Garmin has introduced Garmin Connect+, a new Premium tier designed to paywall new features for the best Garmin watches in its free Garmin Connect app.
Launching today (March 27), priced at $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$12 per month or $69.99 / £69.99 / AU$120 annually, with a one-month free trial available, Garmin Connect+ offers new features including AI-powered insights, a Performance Dashboard that allows you to view historic graphs, and improvements to Garmin’s LiveTrack service.
Garmin’s AI insights, called ‘Active Intelligence’ – the naming is similar to Strava’s Athlete Intelligence – are designed to provide Connect+ users with "personalized insights and suggestions throughout the day based on health and activity data, powered by AI" according to a Garmin press release.
"As customers use Garmin Connect+ more, the insights will become more tailored to them and their goals" Garmin adds. "The AI providing these insights and suggestions was built to help keep users’ data secure and is currently releasing in beta."
It sounds like Garmin is putting user security at the forefront of its new service – the company has in the past had issues with the leaking of sensitive information, during a ransomware attack in 2020.
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Garmin is also keen to address concerns about the incoming paywall, as a Garmin representative emailed me the following: "The Garmin Connect app is a free, personalized experience, and that’s not going away."
The Performance Dashboard that's listed as a Garmin Connect+ feature is confirmed to be different from the Performance Stats tab that's currently free on Garmin Connect, which also allows you to view data graphs based on your historic performance.
I've reached out to Garmin, and the company confirmed that "all existing features and data in Garmin Connect will remain free. Nothing will be moved or blocked behind the GC+ paywall."
Other new features available to Connect+ users include live training guidance during workouts, such as guidance on strength sets with videos, and expanded LiveTrack features such as notification via text. Social features such as exclusive badges and challenges for Connect+ members are also included.
It has begun
Back in 2023, in an article titled ‘I hope Garmin’s new subscriptions-based maps service isn't the start of a trend’, I wrote: "‘Garmin’s free Connect service makes its watches some of the best-value devices on the market. A move towards a larger subscription service would cheapen and devalue the brand, and possibly drive a huge portion of its user base away and into the waiting arms of Apple."
Just like Fitbit, Garmin has opted to bring out premium features and charge an extra price for access to them. It's encouraging that Garmin isn't making its devices less useful, or locking anything we used to get for free behind a paywall – this is just an optional extra, like Garmin's Maps subscription service.
The big difference between Fitbit and Garmin, however, is the prices of their devices. A Google Pixel Watch 3, the most expensive device on our Best Fitbit guide, costs $399 / £349 / AU$669, while the Garmin Fenix 8 starts at $999 / £949 / AU$1,699 (although you can pick up a cheaper watch, such as the very good Garmin Forerunner 165, for around $299.99 / £249.99 / AU$489.99).
If someone told me that after buying a Fenix 8 I couldn’t get a particular feature without paying an additional premium on top, that watch would either be going out the window or (more likely) straight back to the store. Garmin will have to be careful to advertise its free and paid-for features accordingly.
I’ve always lauded Garmin Connect as a shining example of a free companion app, one that makes its expensive watches an excellent-value prospect in the long run. Hopefully the free features we’re used to will remain free, otherwise I can see a lot of angry exercisers jumping ship to other brands.
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