Request: Always Save Recovery Heart Rate in Garmin Connect

I think it is poorly explained.  To understand the explanation you have to know how it works already.   It doesn't explicitly mention the "save" screen at the end of an activity nor where to find the Recovery Heart Rate it in Garmin Connect.

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-9D99A9D4-467A-4F1A-A0EA-023184FEA3DD/EN-US/GUID-4A13852E-C46C-47A7-B552-F6CF50E526EE.html

Maybe Garmin asked the job experience person to write this?

Besides could anyone tell me where would I find Recovery Heart Rate in GCM?

Another approach could be to have an option on the menu "Save in 2:00 (RHR)" where the watch waits 2:00, records the Recovery HR and then saves the activity.  The user would be prevented from starting another activity until the activity has saved, or the user decides to resume the activity,.

Just to clarify: while Garmin Connect Mobile usually only shows average and maximum heart rate, if you wait for 2 minutes on the save screen after finishing your activity, the Recovery Heart Rate will be recorded and shown under the Heart Rate section in the Stats tab.

PubBike said:

 To understand the explanation you have to know how it works already. 

tbh that's very on-brand for Garmin. I also see it in the docs for Connect IQ (developing 3rd party apps)

PubBike said:

Besides could anyone tell me where would I find Recovery Heart Rate in GCM?

It's inexplicably hidden in Connect for some older watches (even though they have it in the UI), but you can always see it if you sync with runalyze.com (a free website that syncs with Connect).

You could also export your FIT file and use fitfileviewer.com to look at it, although that's obviously a huge pain if you have to do it for every activity.

EDIT: no, actually I think older devices (like FR935) did not save recovery hr at all. I think they only measured it and displayed it to the user without saving it.

PubBike said:

Another approach could be to have an option on the menu "Save in 2:00 (RHR)" where the watch waits 2:00, records the Recovery HR and then saves the activity.  The user would be prevented from starting another activity until the activity has saved

Honestly that sounds like an even worse user experience than what we have today.

TL;DR the whole point of this thread is that OP thought recovery HR was not being automatically saved anymore. But in fact it is still being automatically saved, but it's just not obvious. I think it's hardly a solution (for OP's problem) to actually change the behaviour so recovery HR is no longer automatically saved.

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As you know, in the current system:

- you can explicitly select Recovery Heart Rate and see the timer count down for yourself (and you always have the option of backing out)

- if you pause for long enough, the watch saves Recovery HR anyway

With your system:

- the user *must* explicitly select the "Save in 2:00 (RHR)" menu item, and once they select it, they're prevented from doing anything else? Tbh, nobody would like this. Imagine if you select this menu item by accident - now you're locked out of your watch for 2 minutes. Alternatively, if you're able to cancel the "lockout", then it's not much different than the existing scheme

- "[For 2 minutes] the user would be prevented from starting another activity until the activity has saved" 

Again, nobody would want this, but furthermore, what if the user wants or needs to turn off their watch? What if the battery level is extremely low? 

What if they need to open a Connect IQ app or do some other action that can't be done while an activity is active? (Like sync with Connect).

Sorry, you can't just lock the user out of their watch for an extended period of time unless it's to do something that really requires the user to be locked out (like firmware update, reboot, or syncing music). And you especially can't do that while the activity is paused and not yet saved.

Users would hate this behaviour.

- If you mean the menu item should literally read "Save in 2:00 (RHR)", nobody will know what that means. It doesn't help that "RHR" could also mean "Resting Heart Rate" in other contexts, and that Garmin has never abbreviated Recovery HR as RHR afaik

- the user loses the benefit of having the watch save Recovery HR without asking (unless you think this something that users would never want)

- it does not address the problem where the OP mistakenly believed the automatic process no longer happens. In fact it makes it worse, since the existing situation is that the automatic really was happening,  but the new situation is that automatic process actually won't happen anymore

I actually think what Garmin does now is ok - implicitly measuring and saving Recovery HR without asking. They just need a way to *tell* the user it is happening, which isn't too intrusive or annoying. I think the least intrusive way would be to use the Recovery Heart Rate menu item to show the status, as I said. It fits 100% with the way it works today, because when you select that item, you are taken to the timer screen which shows the measurement *already in progress* (unless you are lightning quick and select the item immediately after you pause the activity). Given that the pause menu item takes you to the in-progress measurement, I don't see any reason it shouldn't also show a (unintrusive) indication that the measurement is happening. (Unless ofc the concern is that it would take up too much space in the UI or it would be annoying - if that's the case, maybe there could be some small circular progress bar animation or something, instead of status text. The user can always select the menu item to see more details)

GoujiNomoto said:

Just to clarify: while Garmin Connect Mobile usually only shows average and maximum heart rate, if you wait for 2 minutes on the save screen after finishing your activity, the Recovery Heart Rate will be recorded and shown under the Heart Rate section in the Stats tab.

Yes, but I think PubBike is saying that recovery heart rate is not shown in Connect in some cases.

As a matter of fact, I *think* some old devices like FR935 may have measured resting HR, but they never actually saved it to Connect? That's what it looks like based on looking at old activities in Connect and runalyze. Now I kinda vaguely maybe recall taking screenshots of my recovery HR because of this?

EDIT: yeah, I actually do have a bunch of recovery hr screenshots from my FR935 haha. I would never have taken those screenshots if the data was saved in Connect, and I can't find any FR935 activities which do have recovery hr in Connect.

My suggestion was to add another option, not to take any of the others away, or to change the way any of the other options currently work.   The point was to save the user having to wait 2 minutes and then remember to look at the watch and then save if they choose that option.  The description of the option needs to be meaningful and easy to understand.

In addition, the user manual needs to be updated so that the behaviour and functionality of the watch is completely clear.

I submitted feedback about the current manual when I read it yesterday but who knows whether Garmin will fix it.  More likely that they will leave the 955 manual as it is and maybe fix it in future watches as I have seen with other suggestions I have made e.g. remote display.

PubBike said:

My suggestion was to add another option, not to take any of the others away, or to change the way any of the other options currently work

Sorry, I misunderstood.

I don't think adding another recovery heart rate-related menu item would make things less confusing tho.

PubBike said:

The point was to save the user having to wait 2 minutes and then remember to look at the watch and then save if they choose that option.  The description of the option needs to be meaningful and easy to understand.

TL;DR recovery heart rate is automatically saved if the user pauses their watch for at least 2 minutes, regardless of whether they ever opened the Recovery Heart Rate menu item or not [*].

With that objection out of the way, it seems the remainder of your objection / feature request relates to the user wanting the watch to force them to wait (by preventing them from saving the activity if the 2 minutes have not elapsed).

- I think there are better ways to do this than adding a 2nd menu item relating to recovery heart rate, which will only be confusing and redundant 

(like adding an option to the existing Recovery Heart Rate page)

- Either way, I don't think this is user-friendly, desired by many users, or something Garmin will realistically consider

[*] ofc the point of this thread is the user probably doesn't know this, which is why I suggested putting the status in the recovery heart rate menu item

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Detailed blogpost:

"The point was to save the user having to wait 2 minutes and then remember to look at the watch and then save if they choose that option."

- First of all, as explained in the thread, you don't have to explicitly select the "Recovery Heart Rate" option. It's automatically saved as long as you paused your watch for at least 2 minutes. (If you do this more than once, I assume the final measured recovery heart rate will take precedence)

So I think this negates half of your premise - the user doesn't actually have to choose the recovery heart rate option after the end of 2 minutes. I think the remaining half is that the user doesn't want to accidentally save the activity without waiting the full 2 minutes.

Yes, one problem here is that users don't *know* recovery heart rate is automatically saved. That's why I suggested displaying the current status on the menu item itself.

- Second, you are suggesting adding another recovery heart rate menu item when there's already a recovery heart rate menu item. Not only would this be confusing, it's also unnecessary. No one is going to understand why there are 2 menu items for recovery heart rate.

I think your objection with the current menu item is that you're able to exit out of the countdown and there's no guarantee that recovery heart rate will be saved. If you really want some kind of guarantee, I think there are other ways to accomplish that (like making it an option on the existing recovery heart rate page - see below)

"meaningful and easy to understand"

I don't think "Save in 2:00 (RHR)" is meaningful and easy to understand. For one thing, "RHR" is only meaningful if you already know what it is. Maybe it would make sense next to the existing "Recovery Heart Rate" option, but then the user might question what the difference is.

And what really would be the difference? Selecting "Recovery Heart Rate" shows the current progress of the background measurement, while selecting "Save in 2:00 (RHR)" locks you into the 2:00 measurement? Again, this is not going to be user-friendly. If the 2:00 lock-in really prevents you from doing certain things (like saving the activity, opening the kind of CIQ app that doesn't work during an activity, or rebooting the watch), people are not going to like that.

Also, the suggested wording "Save in 2:00 (RHR)" sort of implies that recovery heart rate would *not* normally be saved in 2:00. But that's not true (as mentioned above).

It does seem to me you are looking for a *guarantee* that recovery HR will be saved, without the user having to explicitly sit around and wait for the timer to count down. But I would question why the user can't do that, if you think they are willing to select a menu item like "Save in 2:00 (RHR)"?

But ok, let's say the user is willing to explicitly select a menu item, but they are not willing to wait around for 2:00 without being FORCED to. As it stands, if you select "recovery heart rate", the 2:00 countdown stays on the screen unless you explicitly back out, but maybe some users wanna do other stuff during that time, like look at data screens (I sure do).

So why not integrate that idea into the *existing* recovery heart rate page?

After the user selects "Recovery Heart Rate", they get the page with the countdown and measurement (as usual). But now there's something new on the page: a open padlock icon next to the START button. If they click the START button, the padlock becomes locked, and a message is displayed: "Activity cannot be saved until recovery heart rate is measured". (If they press the padlock again, it unlocks: "activity can be saved without recovery heart rate measurement".)

Now the user is free to go look at data screens or whatever, without worrying that they'll accidentally save the activity too early. If the user tries to save the activity while recovery heart rate is "locked", the watch could prompt them: "Recovery heart rate is not measured yet. Save activity anyway?"

Since the user explicitly chose this option (locked the padlock and saw the message) it could even become the default behaviour for future activities, although this might be dangerous. (A user might enable the lock by accident and not know how to disable it, resulting in an annoying prompt every time they want to save an activity.)

However, it don't think Garmin will ever do any of this, so it's kind of a moot point. I also think users wouldn't like it, even with the changes I suggested.