By estherdidsang@gmail.com 
One year ago, users of the best Garmin watches were very angry indeed. They took to platforms like Reddit in droves and filled comment sections (and my inbox) with their fury.
Why? Garmin had announced its then-new premium tier, Garmin Connect+, which asked users to pay $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$12 per month or $69.99 / £69.99 / AU$120 annually in exchange for exclusive access to new AI features like Garmin’s Active Intelligence commentary, along with an improved LiveTrack service, Performance dashboard, and other bits.
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The results
As you can see, most users still aren’t happy about Connect+. Out of 1,325 Garmin users, 80% of respondents (1,061) ‘never bothered’ to sign up to Connect+. Just 12% of respondents tried Connect+, but returned to the free tier, not continuing with the service. A paltry 5% of respondents, 67 people overall, ticked ‘yes, I use it, and it’s good’.
Our smallest group of respondents was reserved for those people who were so mad about the change that they actually switched watch brands, with 36 people out of the original 1,325 leaving Garmin entirely in favor of an alternative.
We had some comments and emails, too, from people telling us why they voted the way they did and how they felt about Connect+.
One commenter said: “Garmin’s enshittified app won’t ever be getting my hard-earned money on top of the high cost for the hardware. The hardware is excellent, their software is poor. I’ll be moving on to another brand with my next purchase.”
Meanwhile, Max said, “I stick to the free tier. If they’ll push any more, I’ll switch to another brand.” This approach seems to reflect the majority of Garmin users, based on our poll.
Via email, Linda said that as a decade-long Garmin user, she would “take the hit and move to Withings” if Garmin put her favorite features behind a paywall.
The best Garmin watches for all budgets
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