Garmin Connect 5.0 is Finally Here! Thoughts on the New Update...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 เม.ย. 2024
- The new Garmin Connect 5.0 app update is here...what do you think?
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If it's not broken, don't fix it. The old version with the collapsed list view gave a really nice and fast overview of all the important metrics. Now in version 5 there is no overview and you have to scroll up and down and left and right to see what you could see in one page before. Please let us have version 4 back.
I would like the option to select between the new and previous UI. Just like in the beta version.
same
I have to say that I really like your proposal (mock-up) where you can see everything at a glance and tap to reveal more detailed information.
👍
Isn’t that basically what Fitbit does?
Agree - he hits on all the fundamental usability issues with the new UI. And the at a glance/tap to reveal is just smart. For me, it just feels like the new UI requires me to tap and scroll several more times then I used to in order to get to the same old data.
@@n64central Isn't it basically what the previous version did. ;)
Fully agree!
I want a summary in the top of my day. Just like last week but for right now.
I really don't like the new design: the combination of horizontal and vertical scrolling makes the app harder to use than it was before. Having two cards side-by-side in the "at a glance" section instead of two horizontal cards in the same space is harder to read, and the excess whitespace, while it may be on-trend, isn't great for those of us who want to see stats - which is why we use Garmin! I really like Des's suggestion of a "Today" section similar to "Last Week", with expanding cards. But the "in focus" section - having to horizontally scroll... nope
I miss having a better full summery on the main screen vs having to swipe the In Focus, etc. You have some great ideas on improvements, I'd vastly prefer them over the current. Let's hope Garmin is listening! Oh, and if they are... New Edge 1040plus/1050 coming?🙏
Love Garmin but I’ve always thought they have the worst UI design out there. They really need to invest in talented designers. Agree with your comments about the the new update. Also sent them my feedback that the desktop layout makes poor use of space.
I think from UX and design perspective the new app is utter garbage. This is what happens to you if you have too big of a grip on the market and can't feel the pressure of competition strongly enough. Only market can fix this, only people simply choosing NOT TO use this and go for competition. I've had so many encounters with the levels of arrogance of Garmin's tech support that I don't really attempt to send them any feedback, it's not worth it. Their attitude is "we know best, we are Garmin you lowly creature".
If ANY OTHER sports watch manufacturer on the market came up with this design people would laugh them out of the door but for some reason when Garmin does it people cautiously offer them "suggestions"... 🤡
Agree 100%. Not just UI. Their software in general. They still can’t get rerouting right even on Edge 1040. Every other GPS I have owned does rerouting right. Just one example.
@@sdanjohn Yes, my Edge 540 is also laughably incompetent at even the most trivial rerouting tasks. It's pathethic that Garmin, of all companies, has issues with this.
The old UI looked nice in the app I think. The new one looks ugly. Its like some have gone to a bootcamp for a week and tried to design a webpage first day at work.
Garmin should fire the UI design team and rebuild it 😅
I am going to be a bit mean, but it feels like a diversity hire has been in charge for the UI. See this at many companies since last year now, atleast TH-cam reverted their new UI after a big backlash from users that it was so much worse.
When the update first landed I absolutely hated it. However, I’ve since begrudgingly started to embrace it and, whilst there is definitely a lot more tapping and scrolling, I’m getting access to info and data that I just didn’t see before / was on my radar and thus my regimen is starting to see a little more 3 dimensional. Yes the old app was much easier to navigate and use but it feels much ‘flatter’ to this updated version.
Just terrible. How can I go back to the previous version??
Literally switched to coros just as this happened and don't regret it
Bad to worse. 😂 Hope Garmin listens. I’ve been using Garmin for many years. I don’t understand how they can make it worse. Reading good things about the Suunto app and Race watch. Sure like the price point so going to give Suunto a shot. 😊
I think Garmin should allow users the option to select the old style home page in the settings menu - so those that enjoy the new interface can use it and those that don't can continue using the old version they are used to
I don't mind the makeover (honestly it makes next to zero difference in my mind), but I'd really appreciate it if the phone app updated with data from the watch better. For example, after a workout the Training Readiness displayed on the phone remains the same as in the morning after waking up, even though it should be updated after the workout just like it is on my watch.
I think one of the bigger problems has been the conflating of phone/app version, and the desktop one. On the desktop one, which I prefer to use, I like to see those tiles you used to be able to bring in on stuff like the calendar week ahead, my PRs, the mileage on individual pairs of shoes, not to mention the previous activities. Now all that stuff is gone, so you end up spending more time moving through the menus....
What I'd like is the "Last 7 days" tile to be dynamic, so you can switch through last 7, 30, 360 days and also swipe through historic data. That's what I'd need to see my progress or decline over time. Everything else is superfluous to me.
Des UI suggestions are great!
Loved your points and fully agree with all of them. I would love to see more toggles for on/off data screens so I can customize my focus.
First time stumbling onto your channel and aside from the excellent quality, the thing I love the most is the helmet lampshade!
Thanks so much!
@garmin the main fault with the App is that it is impossible to find a past activity on the calendar. We can’t search by name neither by date. The only way to navigate on the calendar is to go month by month and it is a pain to search for an activity you did a year ago… it’s nonsense. Pleeeaasseeee fix this with useful filters and ad a search bar on the calendar, please! Ps: maybe you can take inspiration from Coros with the function to mirror the watch on the phone to have a bigger screen in some specific situations, for example, while exploring the map while hiking.
And yet they thought dumbing down the layout is more important.
searchable calendar would be great!
Really great summary. Just what I needed on the fly. Thanks man 👍
Sure thing
Very helpful. I didn't know about the last 7 days feature on 5.0. Thank you! Love your suggestions as well!
Happy to help and thanks!
Well done, concur with your recommendations.
👍
I was part of the Beta, I really really tried to like the new system and waited and waited before giving my feedback because I didn't have positive feedback an I didn't want to be one of those people that just complained about change. I just don't like it. I preferred the older system and being able to choose what data I could see on the screen and tap into. I sell many Garmin products in my job and the ap now is harder to navigate, and not as easy to sell to customers as part of the package that Garmin provides when you buy a watch. Your mockup is good, and would have been a better direction to go I think.
If you were part of the beta you should have told them straight away that is worse. That is what I have done when Microsoft reached out and asked about a change in a software. Not sure they listen, but atleast I could tell them things gotten worse.
I really really wish I could have unlimited "at a glance" cards on the home screen. Why would they limit it, that extra tap is so annoying.
Love your work... greetings from México
Thanks!
I totally agree with your suggestions for the app.
Great video as always. It’s always smart to trust Des’ opinions on UI. 👌
Thanks, Matt!
I love your mockup. That’s great design right there! Other than that, I think the new Garmin connect is okay…not great, but okay
The simplicity of how Strava present kms/hrs/fitness stats/goals on their 'Progress' tab wins hands down for me who is only using Edge units to record rides. The irony being I have less stress by not tracking stress levels and worrying about the quality of the health data I'm uploading. 😉I can see where this is heading for Garmin though. 24/7 health tracking is a very effective hook into an ecosystem. How soon until we see premium Connect features offered as a subscription tier? TIL they're already doing this for golf.
Strava does have a great dashboard page in regards to the Progress tab but I wish the "You" tab still went to the profile page! 😂 In regards to subscriptions for health features, they seem to have a firm stance on not going to a subscription model for health data but you are correct for the golf features.
@@DesFit I'm glad to hear that because I specifically jumped over to Garmin from Fitbit so I didn't have to pay exorbitant fees for the data I was already collecting.
Garmin top leader in sport watch with the worse UI... They have so much data that don't know what to do with it. Now we have bigger squares with less data Jesus Christ.
Great take Des!
Thanks Eric! 👍
I really agree with you on the different point you brought up. We now get more information, but the sections takes up way too much space. To get to the information I have to scroll way too much, and that’s quite annoying. Also, when looking at activities for the last 7 days, my indoor climbing sessions are now categorized as strength workouts, and that’s just not correct. I love more data/information, but the sections need to be slimmed down quite a bit. Also, I like to be able to have more of a choice on what to see on screen from all the data panels. But definitely keep yesterday, and the last 7 days info.
I think your mockup is much better than what Garmin has given us. I turned off the In Focus section because I don't like part of the screen scrolling sideways and then other parts are scrolling up and down. I feel like this was a case of Garmin changing things just to say that they changed the app.
I am still missing simple stats for the calendar week (Monday to Sunday) as many athletes and training plans use this.
For things that you want to be in focus, you should not have to swipe to see. They should be there when you open the app. Perhaps the in focus data should be limited until you tap for more details.
Very nice Video Desfit! Thank you
👍
I agree with you that I would like to see a more overall summary at the top when first opening the app.
Then below just all a little more customization for people to tweak the UI to better suite how they want to see it. More options, the better.
Agreed with all your suggestions
I just bought a Garmin not realising there has been a change in interface. I will be returning the watch and going back to my Apple Watch. UI is really important to me.
Great recommendation in your mock up!
Thanks!
Thanks for this video. Would love POI integration in the App for all the watches, since now we need to use basecamp for that, and for certain watches, garmin explore.
Your video encouraged me to actually take the effort to change the screen 😂 but I do agree that it isn’t the most desirable situation at the moment. Like the suggested mockup.
@DesFit thanks for the tip to edit the Homepage. I removed everything from the Homeoage except for last 7 days and details. And details only showing two Widgets. One is last activity and the second training status.
What I still do not like is that the interesting stuff is deeply nested under the "More" tab.
Thanks for telling us that you can hide the “In Focus” section. My first reaction to seeing it was, Yuck! With me the jury is still out, but , with enough customizability, it may be ok.
I like the appearance of the new app but agree with how you said it would be better layout if it was more like the yesterday and last 7 day with expandable readouts.
I like the side by side layout. It mashed customizing easier, in my opinion
I tested the BETA, at first I was skeptical, but once I customized the views to the information I wanted to see I liked it. The information I care and want to see is there at a glance, I don’t have to click on it to drill down.
Totally agree with your recommendations. Having a birds-eye view summary is nice for me personally, because it captures the big picture when I don't have time to sit and scroll through the details.
I like your mock up. Garmin, listen to Desfit!!
I really wish we could view the DSW from the app as well, not only on the watch. I use the DSW for training but at my age, I need glasses to read. The watch is definitely more challenging!
I used to have my Garmin app Home Screen set up with the cards collapsed which is similar to the 7 day view now. That layout was a really good quick way to view the data. The new 'at a glance' section is too complicated to 'glance' at, almost each tile has unique layout and it's definitely not glanceable you have to stop and think to understand what you're looking at. I've been using the Beta for a while now too and I'm still not used to it. I like you suggestion
Respect to your VO2 Max 🫡
The strength training data presentation is as bad as before
I like the "data overload" of the old home screen on a mobile. Everything you want is there and easy to see at a glance. Trying to replicate it using the new "at a glance" requires more scrolling. The full width layout of the old style stacked better vertically than the new 2 per row widget layout. Also the widgets waste space and make the data smaller and harder to read. Having full screen width widgets and the ability to recreate the old layout and metrics would fix most criticisms and allow the new layout for those that want to keep it.
I just want at a glance on 1 page displayed efficiently with the ability to click in to the metric for details. The old home did that well. Also I spent £130 on Index scales and would like to see my weight like on the old home. :o)
Fiddling with the user interface is all very well but the data "that is important to me" would be a graph of my weekly mileage for the past six months. Training for a marathon, this is the sort of data I want to see (preferably overlaid with avg HR and pace).
I was really hoping for an alternate calendar view where you could just scroll up and down to see historical and future workouts (exactly like TrainingPeaks). Not a fan of the calendar tab at all in current state.
I would be curious to hear what made Garmin decide to change the UI in the first place? Was there a large percentage of people complaining about it or was it just to 'update' the look? I was very happy with the old layout and still prefer it over the new one. A simple option to go back to the old look is all we want.
Great summation and your suggestions for improvement are worth considering.
A big frustration for me is that Garmin while providing an overwhelming number of data points it doesn't provide any meaningful interpretation on what the key metrics taken in combination are signaling.
I am cyclist and it shows my VO2 Max as to how I would perform in a running race and not a cycling race.
What does it matter what my respiration rate?
In summary, I want an app to take in consideration my HRV, weight age, HR, respiration, cadence, sleep, applied against the kilometers and vertical climb and gradient to indicate these stats to a Kilometer, climbed metre and per % of gradient.
I recently found your channel and spent several hours watching your videos,gotta be honest you truely make great content.
Im looking to decide between Apple Watch SE 2 and Garmin instinct 2 solar but i still cant decide which to buy!
I train crossfit 4 days a week and i go cycling 2 times each week, which one you think would be a better option for me?
1000% agree with your recommendation mockup. I really prefer to have a ton of the metrics in small tabs that I can easily expand and contract by tapping like you said.
I wish Garmin would do a daily workout instead of just steps. That is one of my biggest problem. I wish I had the option to change from steps to either miles or something else as my daily goal besides steps. Should be available to do for every device.
100% agree with Des. I would like the yesterday and last week views to go back to how they were and have complete choice of what goes in the new views. No doubt the limited items you can select currently on the new views were chosen from customer feedback, but it is definitely not my list. And, sorry to be regressive, but please can we have the option to opt out and go back to the old view.
Thanks for this video, Des. I think the Intensity Minutes glance should show the IM for the day rather than the accumulated IM for the week. The previous version did that but they have changed it for some reason that is beyond me. I hope Garmin will revert back to the former. These glance widgets should be data for the current day, used to be called My Day, which was very useful for daily wellness and fitness tracking. Daily, followed by Yesterday and then 7 day averages. Thanks.
Not a connect point but having a set counter in the strength workouts would be great
Can we get customizable unit of measures or what?!? Ie weight in lbs, speed and distance in KMs. 🇨🇦
Very useful vid, tks.
Last 7 days is an irrelevant figure. Garmin cycling goals are designed by year/month. This is the data I believe needs focus and not last 7 days.
My Instinct 2x Solar is now displaying weekly mileage but can not find on connect or express.
I do agree with your recommenations and agree with that display.
Tks.
Maybe a tile for the last activity for the in focus view would be cool. Would be awesome if they had a map "tile" where for example all of your activities from the start would be drawn. And that it would be available for the infocus panel.
Thanks for the vid. Generally, I'm not against change, and I understand, that maybe my preferences are niche. Moreover, I basically only use the app for syncing. If Garmin would release an app for Kali OS that doesn't do anything just syncing and sending notifications, I would be switching to that 😀So I'm mostly talking about the desktop version, but here are a few suggestions, ideas, things I miss:
1) It would be nice to have a "last 10 activities short list" on the side.
2) None of the widgets are "middle clickable" -> I can't open them in a new tab, so if I want to look at 2 things, I have to go there and come back, and look at the other one. Or open 2 tabs manually, or something like that. This is rather annoying. Solving this should be simple.
3) I miss the widget, where I could pin the leaderboard of a group challenge to my dashboard. I'd love to have that. Less important, but I also liked the short news feed list as well.
4) When I add Challenges to the sidebar, there is a "See all" link, but that only brings me to /challenge, not to /challenge-current-challenges. Simple thing, but I presume 99% of people clicking there don't care about past challenges, but want to see more than 8 of the current challenges.
Big cards = more user time scrolling. Your today summary is perfect as a replacement
Excellent , professional, and constructive video
May I ask, which garmin watch strap are you using?
Thanks! I’m using the Garmin UltraFit gen 2 band: th-cam.com/video/yiW6UOUL48U/w-d-xo.htmlsi=71FzjFmER66P6oFO
@@DesFit Thank you so much for taking the time to reply; managed to get this band; I too agree - original manufacture bands are superior and worth the money to protect/keep the watch secure. BTW, if you ever need a MD’s opinion or chat about cardiovascular aspects of cycling/fitness please get in touch🙏
Garmin owner since 2010. "In my mind when I open an app, I'd rather see a more birds-eye view of my day." Agree completely Des! That's why I'm on 4.77.1
where I can still see My Day (with all my metrics), Yesterday, Last 7 Days, collapsed, without scrolling. Just installed 5.0 again just for this comment. To display the same information I have to scroll. So literally no added value for me personally. That said, I used to record my runs in writing before the internet, so there's that. Thanks for all that you do. Back to 4.77.1...
Looks nice about to make the switch from awu 2 to Epix or forerunner
I love the fact Garmin has a lot of data to show. Even for someone like me, amateur level runner, it helps to understand more about the run itself as a sport. Once every month for example, just by curiosity I wonder “what is cadence? Are my values good?” “Is it good to have xx breaths per minutes?” …and so on. Right after I do some researches and I read interesting blog posts on the topics.
Oh, and if Garmin reads this, then I hope in one daily small motivational sentence also in the app. This can help the spirit
I find it more difficult now to see the data that matters to me. 4:15 totally agree that there needs to be a summary at the top!
I share your same thoughts. The watches are information dense; they should consider retaining such detail in the mobile app. That in a sense is a great "Glance" - every detail you want to see for the day in one view. No panning through tiles and no scrolling the page required. I also agree with you that the decision to now make the website dashboard a 'mirror' of the phone very odd indeed considering the real-estate of the screen. Further, people go to the website typically for even more information dense details.
And can they at some point allow offline sync with the devices? Every time their servers have a minor hiccup for a few hours, the app is useless. Even Polar and Suunto apps perform offline sync.
I appreciate the update although I too feel it's missed the mark on customization. If the UI can be configured to include let most of the data fields to be collapsible that would be a good start. I appreciate the visuals the Garmin team are working towards and believe it will be a vast improvement after a couple incremental tweaks.
Initial thoughts are mixed at best. I can no longer add my active goals to the Home screen and see a nice visual showing current progress against the goal.
Love my Garmin Instinct’s battery live but still love the app I used with my Apple Watch. As soon as Apple offers an option with longer battery life I’m back at camp Apple. Garmin could give users the simple/detailed option. Will suite many.
Yeah, I agree each widget takes up too much space.
Garmin was given a ton of consteuctive feedback from beta testers. They ignored it all.
I like your mock-up although it might be hard to translate that to the desktop view and since the app, mobile and desktop views are now technically identical they probably share the same codebase which would make it harder to do.
Perhaps Garmin could just add all available data fields to the large in focus cards and allow them to he stacked vertically without the silly horizontal swipe. And remove the limit for 8 smaller at a glance cards.
If we can then sort the larger and smaller cards freely on the homepage it'd be good enough to get almost all los information back and without all the swiping and clicking.
Just a manually sortable grid of 1 and 2 column cards and it's all good.
A quick tip - I had troubles with connection between my phone since Connect 5.0 and my Epix Pro (I even quit beta because of that but was left with little choice once it was rolled out for everyone). As the final resort I backed up the watch, reset it to the factory settings and then restored it from the backup. Here comes the slightly interesting part - it has not only fixed the problems with connectivity I knew I had, but also some problems I didnt know I had had. For example, when using the quick toggle for the flashlight, there is an overlay on the display now that allows me to switch from red light to white and pick intensity? Cool, I didnt have that one before! And the watch overall feels somehow smoother. So my advice is to bite the bullet and do the backup-reset-restore for your device as well. It wasnt all that painful at the end of the day.
There is no way to do unguided session for meditation on the garmin fenix 6 series right now. For a $500 watch , it is expected to have it when a simple oura ring has it built in.
Mostly talking about the web page, and there I think they really need to work on customization tiles. Like the possibility to create own ones, not only predefined. Really missing the possibility to track goals and equipment on the home dashboard, as well as the possibility to add equipment to an activity without going into it, directly on the home screen. Also, let me use the complete width of the screen, 4 columns wasn't a problem on the old one...
Garmin bring back the three circles or a page that gives us all the important data from our run, swim, workout etc. Garmin's customer service is amazing which just baffles the mind as to why Garmin's new interface hasn't given the customers what we've been asking for.
I can no longer see the 3 circles with the dist, time and cal after my run. That one was my favorite.
I like it as it is now with version 5.0. So for me no need to change at all.
I just wish Garmin would change some things on the activity pages. For example I would love to have hidden notes like on Strava.
It was helpful to be able to manually add an activity for those time the watch or it’s user goofed up automatically recording an activity. I haven’t found a way to do that in 5.0
I think the home page looks great, but it seems harder to find anything I'm looking for outside of the Home screen modules. Took me like 2 minutes just to figure out where i could see how many active cals i burned over the last week for example
I hope they will improve the exercise selection part for training plan. There is so much potential there: showing the visuals during selection; filter the exercises by muscle part. Currently searching the exercises by name is almost unusable.
Courses could do with having a direction arrow similar to Hammerhead so you can see the direction of a route.
Like your idea for a today view
I only got a Garmin watch some small time before the new app was released so it was not a huge diff for me since I was not used to the old app anyways. I am pretty happy with what I see but I also agree with the things you suggested, they sound logical and would be useful and should be fairly small re-organizational changes.
Btw one thing I noted - in the Last 7 Days section you have an Avg HR value based on the snapshots that you did in the last week - isn't this the first time Garmin are using the snapshot info for some summary? If I understand correctly from previous videos on different channels, one of the issue of the snapshot was that it was...just a snapshot. And if you want to track statistics over long period of time, the data is their but you have to build your own summary. Now it seems they use the snapshots for some average heart rate and hopefully they will add more stuff. So if this is the case, they are on the right track I guess.
My biggest issue with current version is less the cosmetics and more the sync/ data refresh speed.
It’s very slow, some tiles don’t show data for minutes, sometimes you need to close the app and reopen in order to see data.
Would of liked to see a map that shows you youe saved locations, like coros and Suunto
The new update makes me wish I got a COROS. Their ecosystem looks real nice.
I do like your suggestion of having a Today view that mimics the yesterday summary. The At A Glance doubles cards drive me crazy especially because you are limited in what you can add. Wasn’t a big fan of the beta and made suggestions. 5.0 is a tough pill to swallow and definitely will make me consider an alternative device.
I’m not interested in swiping through tiles. The previous list layout was significantly easier to see the all of the data I was interested in. This almost makes me want to toss my Garmin altogether. I would be helpful if they gave an option for a fitness focus and lifestyle focus display. The fitness focus can be the old view and the lifestyle focus can be whatever this new version is supposed to be.
I like the Fitbit app if it had decent gps accuracy and I could link hr data, then I think I would change back 😢