It is so annoying. You’ve simply spent tons of of {dollars} on a brand new Garmin Fenix 8 or Forerunner 970, solely to search out out you may need handy over much more cash to get the total Garmin expertise. Earlier this yr, Garmin launched Join+, a subscription aspect to its Join companion app earlier. It stirred up its consumer base in the worst doable means. I visited Garmin’s headquarters in Kansas not lengthy after the announcement and it was clear; Join+ is right here to remain, and there’s a group now devoted to bringing extra options to take a seat behind that paywall.
Presently, anybody can strive Join+ free of charge for a month earlier than deciding whether or not there’s something worthy of the $7 month-to-month subscription, or $70 yearly payment. I’ve been utilizing Join+ for 5 months now, whereas testing just about each new watch Garmin has launched in that interval.
With seven core options at the moment out there, I’m going to inform you in regards to the ones I really discovered helpful, spotlight those I didn’t, and inform you whether or not you actually want one other subscription so as to add to your month-to-month outgoings. If none of those attraction, make sure to take a look at our guides to the Greatest Health Trackers or the Greatest Smartwatches for extra.
Leap To
AI Insights
{Photograph}: Michael Sawh
Let’s begin with Energetic Intelligence, which is probably the most prominently featured of all Join+ options contained in the app. These are customized coaching insights and suggestions that you just’ll spy on the prime of the house display tab. These are powered by AI, and analyze knowledge like exercise historical past and efficiency metrics captured by your Garmin system.
The thought right here is that the extra knowledge that may be analyzed, the extra customized these insights ought to grow to be. Within the first weeks of utilizing it, Energetic Intelligence’s insights have been fairly rudimentary. My final swim improved my cardio health. Nice. I might see that just by wanting on the knowledge from that logged swim.
5 months later, I’m getting a greater sense of what I feel Garmin hopes this characteristic could be. I’m now advised that my floor contact stability throughout runs is suboptimal and I ought to think about some power coaching and to work on my operating kind. Nevertheless, the app doesn’t counsel what that coaching ought to entail, or the workout routines that might assist to handle that suboptimal GCT. Perhaps that’s to come back. Given that is the one Join+ characteristic tagged as a beta, I think about it might look totally different in a yr’s time.
Actual-Time Recommendation
{Photograph}: Michael Sawh
In the event you’re on train tools that’s missing a show, or you do not wish to pause a exercise to have a look at your watch, Reside Actions enables you to mirror real-time metrics out of your watch to your cellphone. It’s particularly helpful for power coaching classes, to make enhancing reps much less fiddly.