No YouTube Music on 945 LTE?

jim_m_58 said:

The 945lte is CIQ 3.4.2 per the latest CIQ device configurations

It's not system 6.

Uhhh if your argument is that 945 LTE is not system 6 because it has CIQ 3.4.2, note that Fenix 6 is on the system 6 list that *you* posted, and it only has CIQ 3.4.5. IOW, the list is wrong.

I guess you've forgotten that System 6 is defined as CIQ 3.4 (for CIQ 3 devices) and CIQ 4.2 (for CIQ 4 devices). Did you forget the original point of the "System Level" scheme? It was so that CIQ 3 and CIQ 4 devices could continue to get updates with some shared features, even though they were on different API level tracks (with different hardware capabilities, etc.)

It's super funny bc whenever this comes up you always say a bunch of condescending stuff like "well this System level stuff may be confusing to *you*, but *I* understand it!"

Again it proves that Garmin really dropped the ball with it's CIQ System level scheme and messaging.

Anyway, it's a moot point now that System 7 is out and it's only CIQ >= 5. Looks like all the old CIQ 3 devices are finally being left behind.

As usual Garmin is really very easy to understand 

Regarding hardware / CIQ branch dependancies and features it is mostly a Gamrin choice, for example : https://forums.garmin.com/beta-program/fenix-6-series/f/community-discussion/331591/fenix-6-series-compared-to-instinct-2-new-features---why-some-differences-garmin

FR945LTE share the same hardware (mostly) like FR955 and the system version was sync until 17.xx

Information from my Benchmark followup

--- Fenix 7/E2---

--- Fenix 6---

socorsu said:

FR945LTE share the same hardware (mostly) like FR955 and the system version was sync until 17.xx

Whether FR945 LTE has the same hardware as FR955 or not, it's absolutely the case that FR945 LTE started with CIQ 3 (and never had CIQ 4), while FR955 always had CIQ 4.

Garmin always said that CIQ 3 devices would never get CIQ 4, and they never changed their stance on that.

So even if FR945 LTE had all the hardware requirements for CIQ 4 (such as a GPU), it's Garmin's choice (as you said) to not bring CIQ 4 to any CIQ 3 devices (such as FR945 LTE). And it was Garmin's decision to put CIQ 3 on FR945 LTE in the first place.

It's hard for me to see why Garmin would purposely cripple 945 LTE's CIQ version though. Venu 2 was released a couple of months before 945 LTE and it had CIQ 4 (now CIQ 5). Maybe the development time for 945 LTE was longer due to LTE certification, so they didn't have a chance to squeeze CIQ 4 in?

As far as the system version being in sync, again the fact that the firmware version numbers were the same and some of the features and UI were the same, does not mean that the system software was identical between FR945 LTE and FR955. For example, since 955 is a CIQ 4 device, it supports "super apps". This basically means that any CIQ device app can also implement a glance view, so the same app can be accessed either from the glance list or the activity launcher. It also means that the "widget" app type does not really exist for FR955 (any app that was built as a widget will be seen as a device app for FR955). 945 LTE does not support super apps, which means that CIQ device apps only appear in the activity list and CIQ widgets only appear in the glance list. One way to see this is to find a widget for 945 LTE on the store that also supports 955. If you install it on 945 LTE, it will only be available in the glance list and not the activity list. But if you install it on 955, it will be available in both the glance list and activity list.

There's also several GPU-related features that are only available in CIQ 4, and not CIQ 3. Again, even if 945 LTE has a GPU, no CIQ dev will be able to take advantage of those features.

Anyway, like I said, I don't think any of that matters. Garmin is clearly not adding new features to 945 LTE, so the period of full support is over (compared with newer devices which are getting new features). The latest firmware update was just a bug fix, and last major feature release was 8 months ago (I think).

I think the YouTube Music devs probably made a conscious decision to just support the latest models which are being actively supported by Garmin. (Yeah I realize that list is kind of fuzzy, since Fenix 6 got a beta update 3 months ago, but is not supported by YT Music. Venu 2 is slightly older than FR945 LTE, but it's supported by YT Music). Or it could be that they decided (for whatever reason) to only support the devices with CIQ 4/5 (which would explain why Fenix 6 is excluded).

I could be wrong though. Maybe support for 945 LTE, 245, etc. is coming later. DC Rainmaker asked them about old devices and he repeated their line about "more devices coming later". But only devices they added after the initial app release are FR165 and the new devices (Fenix 8, Fenix E, Enduro 3), which weren't even available at the time YT Music came out.

EDIT actually Youtube Music isn't available for Fenix 8, Fenix E and Enduro 3 yet, but I'm sure it's coming