Garmin Explore™ Customer Service

4 Stars right now. This was my second trip using Garmin Explore from my iPhone 12Pro Max: screen set to always on; 2 mile increments visible; also paired with Epix Gen 2 Pro. First trip Simple rural bike trail with family. Second trip deeper in the valley trails also added Garmin Series 2 Cadence and Speed trackers to road bike. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful in getting their Information to show up on the Explore app. Both trips experienced no lag or loss in tracking. Next, as soon as I’d reach the end of chosen 2 mile view distance (using pinch to zoom) I’d simply touch and slide the screen to where I was currently located on the far right off phone and keep going. In reviewing/comparing information from Garmin Connect I’m not seeing any surface discrepancies, Great work! What I like: Playback feature; Various views to choose from; Simplicity of connection to phone and Garmin Connect; Sharing; Battery usage (2nd trip: Screen set to always on/ Phone w/40% battery at start/ Rode for about 1-1/2 hours traversed 15ish miles and still had 5% battery upon return to starting point). Possible improvements: Route reorienting itself with direction I’m going facing up/away/or in the direction I am traveling; Visual tracking would automatically shift the visible map upon reaching the end of viable increments (especially when area map has been downloaded and no updates present); Improved way to identify Garmin tracking accessories ie cadence and speed sensors (neither ble or ant - however both were viable on Epix Gen 2 Pro watch and were actively connected). Overall keep up the GREAT WORK!!! Looking forward to deeper dives into the Total functionalities of Explore and associated Garmin apps and products. Thank You Highly Recommended

So my family does amateur paleontology, and because of that we tend to stick to public land and avoid private property like the plague unless we have express consent to be there. When I heard that this had public land marked out on the maps on this app I got super excited! I own a tactix delta and it’s my daily driver, but as I looked at these highly detailed maps...there’s no key. No where to be found. Now maybe in some submenu that I can’t find it’s there, but it’s certainly not apparent. If I have one gripe with this app it’s that it would be wonderful if there was a bright and clearly marked button to present the map key so that I can actually see visually the difference between public and private land on each map. Aside from that this app is a rockstar! It lets us make fuel calculations since we can watch our boating activities live, drop down for a dive when we tie off and switch activities, mark positions of fossil beds, and track back to the boat and the launch all in one app! It’s awesome! But please guys...a key would be amazing! Thanks for all the hard work though that went into building such an awesome app!

Recent updates are a substantial improvement! After a year of use, I have found this app to be a reliable and powerful tool to plan hiking and kayaking trips. However, the Course Creation functionality was previously rather clunky. I was pleasantly surprised by the new interface that defaults to routing along known trails. Rather than dozens of points to (usually poorly) approximate a route, I was able to plan out a winding course with only a few intermediate waypoints. Had a perfect time on that route, navigating from a fēnix. One feature I’d hope to see added in the future is a way to set a default Collection for recorded activities. Maybe I’m missing something, but recordings currently default to “Unorganized” which becomes such a mess on my local map if I don’t visit the app frequently (weekly) and assign these to a Collection…one by one. Even better would be if the Save step on devices showed some awareness of possible Collections to which to save. I highly recommend this app. Hats off to the dev team!

I am all in on Garmin so the interoperability between my devices is great but…. Non garmin is an issue. Example. I was back country with a friend. We got separated. He had a different satellite service. I couldn’t reach him because explore with an Inreach device is required in the non cell/internet world. I had to reach a remote friend who then had to copy and manually paste into OnX then reach my friend with my coordinates. Garmin being the best should be the leader in interoperability. They should not worry about losing market share. The triangle rule of “faster, better, cheaper—- pick two”. Will eventually bring them customers. Garmin is not cheaper—- it’s faster and better— always. I repeat do better, lead by example, drive interoperability among your peers. Lives are on the line in the back country. All systems should work to save them. The SAR community needs a leader…. Be it.

A few weeks back I was hiking ‘Little Purgatory’ in Leeds, Utah. It’s a hike I’ve done many times because it is close by, beautiful, quiet, and a great workout. As I was near the end of the trail I must have hit a muddy stepping stone. I was immediately on my back wit my left leg twisted like a pretzel. I immediately knew to hit the SOS on my Garmin InReach mini2. I was stuck between two boulders, a hill behind me. I was able to get the Garmin on top of the rock to my right. I heard a ping and was never more happy. I then got a message from them, was able to help them find me (I was alone). The comfort I felt in knowing that I was going to be rescued. It took a bit of time, but they were able to contact a friend who was with me up to the hospital. I have a broken knee and the recovery will be long and laborious. But, I was never so grateful for the investment I made in my Garmin.

I have been struggling with the Explore app for years. The concept of an offline connection between the GPS and other apps seems so important, but for a long time, Explore has been very klunky. As of Mid August, 2025, Garmin has finally managed to fix many of the nuisance issues - with perhaps the greatest one being the streamlining of the GPX import today. THANKS! Now, instead of automatically creating collections that I was constantly cleaning up (and had to go through many steps to delete), Garmin let’s you choose where the new GPX goes, and gives you the option of adding it to a collection. THANK YOU!! Also, they added swipe to delete. Im going to save SO MUCH TIME with just these two changes. I just got back from a 44 day sailing expedition where i cursed Garmin daily having to waste time and precious phone battery with all of these manipulations while off grid. On the sailing trip, I was frequently changing the plan based on weather, so had to add waypoints and courses drawn off grid and on the fly several times per day. Too bad this update wasn’t out on late June. Anyway, a couple problems still exist but this app keeps improving slowly. The sync time will probably be forever slow due to Bluetooth limitations, I am guessing. I can live with that, though, as long as Garmin gives us an option for a more selective sync. What I mean by that is this: Right now, you can do a selective sync… but even if you elect to sync only collections, it still syncs activities as well. If I am on an expedition, what I do now is delete everything from my watch before the expedition so that when I do a sync, it is fast. If, however, I need to send a waypoint on a random day, there could be dozens of activities that haven’t been synced (say I haven’t used Explore in a while). If I am just trying to send a waypoint from my phone to the watch, I will have to wait over 30-45 minutes for all of these manipulations while activities to sync before the waypoint gets there. The workaround is of course to blank out the watch all the time, but it would be neat to have a simple “send waypoint” and “send course” to watch feature that didn’t tie up resources by à prolonged sync of all the other stuff. 4 stars for now. Once the sync procedure gets optimized, this is going to be a 5 star app because being able to wirelessly send stuff to the watch off grid is fantastic!

Actually I am so disappointed of the app it’s has so many flaws 1- first you can’t search your waypoints from the map. 2- the app has trouble syncing large waypoints 3- app doesn’t sync with website if have large collection. These are the main cons that make my watch navigation near useless because in order to find the way point and select it I need to do so many steps in order to navigate all that would have been solve with single update that make the user search for his waypoints I hope developers will read that Thanks Edited: after the last week update the developer have fixed the search and now I working perfect thanks so much to the app developers now I can enjoy my watch so much more and I can count on it

I’ve used Garmin Explore for a few months now with a Garmin Inreach Mini-2 and also a Garmin GPSMAP 66-SR. The interface is fine and works well but I would like to see a little more functionality and information. Specifically, it would be helpful if future revisions might include feedback on device battery level through Explore, so I can see this information on a Bluetooth connected phone. I’d also find it helpful if Garmin might consider making the current satellite constellation status available for display through Explore so that this can be visible on a connected phone device. Hopefully Garmin will continue to add functionality to their Explore app and make it even better.

A gentleman by the name of Gary at an REI convinced me to buy the inReach mini 2 (vs the original model) and less than 24 hrs later I had never been so happy to be “upsold” in my entire life. Not to be dramatic but a million thank you’s would never be enough for Gary and the individuals behind Garmin (+ partners). Their superiority inspires me to let go of fear, educate myself, and in turn, make the most out of all my experiences on trail. My passion for exploration has been revived for the first time since my Grandmother got sick in 2020. I lost her last May. Basically you guys probably saved my life. It could have been tragically boring without y’all. Cheers!

I was introduced to Garmin years ago, back when it wasn’t quite as popular. I wasn’t quite convinced then but fast forward years later and I love Garmin for everything land nav. Both military and civilian this is a must-have for “not getting lost” on every front. I own multiple Garmin watches and Foretrex and I would buy them all again. The ability to save locations and create your own courses combined with topographical maps alone is worth it. Some of their apps and watches could use some UI upgrades, but for the end-user that continuously familiarizes with it will be just fine.

Recently I was awakened in the middle of the night, I felt unusual and checked my Garmin Instinct Tactical watch which showed unusually fast and irregular heart rate. Went to the hospital in the morning and they verified I had A-Fib. More recently while working outside in the sun and heat my watch alarm went off showing an unusually high heart rate, for an old man, of 146. I went into the house cooked down and rested. It is great to have such a great monitor. I also use my instinct to track me while hiking and hunting in the wilderness, it is always nice to know if you loose your way you can back track your way out!

I just recently purchased the Garmin Instinct solar watch so far gps is spot on I’m a avid mushroom picker and keeping track of my mushroom patches is a must. I will sometimes go to areas that I’m not familiar with and it’s nice to have that insurance to get you back safely especially if you’re hiking in areas that are flat no mountains for markers. Every year we have a picker or pickers that get lost because they don’t know the area and’s its real easy to get yourself turned around in the wrong way especially when you’re looking at the ground all day. Thank you Garmin for a great product and keep up the good work…

I have a German Shepherd that loves to go out in the morning and run squirrels and rabbits. I know he’s not a hunting dog, but he needs exercise and mentally stimulated. I lost him one evening after he chased a deer. He spent 7 hours in the woods He crossed a busy highway being completely lost. Now with the alpha 10 and tt25 collar he free to explore and hunt without me calling his name ever few minutes. It’s a relief looking at the alpha 10 when’s he’s 100 yards away and the distance numbers starting to decline when he’s heading back. I have a pup will be joining us in the future she also will be wearing a garmin tt25 collar.

This app allowed me to improve each day by keeping tabs on my health. I’ve joined challenges and synced seamlessly with Strava. The ability to create gpx files on the go while out on trail is essential to adjusting your plans when needed. I use it with the Garmin InReach mini 2 and love the software and hardware. Will upgrade from my Instinct watch to something more consistent with my current level of exercise. It comes with training and exercise plans. I’ve had this for a couple years. The watches battery lasts a week or more even with active use.

Explore is fantastic for backpacking because of its mapped trails, and when paired with a Garmin watch, you can use it as a turn by turn gps on the trail which I find to be a really cool feature. You can also preplan trips which can be helpful on trails that have multiple route options. Another added bonus is it saves all of your activities as different colored lines on Explore’s map. I find it fun to see the increase in different lines as you “explore” different trails, run different routes, and bike different areas.

I have a Zumo XT. It’s convenient to look up and input waypoints on my phone anytime, then sync with the Zumo later. I would give it 5 stars but I still have to use google maps to find some locations. Some locations transfer to the Zumo XT with Lat/Lon info instead of the street address … Also if you save more than one location of a chain store … You have to Edit the name to include an identifier. Otherwise you end up with multiple locations all with the same name. Some with Lat/Lon, some with street addresses…

I’ve been using both Garmin Connect and Garmin Explore for a long time. Since acquiring Delorme Inreach and the overlap with Earthmate, it was starting to look like Explore was going to just die on the vine. However, with the latest update they finally brought the maps up to date with those available on their devices (I’ve used the Fenix series since first gen) and provides the extra map detail of the Outdoor Maps+. Love the maps and love the route planning experience.

I love the network capabilities of the app, especially when paired to my garmin watch. This app makes it easy to upload and download gpx files as well as draw custom gpx tracks for runs and hikes. I also like how this app acts as a gpx file library. My only dissatisfaction is that there is only one map overlay. Also that it is nowhere near as detailed as other map apps with a preset topo overlays. Because of this the app works best in conjunction with apps like gaia.

I have been an Apple Watch user for 7 years. Got a Garmin 2 years ago and I just love how Explore keeps all of my hunts and waypoints together. I was hoping Apple would solve this and have the compass waypoints added to Apple Maps but they didn’t. Also, if you change Apple Watches, your waypoints don’t transfer to the new watch. Garmin is king when it comes to maps. Both are great devices but both are different tools.

Desktop website not so good. Mobile device communication and app good. Great maps. Would like communication with Venu. Would like Garmin Mini 2 to have barometric altimeter and that information to appear in Explore. It’s somewhat confusing to need Explore, Messenger and Connect to operate Mini 2. There’s a lot of data in Connect from my Edge 500 that doesn’t get published in Explore. I see Explore as a great work in progress and used it extensively on the Pacific Crest Trail.

This is the greatest app of all time. I use it all the time for finding new trails to hike and to navigate where I am as it syncs with my Garmin watch as I’m doing an activity. And the cumulative map showing every GPS activity you’ve ever recorded is just so cool! Only thing is I wish there were more colors you could change your activities to on the map!!

I use this app and my Garmin devices every day. I love planning trips: finding where I want to go, marking waypoints and routes to get to them, then uploading to my watch. OR just tracking where I go on my e-bike or motorcycle, then reviewing the path I took later. My Explore app is filled with recordings of many journeys I’ve made, and waypoints I’ve marketed along the way. LOVE this capability of the Garmin app and GPS devices.

Have a Montana 700i and works well for what I need. Car Nav and use the explore app to see my surroundings in sync with the 700i. Also use it when we get onto trail. Mostly shorter hikes amd does what I need for planning. Maps do need an update, new streets that are on Google maps should be here. But I’ll take a GPS and Explore over a cell phone anyday. Yellowstone would have been rough without my GPS and app with no cell coverage in the park. (Or hardly)

An easy to use device that has great battery life and light weight. Simple to pair with your smart phone to use for maps. The maps are excellent in detail. Similar to all Satellite devices you need to have a clear view of the sky to send messages and receive. That is very typical with any brand of this nature. Gladly recommend this device in the future.

Use the Garmin application to set up your way points and get going using the unit. It will greatly simplify this process and have you using the GPS with minimum stress and complications. I have programmed and used many GPS units from a variety of venders in the past 30 years and using the application with the GPS unit is a breeze. Read the PDF document to learn how to program and get the most of your purchase.

Just finished 10 days up in the Alaskan Arctic with only the inReach Mini for communication. The device itself is great, but pairing it with the app makes it seem like you’re texting at home. No issues with connectivity or service and it was fast. Definitely my go-to for all future off the grid expeditions.

I’m glad I bought the Inreach mini 2. It’s worth the money. I can text my family other Inreach users directly.

Very convenient

Very easy to use and pair with gps : phone

Really like the app. It has all the features you would need or expect. Love the device sync settings. Would add a person setting help/description feature.

I love this app to be able to download maps for offline use (topo and satellite)

Love it. Works great

Best !

Great map layer options Effective app for managing devices tracks and waypoint

66i

This app works great with my GPSMaps 67i

Had a spot messenger years ago, didn’t really like it much. The Garmin messages and explore apps paired with the inreach mini2 gives me the freedoms to go where I want and keep my family in the loop. Any adventure away from home should have this set up. Thank you Garmin for another amazing product and service.

I use this app for my epix pro to map out my fishing spots and trails, everything is pretty on point and very functional. The app runs seamlessly with the watch. The only downfall and the reason I didn’t give 5 stars is because I pay for the satellite image maps and I can’t view them on the app to mark my waypoints, I can only view them on my watch. If Garmin did a update to accommodate this I’d give 5 stars.

I got in a horrific vehicle accident and rolled my jeep down a 300ft embankment in an area with no cell phone service. My legs were pinned under my steering wheel and the jeep landed on the drivers side. I broke my femur, pelvis, neck and my jaw entirely split in half. If it wasn’t for having this device, no one would have ever found me or even knew that a vehicle had crashed at the point I did. I owe my life to this device. Simply keeping it on my keys and having that SOS button ready for when I came to saved my life. Lots of blood, broken bones, frustration and pain, but I still walked out of an accident that search and rescue deemed miraculous to have survived from, as well as with a healthy and happy 11 week old baby growing deep inside of me. Can not give enough glory to this device.

When used with an inreach device it adds to the experience.

I downloaded the app and so far I enjoy her simplicity and cloud access. I can plan or import my trail trips on the PC and they sync to my iPhone. Working offline just fine. When I’m on the trail the only thing I miss is to be able to have voice commands directly from the app. This feature when added will be my 5 stars. Thanks

So far I have nothing negative to say about anything Garmin. For my use level, which I would say is avid outdoorsman. I enjoy going into deep backwoods and these devices and services have been excellent. I feel confident know that the only error will be me, and having the Garmin safety net is invaluable.

The interface is pretty simple although I struggle with map detail a bit. It's the best app I've found so far.

It’s a navigation app. It needs to override the iPhone auto-lock feature while in use. Otherwise and excellent trail and Adv motorcycle app. Fix this and it’s a def 5 stars.

Amazing app for back country in ADK!

Seems to work fine. I bit confusing, it doesn’t always show a track on the phone when moving with the ETrex SE. Probably something I don’t know.

I am really satisfied on how good the Explorer app complement the InTeach Mini2. I love we can quickly create course by taping some point on the trail map and then send and start it on the InReach mini. If you decide to change your route in the middle it make this quick and easy. You can also quickly tap where you want to go on the map and it will find the quickest path to this point. All that with a good web application that make it easy to plan before any trip and get it synced to the IOS App. Also really appreciate it can handle GPX import and export. Thanks Garmin 🙂

Demande un peu de temps mes fonctionnalités bien

Travelled across Canada and used it every day!

Didn't hear about this app for years and it really enhances the functionality of the Fenix line.

I like to explore and find this app useful. Connected to my garmin with inreach. Super happy to have everything in 1 app

I use explore strictly to transfer waypoints and courses drawn on my phone to my Garmin while offline. I am grateful to be able to do this offline, but wish that Explore were more intuitive for this purpose. Explore has “collections” which isn’t very intuitive for my purposes. Meanwhile, when I go to sync, I have two options: Sync everything or sync a specific collection. What I would like to do is to just add a new waypoint or course to my device after I draw it. The problem is that I can either “sync everything” (which takes half an hour because then we have activities and other stuff syncing that I don’t need to sync (that is what Garmin Connect is for)… or I can sync a “collection”. Unfortunately, the process of organizing your collections to sync is quite tedious. For example, if you check the new course to be uploaded but forget to check the other ones that were already on your device, the app will delete all of your old waypoints from the device! Now, they have renamed collections to “saved” which is better from a nomenclature standpoint, but if all you want to do is get a course or waypoint transferred to your device, it is still too many steps. Perhaps there is another use case for this app, and it performs well for that purpose? For my purposes, it is klunky. There is a ConnectIQ app called grouteloader that is also super klunky, but it actually works better for this purpose. I hope that Garmin will eventually either improve Explore or write a standalone app that makes transferring waypoints and courses to the device a swift and easy process.

Update: the app is even worse after new updates. It crashes constantly, the new ui is a serious downgrade, and can’t rely on this app the way I used to (it’s completely unreliable now). The app is usually good but logged me out while I was in the wilderness and required me to have cell service/internet connection to log back in. This left me without access to the app and the resources it provides (messaging and navigation) for 5 days while trekking through the mountains. If I didn’t have a paper map I would have been completely without navigation. There is no reason an app designed to be used in places without cell service should log you and out and require cell service/internet once you have logged in and registered your account and satellite device with it. I used to view this product very highly but now I cannot trust this tool knowing that it can leave me stranded. For a company and product that you are supposed to trust with your safety this is unacceptable. (I reached out to customer support about this issue and have yet to receive a response a week later. For a complete failure of their product, Garmin has shown zero concern.)

The newer versions of this app are much more intuitive than previous versions. It’s easier to manage layers and the offline download also makes more sense. There are still problems, though. Downloads are generally slow - I’ve verified this on multiple networks and against Speedtest results so I can only conclude Garmin is serving this data up without using a CDN or it’s not working properly. Compounding this problem, offline downloads stop downloading when you switch apps. So you have to keep the Garmin app open for sometimes 30 minutes straight just to download a 5gig map. Device management is still iffy as well. I was unable to get my connected device updated for two days. There was several minor versions behind, but no matter what I did, updating from or checking the app settings, nothing would get the device to update. Overall, device connectivity and sync is still an issue in this version. This is a large app, so it’s understandable to have some bugs. But this is also a lifeline in the backcountry, so having it be rock solid is not just a matter of convenience. Overall, this is a good major update, I would like to see more development in the app less focus on new money-making features until It’s stable

Just finished the JMT and used Garmin Explore along with my InReach for the better part of it. When compared to other trail apps, like AllTrails, Explore completely fails in every category. Not only are the maps low quality — like Windows 98 quality — but unlike the Garmin Messenger app, Explore either has a hard time refreshing or reconnecting to the satellite device, or it simply doesn’t provide any useful updates to its status. It basically failed every time I needed it most. At one point, during a side hike, I simply gave up and used AllTrails with my iPhone’s GPS, sans the InReach. The experience was night and day. Though it definitely drained my phone’s battery much faster, AllTrails exceeded every expectation. For a company that’s been in the GPS and map game for so long, the folks at Garmin have utterly failed at something other, newer companies do so well.

The messaging works great, the weather works as well as it can (don’t trust it as correct in high, dynamic mountain/alpine zones), the offline maps are beyond terrible. Don’t make the mistake of paying the additional fee for these “offline” maps. 90% of the time, despite supposedly downloading very large offline map files, they load nothing more than the base map, despite selecting all downloadable attributes of the map in carefully selected quadrants. The other negative here is how fussy it is to download offline maps - they often fail at downloading and need to be babysat for the entire process, unlike competitors’ offline maps where you can queue them up and they will actually download, as promised. I have used satellite messaging since it was owned by DeLorme (pre Garmin) then watched Garmin buy DeLorme solely for the Iridium network of satellites (which is that good and far superior to anything Spot has). I saw Garmin initially make things better with InReach - you could plan routes on the app, then called Earthmate (a nod from DeLorme) from your phone, plus you could download offline maps, with various detail levels, all for free, included with your semi-reasonably priced monthly subscription. What has since transpired is a stripping down of all features, a raising of prices, and a severe lessening of mapping (which they now charge you a whopping $60/year for and it doesn’t even function offline). Whatever you do, do not pay fr the maps - use any other app for offline maps, even free Google offline maps are better, they at least work. All Garmin cares about is increasing its stock price, regardless of degradation of the product it offers, now available piecemeal at the highest price consumers will still pay.

Let’s start with the 50$ map subscription to get the same service as I had before. So I just cancelled my inreach subscription, paid 11$ month for that and picked up the map subscription. So in reality Garmin lost 50$+ better start rubbing those hands again and figure out another way to extract wealth for doing nothing. Before the satellite maps stayed loaded on your phone, now if you don’t have service they disappear and you have a green screen with some lines. Now I’m asking myself “why did you pay for the map?” So needless to say, I won’t be paying for maps next year either. And now I have to go in and delete each dog after the hunt, when before I could select and delete them all at once. The app is a mess, but developers gotta develop right? Make things “better” -sarcasm

As a replacement for basecamp, this fails miserably. Transferring data cleanly from basecamp is impossible unless you just want waypoints. The fact they created an app for iphone, and ipad but not mac is baffling. I would enjoy using basecamp and creating routs, tracks, and waypoints on my computer with a nice big screen. No such luck if you have a mac. Called support to try and get help. Support said i could use the web-based version of Explore. Web site crashes. Tried multiple computers (macOS, and windows) and they all had error messages and wouldn't load. Going from the Alpha 100 to the 300i i figured would be easy. Getting the data transferred from my 100 to the 300 was quite miserable. No good way to transfer old tracks. C’mon Garmin, you’re better than this!

This app used to be AMAZING. You could seamlessly make a map and transfer it to your Garmin device. This was particularly useful in the backcountry for navigation purposes, and great for planning trail runs. With the updated app, it is near impossible to create the routes that I once could create with ease. When you click on a point to route along a trail, the app creates some awful 21.7 mile route between two points on a map that are only a quarter of a mile apart. As much as I’ve tried, I can’t get it to cooperate. While you may disable the “snap to route” feature and make manual points, this is tedious and the mileage is generally off. Garmin, please restore Explore to its former glory.

I loved the old version of this app Prior to4.0 you were able to download many different map types with out a subscription. —- historic maps of the area, topo active, etc—- With the update it now costs $50 extra a year for features that were free in the prior version of the app —which expire once your subscription ends—. The user interface has also changed while it feels smoother on the surface its not as intuitive. In the past I would use the app for trip planning because of the map features available . The current update has made it useless for backcountry planning in my region of the Los Padres National Forest.

I like using this app to plan routes, explore new areas, and review my activities. I have gotten used to the interface, which was difficult to navigate initially. All in all its a good app. The reason i gave it 3 stars is due to a missing satellite map around where i live. The map just turns black with topo lines instead of seeing satellite view. Isn't this a mapping app? I thought the reason the satellite views might be missing were due to my old phone being outdated or something, but the same areas are missing with my new iphone 13.

The “new” icon styles in v4.6 are now not bold enough (too wispy) and get lost visually. The old icons were much better, bolder and easier to see. The coloring of everything as far as map detail goes is now too pale and difficult to clearly distinguish the map details. Some large waterways/channels (Southern California, Long Beach area, specifically: the Dominguez Channel) are no longer visible with land now in their place. This is a bad update with no improvement with map rendering and display. Please revert back or allow the user to choose which style to use.

This app is absolutely horrible. I've wasted way too much time trying to figure out how to do things like hide old tracks, figure out where in the app my most current tracks are saved, etc. Just plug the Garmin into your computer and dig through the SD card chronologically because otherwise you'll end up wasting hours of your time trying to figure the interface out. This company has gone waaaay downhill over the last several years. Garmin has a monopoly and they care more about their smart watches and fitness trackers than they care about doing a solid job with GPS units.

Garmin products feel incredibly outdated. Absolute mess of a system that should be remade from the ground up if they ever want their products to be taken seriously. Having so many different apps is not a good thing, having so many different types of filters and layers and junk is not a good thing. A map should be straightforward. Here’s your waypoints, here’s your routes, here’s your campgrounds and public lands. Instead they’ve made such a goofy system with all of these features that do not flow together well at all. Using garmin has been anything but straightforward and so I’ll be finding a better alternative.

I use the Garmin Mini in-reach to track my activities and for emergency communication if needed. When using the app to log my activities in the backcountry, my location in the app doesn’t update while I’m using it - my location stays fixed at the original start point. I have to use a different app (CalTopo) to track my current location while active. Once I’m done with my activity and I save it, I can see my entire route but I’m sure that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. Been waiting for that bug to be fixed by an update for a year.

They tried to improve the app with a new mapping and routing engine. Now the best case for topo lines is 100 foot intervals which can be completely useless for hiking. To make things even better they broke the routing engine: many trails on the map are simply not routable. That means if you click anywhere on the trail, you can get a crazy course to get somewhere near there and then a direct line into that point on the trail. It could be miles out of the way. This problem has been there for years now.

Has potential to be super useful with Alpha 10. I find it lacking in quality and usability. Needs update for proper collar colors, current satellite imagery with high definition, live time direction indicator that tracks in the screen, lockout mode. I really like how I can update my handheld through the app and that it does work with the Alpha 10. There is just a lot more potential to be unlocked. If the garmin field staff used this for a couple weeks and gave recommendations these issues would be resolved.

I tested the app prior to my trip and it worked. When i was in the middle of nowhere, outside of cell service, I opened the app and got a black screen. Force-closed and reopened but the same thing. So I was able to manually type a message - very tedious- from the device but the app was useless. When I got back to service I tried again and the app loaded. But the first screen it took me to was a login screen. I think the login was blocking me… as if you need to have cell service to login so you can use your device that is designed to help you when you’re outside of cell service.

I just finished a 9 mile run in the Frozen head state park near Knoxville. It was close enough to society that I wasn’t really nervous, but I went a mile off course because I thought my location was updating on the map. It wasn’t updating for some reason. It was also paired to my remix epix so not sure why it wouldn’t update! So frustrating. I was able to just relay on the map on my watch and put the phone away. I’m also very confused about why I need this app and what I’m supposed to do with it. Base map needs a 3D option.

User experience and a gradual learning curve are important when using any app or device but ESPECIALLY when this app is made under the same roof as the physical equipment used with it. 1) the map layers button should let the user quickly toggle between map layers. NOT pull up a bar at the bottom of the screen to scroll thru. It the different map types slid out from the side (longest part of the screen) it would be much easier to toggle between topo, osm, etc.. the current method is very slow and clumsy. 2) creating a route, like in Garmin Connect, should exist in this app. It is not a good user experience to have to open garmin connect, make a route with the snap-to-road feature (which works very well) and then import into garmin explore. 3) there is no key! This is a basic map requirement.

The new update with the subscription is terrible. I use the explorer app with an alpha 300. Before the update it had its issues,(like when off the grid I could not use the app to locate my hand unit location),but now I have a lot of issues. One of the worst is when I’m off the grid and try zooming in on satellite map to make sure my hounds are all treed together. The screen goes to a dark green background instead of staying in the satellite imagery. The maps are not as detailed as I was hoping with paying for a subscription. Missing details of named creeks, hollows, ect. Please fix this new app.

It’s pretty decent. I wish it had a heat map of trails by activity so you can creat routes using that. I wish it you could create a course and send the location to Apple/Google Maps to start your cars navigation to the trail head. Other then that, it’s really simple to download GPX files from other services and have them available for offline usage on your device. If it had the upper two things I’d give it 5 stars.

For one, it would be so nice for the app to read in Yards. The hand held read in yards, but the app reads in ft. Makes it difficult to communicate with other cast members. Also you be nice to mark truck location. This is already difficult using the alpha 200, but using it in the app would be nice. Messages to other handhelds would be clutch. If using the alpha 10 there are only a few messages. Messages through the app would make it perfect!

Less than half the time I can get the location to work. Usually even with the map working — though the map rarely decides to work — the weather forecast will not work and tells me to put it where it can find the sky. I have it positioned 6’ off the ground in a wide open field and it cannot find the sky or it’s position. I assume if it cannot find its position the SOS feature won’t work — a major reason I bought it. I power cycle both the garmin mini 2 and the app but it doesn’t make a difference. Very disappointing.

My saved waypoints keep disappearing from my collections and I have to constantly put them back. I've had a couple saved collections just disappear. Offline maps is slow and not all waypoints display. I've had to use ONX Hunt last few times we hiked in an area with no cell coverage. ONX Hunt is much better and similar in price. Until bugs are worked out on this app we will not be using it.

Don’t rely on Garmin anymore with “your life”. This app is horrible. While out on Nunavut the app will randomly crash and then leaving all maps not available. Like the app doesn’t recognize them. Leaving you with a base map that has near zero information. Reverting back to older model gps and not relying on this.

Je ne suis pas trop satisfait de la dernière mise à jour. Il est vraiment plus difficile de créer des parcours et de repérer les points qui nous intéressent. Si possible faire une nouvelle mise à jour qui réglera ce problème assez rapidement.

Stuck in the backlight menu and can't get out of it. Not frozen just can't go back. And can't connect to my Inreach Mini 2. Keeps saying sync failed but everything looks fine. Spent so much money on my Garmin and we get sub-par Garmin interface and apps. Not good.

This was a great app until Garmin decided it wasn’t enough they barely survived the hack that left us without garmin connect for about a week and decided to bring the same mistake to this app, it’s a map app for us to use when we are off the grid, so why would you add a “must log into account and garmin useless cloud” feature?

I love and hate this app, the mapping is great, however all of my offline maps just suddenly become deleted at the most random times and then you are in the bush with no maps. This is unacceptable when you consider this as a survival tool. I am trying to find another company to use. Also canceled my Garmin in reach because the messages sometimes take hours to go through to contacts which is also unacceptable. Great concept but is clearly a long ways away from being a survival tool or a reliable source of getting yourself out of the bush when you actually explore far from the beaten path

Je ne veux pas renouvellera l’abonnement sans mon consentement

Customer service Christopher is simple, wanted to argue instead of help, thanks for nothing

Startup crash

Lost access to collections and map selector

Since last version no more fun working with this . Please come back to the previous one. Most of the time, you can’t start the app because it crash all time

A lot of money for useless app full of bugs and not reliable. For the same yearly fee, you have plenty other options out there that works smoothly with your Garmin device. Very expensive disappointment from Garmin

Crashes all the time. Specifically when you need it. It is not reliable to take to a trail head.

On the app the primary collection sync is completed but the courses in the collection is not display on the devices. Making garmin devices unusable when u needed navigation. Unreliable, please consider other brand.

It doesnt work mith my garmin gpsmap64st

A major pain for me is that I have to use different accounts for my watch (Connect app) and my Inreach mini 2 (Explore app). Even though the apps to manage these are separate, they share the same login under the hood, so I constantly have to log out to sync! Feels like an unnecessary problem to have given the apps are separate and the Messenger app doesn’t have this shared login problem. Please fix!!! Otherwise so far it works.

Very poor software not designed for offline use, which in my opinion defeats the whole purpose of tying it to a device intended to be used off grid. Upon pairing the 66i at home, was unable to reconnect offline in the bush. Then when attempting to re-pair the device to my iPhone 14 was given a “connect to the internet to pair”. Very disappointed with this app. I sure wish garmin would have allowed the newer 66i to be used on the Earthmate app. Never have an issue with that older application. Please investigate this issue garmin.

Aesthetically pleasing and simple to use. Pairs well with Inreach GPS and Iphone GPS. App requests: I would pay for more up to date maps of Algonquin park, Temagami, Killarney, etc. The ability to see where I am in relation to portages and campsites is incredibly useful especially deeper in the park. Another feature that would be neat would be the ability to review and view reviews of different portages and campsites. The ability to warn campers of particularity poorly maintained portages would be amazing.

It works

Still trying to figure it out after using base camp for so long !

Nothing to say. It’s easy to use, precise, useful and I have no issue with sync (as I can read for some review). I use Gpsmap 66 and 66sr. The only point perhaps to correct should be to be able to modify the type of « activities ». Some of mine are wrong and I’m unable to edit them. But since the last update, explore refuse to sync my last activity (this is a bug because Garmin Connect show it!) After 2 years, this is still impossible to modify the type of activity on the app. This is a bit discouraging and also confusing with the application « Connect » which seems incompatible with the GPSMAP 66sr.

Downloaded app, right away is telling me it doesn’t support synchronization with my Zumo XT? The Zumo XT does come up in the list of supported devices…

For some strange reason, the app sync data is ALWAYS different than the data on my Alpha 200i. For this reason, I find it useless.

Pulls outdated maps, regular sync fails. Not a pleasant UI experience. Great at hardware but Garmin has a lot to learn with regard to software and apps. Inaccurate maps are inexcusable and pulling maps that are over 5 years old that don’t show major highway extensions is pretty pathetic. Take a look at Highway 407 in Ontario. OSM has accurate up to date mapping of Ontario. Where are you finding these out of date maps you list as being OSM?

Alpha 200i the flagship of the dog tracking gps will not connect to Bluetooth iPhone. It used to work but will not connected tried everything even a full data reset. This is what the app is meant to do and it doesn’t work!!!!! Can’t even connect on the Inreach part!!!

App sucks.