Garmin is going into 2024 and CES with a “new year, new me” approach, and that is made evident by a huge redesign for its Garmin Connect app. The new interface will deliver a simplified experience, and device wearers will be encouraged to pick out the specific elements they want on their Connect homepage.
Garmin Connect is the bridge between your Garmin smartwatch or fitness tracker and your smartphone. While your wearable can keep you up to date with your latest stats and activities, you want the larger screen of your smartphone to really dive deeper into analysis.
At the moment, the Garmin Connect app isn’t difficult to explore, but it does tend to drown you in stats and analysis the very instant you open the app, with counters for your stress levels, body battery, heart rate, and more, before then diving into your most recent activities and weekly rundowns. It’s all vital information, but perhaps it doesn’t need to be front and center the very moment you open the app.
That might be why Garmin has made simplifying the app’s homepage its most pressing priority Instead of a scrollable list of stats, Garmin Connect’s homepage is now made up of a series of tiles that you can add, remove, and rearrange as needed. You can see a photo of the current app design at the very top of the article, with the new one right above this paragraph.
Personal choice is key here, and there’s a strong emphasis on you taking what you need and getting rid of what you don’t. Don’t really need the Today’s Activity tile with its log of the day’s activities, events, and upcoming workouts? You can give it the heave-ho and replace it with the At A Glance tile’s broad view of your heart rate, intensity minutes, steps, calories, and more. Or the Training Plan tile, or the Challenges tile, which shows how you’re performing in your personal expeditions and competitions.
It’s clear from the images Garmin has provided that this design refresh is a breath of fresh air. The new-and-improved Garmin Connect will be available as a beta for certain devices starting today, January 8, and will be released for everyone else later in 2024.
Related Posts
The case for “invisible” tech: why health tracking is going screenless
This has paved the way for a new category of "ambient" health tech. These devices trade screens for sensors, prioritizing comfort and continuous data over notifications and apps. They are designed to be worn 24/7: even in the shower or to bed—without you noticing them. If you want the data (sleep, recovery, stress) without the distraction, this is the gear to own.
New AirTag, same price, better range, and improved finding for you
Apple says the updated tracker improves both its basic locating range and its Precision Finding guidance, and it adds a louder speaker with a new chime. Privacy protections remain part of the pitch, with Apple framing AirTag as an object tracker and emphasizing safeguards meant to reduce unwanted tracking.
This 18-gram haptic ring for VR lets your finger feel virtual objects
OriRing measures both pressing and sliding forces on your finger, then generates physical resistance to match what you’re doing in VR or AR. The researchers say it can represent object size and stiffness, and it can also take user input to change those properties on the fly.