Sunday Runday
On this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks concerning the world of wearables, apps, and health tech associated to working and well being, in his quest to get sooner and fitter.
Garmin Join Plus is a surprisingly helpful skeleton of a powerful health subscription. The AI is generally a retread of the Garmin analytics you understand and love, with loads of room to enhance. However it’s simply window dressing subsequent to the Efficiency Dashboard, teaching movies, and different options designed to provide Garmin followers FOMO.
However the higher Join Plus will get and the extra options it receives, the extra it’ll piss off loyal Garmin prospects already revolting over the service.
Garmin Join Plus is arguably essentially the most important change Garmin has made to its enterprise mannequin in years. It joins the AI well being and health pattern alongside Fitbit, Samsung Well being, and Strava (amongst others). In doing so, Garmin undermined its decade-long enterprise mannequin of free software program paired with costly {hardware}.
Fairly than give attention to whether or not or not Garmin ought to have made Join Plus — or not less than bundled it with latest Fenix 8 purchases or all latest Garmin watches to ease the transition — I am going to focus on how Join Plus works in apply, what wants enhancements, and the place issues ought to go from right here.
Energetic Intelligence has a ton of room to develop
Garmin Energetic Intelligence and Strava Athlete Intelligence invite apparent comparisons. Except for the same names, each analyze personalised health knowledge and contextualize latest actions towards previous developments. Strava’s AI just lately left beta, whereas Garmin’s could also be in beta for a while. So let’s evaluate them!
Garmin’s AI is principally a time-sensitive chatbot that reacts to your most up-to-date or related health knowledge and developments. I’ve seen it focus on my depth minute developments, present coaching standing, most up-to-date exercise, elevated stress averages, and day by day step developments over the previous couple of days.
It ranges from insightful to nagging and typically repeats itself when it runs out of issues to say.
Strava’s AI focuses extra carefully on particular person exercises. Every exercise will evaluate your coronary heart price, HR zone breakdown, tempo, elevation acquire, and Relative Effort towards your 30-day common. That is one thing I would like to see Garmin emulate, displaying a static AI breakdown in every run’s “Overview” moderately than a fleeting observe within the Dwelling web page.
I’ll say that Garmin’s AI appears a bit extra polished than Strava’s AI was in early beta; I nonetheless keep in mind the latter telling me that my 140 bpm-average run was an anaerobic effort. Then again, Energetic Intelligence repeats data from the In Focus charts, watch face knowledge fields, or Look widgets in your watch. Mainly, it is about reinforcing what Garmin considers essential, not something “unique.”
Possibly the AI will get extra centered and specialised primarily based on what tidbits you label as “Fascinating” or “Not Fascinating” within the app. At the least, I hope it’ll!
I hardly ever sleep carrying my Garmin watch; individuals who carefully comply with their HRV Standing or Physique Battery knowledge could profit extra from these text-based summaries. For the individuals who solely put on Garmin watches for actions and Garmin Coach, I hope they’ll make Energetic Intelligence extra centered on that aspect of issues.
For example, the Garmin Coach tab might present an AI abstract of how you have improved since Week 1, or how effectively you are maintaining together with your scheduled exercises. Or the Challenges view might observe in case you’re behind on sure targets and how much exercise it’s best to do subsequent to maintain monitor.
I would wish to see Energetic Intelligence focus extra on longer-term developments. The Efficiency Dashboard (see the subsequent part) has a ton of helpful insights and developments throughout years of knowledge; possibly the AI can observe which charts and fields you are monitoring and replace you on altering developments when you do not have time to log into the desktop app.
As it’s, Energetic Intelligence is a pleasant, restricted perk. Garmin watches had been already particular as a result of folks might belief the Firstbeat Analytics algorithm analyzing their knowledge behind the scenes. This AI simply places that data into textual content type. So, let’s discuss extra concerning the different Join Plus options.
Efficiency Dashboard is the very best a part of Join Plus
I have never spent a lot time within the Garmin Join desktop app, besides to export GPX information for my HR and GPS checks; the cell model is extra accessible and would not set off a 2FA code, irrespective of how typically I examine “Keep in mind Me.” Nonetheless, the Efficiency Dashboard makes the desktop Join app a lot extra compelling.
This new Join Plus characteristic has 123 charts, and you’ll arrange a max of 18 to be seen at any given time. There are far too many classes to checklist right here, however you possibly can monitor the fundamentals like distance, variety of actions, or coaching load, or extra specialised stats like your working type, endurance/hill scores, biking energy, swim strokes, Physique Battery, or race predictor over time.
For every of your 18 charts, you possibly can set a customized date vary like “this month” or “final 26 weeks,” in addition to add overlay stats so you possibly can see (for instance) how your complete distance over time matches together with your power load or common day by day stress.
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Mainly, it is a treasure trove of knowledge you could fine-tune right into a significantly better and personalised abstract of your latest progress than Garmin can match into its cell “In Focus” part.
My rapid favourite? The “Comparability” charts that present how my 2025 variety of actions, mileage, or elevation acquire compares to my stats in 2024. It helps me see (with out having to put in writing down stats myself) that I’ve fallen barely behind and wish to choose up the tempo in April.
It is extremely complete and customizable from my perspective as a semi-serious runner. So the one actual criticism I could make about Efficiency Dashboard is, effectively, that Garmin held this again for its subscription service.
Garmin Coach’s Coaching Steering has essentially the most potential
In case you join Garmin Run or Biking Coach, you get a months-long coaching program with personalized exercises; no subscription is required. What’s new is “further unique professional steerage from Garmin coaches — together with instructional content material and movies — for peak efficiency.”
I have never seen an excessive amount of of this but since you solely get one video per day, beginning with a generic “Welcome to your plan” onboarding video. However Garmin has all the time talked about its Teaching algorithm being backed by real-life coaches, and I would love to see day by day movies tied to your present exercise or basic recommendation.
For example, if in case you have an anaerobic dash exercise deliberate, a coach might clarify why it is necessary for runners preferring longer, slower runs; present footage of attainable warm-up stretches earlier than your sprints; or speak about various kinds of monitor exercises in case you’re uninterested in Garmin’s regular choices.
Particular to the brand new Garmin energy cross-training exercises, we might see movies associated to correct squat type or how sure muscle teams translate into higher working or biking type. I doubt they’d have the manufacturing worth of Apple Health+ exercise movies, but it surely’s a begin!
I can not say whether or not these instructional movies will reside as much as my hopes, however this appears like a pure manner for Garmin to reinforce its free Coach with content material that feels cheap to pay for moderately than a characteristic that ought to be free.
New badges: Enjoyable novelty or pay-to-win mistake?
I do not pay a lot consideration to Garmin badges besides as a motivator to attempt to hit sure month-to-month or quarterly mileage and steps targets. Others take these badges as a degree of delight, competing with pals on factors leaderboards.
Now, Join Plus is including a bunch of latest, gold-tinted badges that present extra selection in what you possibly can monitor. Subsequent month, you possibly can goal to burn 8,000 energy, climb 500/1,000 meters whereas working or mountaineering, document 3 hours in HR zone 3, hit a excessive Physique Battery rating for 7+ days, or common a quick tempo or increased HR throughout a couple of hours of strolling.
Garmin badges have all the time felt too inflexible and repetitive to me, so I see this as a enjoyable novelty, particularly if Garmin affords distinctive challenges each month. However I can completely perceive how the extra critical Garmin energy customers may see this as a pay-to-win change that upends your complete system as a result of individuals who do not pay for Join Plus cannot sustain with those that do.
What comes subsequent with Join Plus
Garmin all the time felt just like the exception to those subscription-driven corporations, promoting dear {hardware} that may pay itself off by lasting for years with no post-purchase charges.
Join Plus adjustments that, and whereas long-time followers won’t care concerning the AI, they will definitely resent not getting the Efficiency Dashboard and the opposite perks.
A number of the Join Plus options really feel like area of interest, power-user upgrades. It will’ve been good if the brand new LiveTrack upgrades — a devoted URL, auto-text alerts, and the choice to embed your progress chart on an internet site — had been free updates, however I doubt nearly all of Garmin prospects use LiveTrack (right me if I am fallacious!).
The brand new Reside Exercise instrument feels way more like a “base” characteristic. You’ll be able to see a couple of real-time stats within the cell app throughout an exercise, in addition to set off the subsequent step in an indoor exercise whereas checking the right type for about 500 completely different train sorts. This has a whole lot of widespread attraction, each for normal gym-goers and for newbies, and it is a disgrace to see it behind the paywall.
General, I believe Join Plus would’ve all the time irritated folks on precept, however much less so if Garmin had had the foresight to supply an extended trial interval to latest watch patrons. Google and Apple give a six-month trial with a brand new system, and Samsung has made Galaxy AI free for a few years. If Garmin had carried out the identical, it will’ve lessened the sting a bit.
As it’s, we’ll have to observe carefully to see what Garmin does with Join+ shifting ahead. Most often, folks wait eagerly for brand spanking new options; on this case, any new Join+ options by way of the remainder of 2025 will solely worsen the outrage.
