Quality of Garmin software

Welcome to the real world of effective managers.

1. the goal is to earn maximum money, not to make a good product.
2. If things get hot, change the department immediately.
That's all you need.

Where do you see bug fixing? Working with users? What is all this for? Nothing personal, just a professional approach.

PS And yes, my next watch will definitely not be a Garmin watch.

I agree that this is normal behavior today. But I ask myself if Volkswagen now thinks it was a good decision too treat customers of cars with the cheating software like ***, of course short term they saved a lot of money, long term a lot of people seem to be sceptcal about the brand. So I just wonder if long term success shuld not be more important.
In Garmins case I just see so many easy fixes /low hanging fruits.
I see bug fixes, for example I got into contact with them about the Spotify problem, provided some hints/videos when it happens and it got fixed. As said I think the fix or the overall control of startin/stopping spotify is still not good but at least not super annoying anymore.
Probably I am just too idealistic but I still think that also people at Garmin see and know about what could improve and probably telling their managers aswell and if there is a small chance of support these voices I will do it. 
But yes in the end it will probably not matter at all and I will try another brand as well.

I was finally convinced that there is no point in talking to your hand - this is the removal of the LTHR test from the watch options. This means that the shortcomings of the OHRS are not recognized as shortcomings. Numerous requests from users to leave the test and improve the sensibility of a pulse sensor - simply do not matter. More different half-baked functions are introduced, none of which work thoughtfully - this brings maximum profit, and then the watch can simply be thrown away.
In a word - forget it. I don't think it is fixable. 

Software quality is the biggest issue with Garmin product since Fenix 7 and FRx55/x65 Series.

The first fenix watches was a real disaster. Nothing worked on those watches (though I never owned one, Had a Suunto Ambit 3. Less features, but it was perfect for my needs)

After that, the forerunner 935/fenix 5 was ok. The bluetooth was horrible and when they added galileo suppory there was a bug that always all gps systems was selected (with considerable reduces battery life as result, and the widgets kept being rearranged by garmin express, and the navigation could only handle 50 course points)

With the 955/fenix 7 quality again suffered. And they keep adding annoyances, like the forced voice tbt alerts. 

Garmin focus more on feature quantity than quality, because they know people think garmin is better because it has a gazillion (useless, non functional) features and other brands only the 100th most useful features.

And it works for garmin. They sell a lot of watches.

I found a Suunto race s with a discount and are selling my 965. Good way to start the new year. I don’t think it will make any impact on garmins attitude, but it will make things better for me. 

And it seems that the percent of the users who notice these bugs is small enough that they choose not to care too much, 'cause loosing a few thousand users a year because they buy a non Garmin watch next time is cheaper than fixing the bugs or write code with less bugs.

I thought about leaving Garmin, and I think that if I was more of a regular user who uses the watch with it's default settings, default watch face, no CIQ data fields, then I would've moved already.

BUT: those things are not available at the competitors (or come with 1 day battery time)

And most probably if I didn't use CIQ then I wouldn't know about most of the bugs that annoy me.

So it's a catch-22 thing. If anyone can recommend a competitor, then please do so (watch for running, walking, hiking, yoga, pilates, swim, strength, etc + bike computer + ecosystem)

Suunto is doing a great job in terms of OS and Application since Vertical, Race (and S), Peak Pro in terms of software.

Coros is interesting and provide some new great features like screen mirror to smartphone.

OK, we do not have NFC "Pay", maybe Music App like Amazon/Deezer/Spotify/Youtube, but if the device do not crash or not constent restart to fix issue, then these are minor difference for me.

I'm waiting to see which Map enhancement these 2 brands will do and really think about it.

I have tried coros pace2 and was not satisfied, next time I will try Polar, i think. It is difficult to leave ant+ devices and interoperability of all those sensors you already bought. Pacer or Vantage, dunno... Or Garmin allows simply access to the old FW files, i would go back to 16.21 or so, to get my OHRS working 

And what about custom watch faces? (I'm not even asking for apps or datafield) I guess thats only on smart watches, i.e apple, wear OS, but those lag behind the sports (though for my need probably more than enough) BUT I'll never go back to a watch that needs every day charging.