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Comment by mightysashiman | Hacker News Reader

now if one could do some reverse engineering on Garmin watches and enable an opensource alternative to Garmin Connect, that would be marvellous.

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Garmin watches are partially supported by Gadgetbridge [1]. I have not used it, but it seems to at least support basic data for many Garmin watches.

[1] https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/wearables/garmin/

What‘s wrong with Connect from your perspective? My only concern with it is that it’s slow

One problem with it is it requires a constant network connection for everything, which is baffling for software designed for devices where major intended uses involve being in situations with poor or no network connection.

Do you need Connect to use the device though? I was under the impression Connect is used for sync.

You can't do things like sync the watch to the phone and look at visualizations on the bigger phone screen while you're offline.

It's weird how much they still maintain a difference between a "fitness" watch and an "outdoors" watch and the supporting software.

It's the silly bifurcation between Garmin Connect and Garmin Explore software and online service worlds. It seems like an arbitrary accident of corporate history and leaky abstractions.

I would love to be able to update firmware on my garmin watch, but I think that's all tied up in connect (which I don't use) somehow.

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