Have your say one year after Garmin's divisive Connect+ launch, how do you feel about it now?

Date:
Fri, 20 Mar 2026 13:48:31 +0000

Description:
Did you leave Garmin after the divisive launch of Garmin Connect+? Did you subscribe? Vote in our poll.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get the TechRadar Newsletter Sign up for
breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Almost a year ago, I was fielding a very full inbox, as people were emailing, commenting and posting in droves about Garmin 's then-new Connect+ launch.

If you're not familiar, Connect+ is a premium tier layered on top of Garmin's existing Connect+ platform, the excellent companion app to the best Garmin watches . More than a place to view your stats, Garmin Connect is a training planner, a gear tracker, a lifestyle logging journal, and much more. Garmin Connect+ introduced several new features, including Active Intelligence, Garmin's AI advisory service that offers contextual commentary on your workouts and recovery scores. It also offered an improved LiveTrack service,
a Performance Dashboard that allowed you to view your historic data,
exclusive badges, and several other small quality-of-life improvements and features. Article continues below You may like A Garmin Connect update is causing havoc on iOS here are some fixes Garmin has a new plan to improve your fitness using your food intake I stopped using Garmin Connect's easily-forgotten gear tracking feature but I've just fallen back in love
with it

For this, Garmin asks $6.99 / 6.99 / AU$12 per month or $69.99 / 69.99 / AU$120 annually, with a one-month free trial available. It's not the first time Garmin's charged extra for a service, such as Garmin Golf, its InReach satellite messaging service, or Outdoor Maps+, but they've always served a specific purpose. What do you think of the Garmin Connect design? (Image credit: Garmin) It's hard to over-emphasize just how many people kicked off, perceiving it as being nickel-and-dimed for features people believed they should already get, having just spent hundreds of dollars or pounds on an expensive smartwatch.

You can read our backlash live blog for the full story, but it was a crazy couple of days. Garmin Reddit posts calling for boycotts hit thousands of upvotes, and I personally got hundreds of emails with lines like 'If Connect+ goes ahead, I'm definitely done with Garmin', 'greedy company', and 'All new features from now on will be behind a paywall. And in few years, then the initial rage settles, they will move more and more features behind paywall like Strava did'.

True to form, now the furore has died down, we've just started to see new features get locked behind Connect+ paywall, in the form of nutrition tracking. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Vote in
our Garmin Connect+ poll here So, one year later, we're doing a follow-up:
are you using Garmin Connect+? If so, is it good? If not, did you switch away from Garmin?

Wherever you stand, we want to hear from you. Vote in our poll above, and
I'll publish the results next week, on the anniversary of Connect+'s launch. You can also contact me at [email protected] , and I'll publish some
of your emails along with the poll results. The best Garmin watches for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

Read our full guide to the best Garmin watches 1. Best overall: Garmin Venu
4 2. Best premium: Garmin Fenix 8 3. Best budget: Garmin Vivoactive 6 Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/health-fitness/have-your-say-one-year-after-garmins- divisive-connect-launch-how-do-you-feel-about-it-now


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