Not sure I understand or realize the full benefits of pairing my phone with my watch at all times. I do not use the watch for text messages and weather isn't such a big deal for me. If I go for a run, won't my activity still upload to Garmin Connect via wi-fi automatically? Also, if I leave my phone paired at all times, doesn't that drain the battery? Thanks.
There are several apps which rely on either always-on BLE connection, or at it being available when you need it, such as: - Find phone - Find watch - Glance - Music controls - Tides - Calendar
Not sure I understand or realize the full benefits of pairing my phone with my watch at all times. I do not use the watch for text messages and weather isn't such a big deal for me. If I go for a run, won't my activity still upload to Garmin Connect via wi-fi automatically? Also, if I leave my phone paired at all times, doesn't that drain the battery? Thanks.
Other than what you and PubBike mentioned, there is no "benefit" of keeping your phone connected at all times. I don't imagine the battery drain would be that significant, but that's a question probably better suited for support. I keep Bluetooth on 24/7 more out of convenience and so I don't have to remember to turn it back on. I use the 935 which does have better battery life then the 645, but as I and chunkywizard said earlier, Bluetooth battery usage is probably minimal enough not to be a concern.
Thank you all. So I guess my concern it was a battery drain but apparently not, which is good! But when I am connected and move away from my watch and lose connection, I get that watch vibrating notification that the connection is lost - is there any way to turn that off? Also, I have Wifi setup on my watch for my home wifi, but how does the watch know to auto upload the run once I come home? I don't have bluetooth turned on.
One other thing that hasn't been mentioned is that it improves the chance that your EPO file, which allows the watch to predict where satellites will be, will always be up to date.
An additional feature is "live tracking" - this will send a link via multiple methods ( I use email) which someone can follow your runs with. All of my runs, my wife gets tracking info so she can have piece of mind that I'm all right. Additionally during big races, my sister and I both send live tracks to each other so we can follow with 1 minute updates, versus races that might have 2-4 checkpoints at best for "live" data. It was fun to watch her BQ, but a bit nerve wracking as she started slowing to the end.
For me, the most useful feature of pairing watch with smartphone is smart notifications, that is, the watch vibrates and alerts me when I get an email, call, or whatever I want to get notified in the watch (is configurable). Before my watch connected to the phone I missed some calsl if I was in a noisy environment because I did not hear the phone, but now I feel the vibration on the watch... BLE consumes some battery in both, the wath and the phone, but is very efficient, so it is a very small drain. In my case, as I keep my watch always connected to the phone, I don't see the point of connecting the watch with WiFi, but the more connection options we have, the better... then you could use whatever suits
