with my other hand to activate the display
I've become so accustom from my old watch to just reaching for the music buttons, without looking, when I'm working, doing dishes, driving, etc. This 265 takes me out of the zone dozens of times each day because I have to consciously break my focus to interact with the watch. It seems minor, but the frequency with which this happens makes it impactful.
There is no case in which I've navigated to the music screen when I subsequently want my watch to automatically navigate away from it. Even if playback is paused for an hour, say during a meeting, I want the watch to stay in the state that I left it so I can immediately resume when I'm ready. I'll dismiss the music screen when I'm done with it.
If there's a way to force the music screen to stay up, I'd appreciate suggestions.
Otherwise, Garmin, please preserve the user's chosen watch state. The more the watch tries to help by reading my mind, the less helpful it becomes.