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What Fenix 8 Features will Come to the Garmin FR 965?

jkshineyman25
7 months ago

With the recent release of the Fenix 8 can we expect to see any of the feature or UI changes implemented on that be brought to the Garmin FR 965?

For example:

1. Dynamic Routing would definitely help. I am always looking to do new routes around me and the routes garmin recommends in my area sometimes are dangerous so I have to take another street and ten I just end up ditching the route anyway. I would have expected the feature to be like this to begin with but I get this is a wrist computer, so any step forward is a leap.

2. UI changes for activities: I don't really care about the new notifications change. I hardly use my 965 for smartwatch purposes, but I like the new 3 screen setup with the settings pages on the first tab, the activity data on the second and music on the third. These are worthwhile changes I'd love to see

3. Not a feature on the Fenix 8, but I wish I could scroll through playlists on spotify and select what song I want to play. I don't mind the "iPod shuffle-esque" set up to music in a way, but it is a little annoying that I don't at least have that option. I think it would require a pretty large overhaul to the UI of spotify's app to make it a truly functional thing, but I think it would help bridge the gap on Garmin competing in the smartwatch space.

Outside of that, there are some minor updates to customization to watch faces that seem cool and a couple other things. If these were introduced or at least if Garmin introduced an alternative idea in a software update to add some of these features it would help immensely. I do like my 965 alot but some things the Fenix 8 introduces are things I think are well within the price range of what the 965 should and could offer. Would love everyone's thoughts.

  • 0 7 months ago

    Apart from broad device updates part of the ecosystem is defined by differentiation of feature sets, so I doubt many will cross the device border. It's also only been out a few days and there's 5 pages of bugs already...

  • 0 7 months ago

    I know you’re probably right. This is one thing upsetting in the Garmin ecosystem. Often times I feel their product differentiation is artificially produced with software features (sometimes not even fully functional) that could probably be implemented in a majority of devices. I don’t understand why they don’t just reduce the amount of hardware they sell and then move from there. 90% of this issues stems from the fact that in the North American market they have so many different models, some with essentially no difference in software beside its hardware limitations.

    Sure there’s research behind each product line, but some of these product lines make no sense to me given their feature sets. Of course, this is all personal opinion, but I get your point. Sometimes Garmin shocks us though so I’m holding my breath

  • 0 7 months ago in reply to jkshineyman25

    They have just combined the Epix and Fenix lines into the Fenix 8. But yep, there's definitely a lot for new customers to look at between models.

  • 0 7 months ago

    I think it's already been made clear that there's no plans to port the new UI back to old devices.

    jkshineyman25 said:
    3. Not a feature on the Fenix 8, but I wish I could scroll through playlists on spotify and select what song I want to play. I don't mind the "iPod shuffle-esque" set up to music in a way, but it is a little annoying that I don't at least have that option. I think it would require a pretty large overhaul to the UI of spotify's app to make it a truly functional thing, but I think it would help bridge the gap on Garmin competing in the smartwatch space.

    Yeah this is the biggest complaint I have with the Spotify CIQ app (I have many others, like the inability to queue up multiple playlists for first-time syncing, and the fact that the next podcast episode doesn't automatically play when the current episode finishes.)

    I don't think it would be a huge overhaul. Currently when you select a playlist, it plays either the actual first song or the first song of the shuffled order (if shuffle is on). The obvious fix is to display all songs in the playlist when you select a playlist. This shouldn't be so hard, considering that's what it does when you select a podcast. (When you select a podcast, a list of episodes is displayed)

    If they're worried about losing the functionality where selecting a playlist plays the first song of the shuffled order (when shuffle is on), they could add a big play button to the top of each playlist, similar to the big play button at the top of every playlist in the Spotify phone app. They could even have a big shuffle button at the top of each playlist, to make this feature even more accessible (again, just like the Spotify phone app)

    It's ridiculous to me how zero reviewers, influencers or bloggers have said anything about the omission of this completely basic functionality (select a song to play from a playlist.)

    I left reviews, pressed Contact Developer and left feedback, but ofc no response from spotify or garmin.

    Also kinda embarassing that the native Garmin music player (for MP3s manually copied to your device) has this feature. To be fair, it most likely doesn't use CIQ, but again, I don't see how this feature is impossible or even extremely hard to do in CIQ, especially since it's done in Spotify's CIQ app for podcasts and podcast episodes.

  • 0 7 months ago in reply to FredGolightly
    FredGolightly said:
    It's also only been out a few days and there's 5 pages of bugs already...

    Yeah it's funny that DCR said that Garmin really improved its QA processes a couple of years ago, but would we have known if he didn't say anything? Regardless of the new-ish beta program or the quarterly updates, the one thing that hasn't changed is every high-end Garmin device has a ton of bugs on release.