Garmin Swim 2 Intensity minutes not being logged after 2.60 update

Hi PG, I got all excited yesterday when the watch told me it was going to update to 2.7 as 2.61 did add some activity minutes but not as many as before the 2.6 upgrade. 

However 2.7 seems to have carried over 2.61's fault. I got 26 Activity Minutes for a 32 Minute Swim with an average heart rate of 144 bpm 

Before the update to 2.6 I was getting about three times that  with around a 30 minute swim getting me around 60 activity minutes. 

Be interested to know what other people are getting

The same for me. Version 2.70 didn't fix anything for me. 

Just out of curiosity I switched on activity tracking during my pool swim. (I do not use activity tracking at all). SW 2.70

I got intensity minutes, for a 1 hour swim where avg. HR was 119 (lower zone3), I got only 31 (15 min vigorous + 1 min normal). At first it sounded weird and just too small.

Please read this article

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=pNU9nnDzzGAHmEavp9rpY8

Basic requirement:

- "In order to earn intensity minutes credit, you must reach or exceed 10 consecutive minutes¹ where either your step count rate or heart rate is elevated above the threshold that is considered moderate intensity. Performing a more vigorous activity resulting in a high heart rate can double your credit minutes,"

For swimming there is an other requirement, what is NOT defined exactly

- "Watches that support optical heart rate while swimming can give credit for intensity minutes when swimming in open water or a pool."

Swim2 is in this group - note, that exact criteria is missing, maybe the basic criteria applies here, but we do not know anything about setting the threshold.

There are more advanced watches to allow some configuration

- "Most watches with wrist-based heart rate sensors will calculate intensity minutes by comparing your current heart rate to your average resting heart rate, but some watches have an option to base intensity minutes on heart rate zones"

Swim2 is NOT in that group!

To sum up, you can feel that intensity minutes are somewhat off, but as there is NO EXACT DEFINITION how to calculate (or what is the threshold), it will be really hard to convince Garmin that you need more intensity minutes for swimming. If you wish, open a ticket for it.

Also your training type will affect the earned intensity minutes. If you swim in short bursts, or do sprint exercise, and rest too much, you will get much less intensity minutes even if the training will be much more high intensity type (there might be minutes when the HR drops below the threshold, and you lose the previous minutes. Consequently a steady but relatively hard paced long swim will add plenty of intensity minutes. I see that my swim had too much recovery so it seems realistic to have such few intensity minutes.

I understand that high intensity training is much more exhausting than steady exercise, and logic tells that high intensity should get more intensity minutes. But the definition does not fit the real world. I think that "fitness gurus" should redefine this metrics. Until that it is just a flashy but useless indicator.