Garmin’s New Feature Is Draining Battery Life, but There’s a Quick Fix.
Garmin users are repeatedly reporting the same issue on the company’s support forums : the recently introduced “OK Garmin” voice control feature is quickly draining their battery. This feature was introduced in Garmin’s September software updates, bringing hands-free voice control to the Fenix 8 , Forerunner 570 and 970 , Venu 4 , and several other models. Here’s how to ensure the new Garmin updates aren’t reducing your watch’s battery life.
The latest feature updates from Garmin for select smartwatch models.
Last month’s updates for some watch models also added all-day fall detection, a set of new quick workouts and Garmin Run Coach training plans, and the hands-free “OK Garmin” voice control feature. It’s exactly what the name implies: instead of pressing a button, users can simply say “OK Garmin” to activate voice commands. However, it appears that “OK Garmin” is causing a sharp drop in the predicted battery life of some watches, reportedly by around 35-50% in some cases.
Garmin acknowledges that enabling these settings reduces battery life, although it doesn’t specify by how much. The tradeoff is justified, as the watch must constantly wait for the wake-up phrase. However, losing several days of battery life is a steep price to pay for a feature many people may rarely use. Fortunately, the solution is simple: disabling the “OK Garmin” feature should immediately restore the estimated battery life.
How to prevent Garmin’s new feature from draining your watch’s battery
If your watch’s battery drains faster after the update, go to Settings > System > Voice and disable the “OK Garmin” feature. You can also disable the voice assistant activation keyword in the same section if needed. The good news is that disabling this feature won’t even disable voice commands—you’ll still be able to initiate them manually using the watch’s physical controls.
It’s important to remember that these figures are rough estimates of battery life, not the results of independent real-world testing. Some battery life complaints that surfaced after the update may be due to unrelated issues. However, sacrificing half your battery life just to avoid having to press a button is a tradeoff that’s hard to justify.