Given that the marketing program is "More ways to beat yesterday" and the inclusion of things like Stand Up Paddleboard and Stair Stepper, why is something basic like outdoor swimming not included. This is not an advanced sport or fitness activity, in fact it is something most people do, at least sometimes and it's lack of inclusion means that a whole area of activity is not included in your stats. This is also something that Garmin has already figured out and does reasonably well. If they want to be the "fitness smart watch" this needs to be a part of their competitive product. Very disappointed! I would upgrade my less than year old Vivoactive HR, if this were included.
I would love to see this included as this, along with structured workouts, are the 2 key features I wish were on my VAHR. At least structured workouts have made it into the Vivoactive 3. I can only assume that Garmin deem open water swimming to be a key feature to differentiate between the lower and higher level products as I am sure it would be relatively simple to include if they so wished. Maybe it will make it on to the Vivoactive 4... ;)
Structured workouts will come to the Garmin Vivoactive 3, but I suspect open water is because Garmin don't want to eat to much into the Fenix 5 series sales. Its a middle of the range device for people that are out growing the fitness band, but cant or don't want to go all the way to a wearable like the Fenix 5 or forerunner. The Vivoactive 3 is a very compelling device and I suspect will shake up the market for Fitbit and Apple when it arrives
Don't forget, it's different hardware too. The f5 and 935 series have a gyroscope to assist with "dead reckoning" to help smooth out low rates of GPS samples. Could also be that open water swimming requires a more advanced algorithm and the gyroscope to smooth the data points.
Given that the marketing program is "More ways to beat yesterday" and the inclusion of things like Stand Up Paddleboard and Stair Stepper, why is something basic like outdoor swimming not included. This is not an advanced sport or fitness activity, in fact it is something most people do, at least sometimes and it's lack of inclusion means that a whole area of activity is not included in your stats. This is also something that Garmin has already figured out and does reasonably well. If they want to be the "fitness smart watch" this needs to be a part of their competitive product. Very disappointed! I would upgrade my less than year old Vivoactive HR, if this were included.
I agree with others that it probably won't be added because it's available on Garmin's higher end watches. I personally don't think there's a high demand for open water swimming with VA3 owners and I disagree with "in fact it is something most people do". I believe most people don't "swim" when they're in pools, let alone open water. They tend to wade in a "play" around, but not swim in a manner that one would want it recorded as an activity. Anyway, If the VA3 is able to track open water swimming, I hope they'll add it for people who do open water swimming, but I think Garmin's view would be to purchase a different device then to have everything available on all devices.
I was wondering the same thing with the Vivoactive HR but came across an answer in the original Vivoactive threads, if you search: Open Water Swimming with Vivoactive? There are more details posted there, but it is actually a hardware limitation. The more expensive watches have a different chip that apparently uses more power and does extra calculations for the GPS to compensate for when your arm goes underwater and loses signal. That being said, it appears that there are people trying workarounds, such as recording another activity type and/or putting the unit in their swim cap to stay above water. There don't seem to be any good workarounds that I've come across in forums at least, as I think the idea of making an IQ app didn't seem to go through to well. If I am wrong, someone please correct me, as I'd be interested to try if there have been decent apps made.
I was wondering the same thing with the Vivoactive HR but came across an answer in the original Vivoactive threads, if you search: Open Water Swimming with Vivoactive? There are more details posted there, but it is actually a hardware limitation. The more expensive watches have a different chip that apparently uses more power and does extra calculations for the GPS to compensate for when your arm goes underwater and loses signal. That being said, it appears that there are people trying workarounds, such as recording another activity type and/or putting the unit in their swim cap to stay above water. There don't seem to be any good workarounds that I've come across in forums at least, as I think the idea of making an IQ app didn't seem to go through to well. If I am wrong, someone please correct me, as I'd be interested to try if there have been decent apps made.
Gps works fine after several attemps. Come on Its gps+glonass
Open water is something you'll find on triathlon capable watches, The va3 doesn't even handle multi-sports, so no where close to a tri-watch. You may find GPS is OK at times, but it could be "iffy" (your watch is under water half the time, after all). The va3 doesn't handle things like HRM-Swim or HRM-Tri (it's a special mode with the external HRM while in the water). (it's a FW thing and can't be done in CIQ)
The lower end watches have never had open water, and it was never marketed on any watch in the vivoactive series.
