Regular readers know I love my Garmin watches: I always wear a Garmin on one wrist and the latest smartwatch on the other. For years, I’ve visited the Garmin Connect IQ store on my watches and phones to find apps like Starbucks, tons of free watch faces, and fully featured data fields that enhance my Garmin experience.
The wearables maker announced that developers can now charge customers for content – including watch faces and apps – in the store. Garmin’s product launch includes partnerships with Disney, GoPro, Porsche, TaylorMade and NASA. Prices start at $4.99.
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Here’s how to access this content for your Garmin model.
After connecting your Garmin watch to the Connect IQ store, you can see what content is compatible with your watch. For example, the Disney Grogu watch face does not appear for the Garmin Enduro 2 with MIP display, but it does appear for the Quatix 7 Pro with AMOLED display. Current Disney watch faces include the Grogu Star Wars watch face with six poses, a Tony Stark watch face, and Mickey/Minnie Mouse analog watch faces.
I’ve wanted to control my old GoPro with a Garmin watch for years and now there’s finally an official GoPro camera control app in the store. The GoPro app lets you capture video and stills from your GoPro mounted on your head, chest or bike right from your wrist. Unfortunately, there isn’t a GoPro control app for Garmin bike computers yet.
It is worth mentioning one obstacle that I encountered during my experience with the Connect IQ Store.
To demonstrate the purchasing experience and test the newly added content, I tried to purchase the Grogu watch face and GoPro app using Garmin Pay, the mechanism Garmin uses for contactless payments. Unfortunately, none of the five cards I tried worked with the service.
However, I found that when I accessed the Connect IQ store through a web browser, I was able to use a credit card – through the Garmin Pay for eCommerce option – to make my purchase. Someone at Garmin needs to reconsider the decision to use the Garmin Pay name for two different payment methods (Garmin Pay for eCommerce supports more cards than Garmin Pay for contactless payments), as it will likely confuse other customers as well.
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It will be interesting to see what kind of content developers come up with now that they can monetize Garmin. With Connect IQ supported on smartwatches, bike computers, and outdoor handhelds, there is a huge potential market for developers.
I hope Garmin also expands support for Garmin Pay so that those of us who don’t have that payment option can easily purchase content for an optimal ecosystem experience.
