Seven Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With a Garmin Watch
Garmin watches, like my beloved Forerunner 265S, have so many features hidden in the menus that you may not have discovered some of the best ones. Here are some of the best underrated features of Garmin watches (available on Forerunner and other models), along with handy shortcuts you’ll use all the time.
Shortcuts for working with Garmin watches
Quickly return to the home screen
This works on all touchscreen watches: no matter where you are, no matter how deep the menu is, just cover the screen with your palm. The screen will go dark, and when you reactivate it (by tapping the touch screen, flicking your wrist, or pressing the top left “Light” button), it will return to the home screen again.
Raise your flashlight
Press the light button (top left) twice. Even if your watch doesn’t have an LED flashlight, the flashlight app will turn on and display bright white pixels to provide a soft light. It’s great for going to the bathroom in the middle of the night or leaving the kids’ room before bed without stepping on LEGO. Oh, and you can quickly turn it off by placing your palm on the screen.
Touch and hold the watch face.
Unlike the Apple Watch, you can’t tap on a complication to get more information about it. I assumed this meant that the complications were not interactive. But no – you need to long press on the inscription, and then you will receive the information. My Sunrise/Sunset complication displays a pie chart with sunrise, sunset, sunset, and sunrise times (as well as the ability to view different dates or locations). You can also use this to get more information about complications that were enabled by default but you never realized what they were.
Share Garmin
If you run with other people or want to discuss workouts with a friend who also uses Garmin, you’ll love Garmin’s Share feature, which lets you stream a workout (or course map) to another person’s watch. “What is a Norwegian SUV ?” my husband might say. “Here, I’ll send this to you,” I can reply, and within seconds he’ll be in his workout library on his watch.
How to send items using Garmin
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Click the Start button as if you were about to start an activity.
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Scroll down until you see the Garmin Share option. Select it.
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You will see a screen that says “Ready to Receive.” Scroll down to see all the items you can share (workouts, courses, etc.) and select one.
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The message “Looking for devices” will appear on the watch. If your friend has opened the reception screen, their watch model and name will be available for selection.
How to Get a Workout Using Garmin
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As stated above, click the Start button, scroll down and select Garmin Share.
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You will see a screen that says “Ready to Receive.”
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Once they share the file, you can say yes or no to downloading it.
You can also share a workout by finding it on your watch (as if you were going to do a workout) and selecting “Share” instead of “Do Workout.”
Sunset Alerts
You can set any types of alerts on your watch. One day I was rummaging through the menu, just curious as to what was on there, when I noticed the “sunset” option.
I have a habit of going out for an evening run without checking how much time I have left before sunset. This is a recipe for regret: either I wish I had brought a flashlight, or I wish I had started my run a little earlier in the day.
But now this is a problem of the past. I went to Settings > Notifications & Alerts > System Alerts > Until Sunset and set the time to one hour (1:00:00). Now I get a little buzz on my wrist when it’s an hour before sunset. If I’m dressed for a run but hesitate to get out the door, that’s my cue. And if I realize that I won’t be able to get back before dark, I grab a flashlight on the way out.
Set up hotkeys for functions that would otherwise be hidden in the menu.
A hotkey is a shortcut – something like long pressing the START button (top right) to turn sleep mode on or off.
To configure hotkeys, go to Settings > System > Hotkeys. You can use seven of them: by holding down the Start, Back, or Down buttons, or by pressing two buttons at the same time (Start and Down, Start and Up, Back and Backlight, or Back and Up).
Some of the handy features that can be mapped to a hotkey include:
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Lock your device (great if you have a toddler who likes to play with your watch).
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Heart rate broadcast (so you can see your heart rate on exercise machines)
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Change your sport (if you run on the treadmill but want to switch to regular running when the kids are storming the field for soccer practice)
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Turn the touch screen on or off
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Pick up a stopwatch or timer
Find my phone
This is a standard feature on smartwatches these days, but I keep seeing people discovering it for the first time, so here’s your public service announcement: Hold the LIGHT button (top left) to get a wheel of small shortcuts. Select “Find my phone” and it will do so.