Varia™ Customer Service

I have been trying for months to get this app to work correctly with a garmin RTL515 on my bike. The little car icon shows up on the screen but does not move as the car approaches and passes. But if the radar picks up more than one car they will all move up the screen correctly. Garmin sent a replacement device but that made no difference. So it is a bug in the app or its connectivity to the device. I’ve tried moving the device up and down on the seat stem. Even holding it in my hand. Nothing makes any difference P S. I finally figured out why I had this problem. I have Bluetooth enabled hearing aids which would bring the “bell” of a coming car directly into my hearing aids. Somehow that high jacked the car image which would just stand still unless another car was picked up without triggering the “bell” warning. Once I disabled my hearing aids from Bluetooth everything works perfectly. It would be nice if this could be fixed so I could ride my bike with disabling my blue connection to my hearing aids

This app really expands the use of a radar to include listening to music on long rides. It also is perfect for winter when your ears are are covered and you can supplement the head-end unit’s beeps. One thing to make it perfect would be to enable multiple radar units to be connected. I have a second radar unit connected to my commuter e-bike and have to disconnect and re-pair when switching from commutes to fitness rides. Overall, it makes the radar an even more essential piece of kit.

I got this for Father’s Day but I downloaded the app a long time ago waiting for someone to get the hint. It works exactly as advertised. I can put it in my under seat pouch and still hear it easily and I can’t hear very well. Only a couple of things could be improved. One of them is the distance it picks up a car which is 153 yards. Sounds pretty far but when that car is coming 75 or 80 mph it’s just a few seconds before he is on top of you. Another 50 yards would be perfect. The other thing is when the alarm goes off there could be 3 or 4 cars coming with only one signal, which is fine but you better look at your monitor before you dart back in traffic lane. Anyway the fact is I love it. Wish I had one a year ago. I’m 75 years old and do all my riding on highways and my neck won’t turn enough to see behind me. I stare into my mirror constantly which makes my neck worse. Now I just check my mirror when the alert goes off.

I just bought the Varia for the Multiple Sclerosis ride across Minnesota because we ride on some big roads. We also ride on some quiet country roads, but the few cars that ride these roads are moving fast. I ride a road bke and paired the varia with my iphone and my garmin triathlon watch. It worked awesome! I knew when the cars were coming on the country roads so i could move to the edge of the road. On busy roads , likewise you knew when cars were coming. The varia made a clear visual and sound ( on my phone) AND the visual was also on my tri watch!! When all the cars were past it gave a softer “all clear” chime so yiu knew yiu could move away from the edge of the road. Battery life lasted well past my 5 hour rides and was quickly charged at night from my power pack. It really helped me feel safer and i could enjoy the long days of riding much more.

My hearing is poor and trying to monitor oncoming traffic is hit or miss. I've found that the radar picks up vehicles before I would have seen them because you can't ride staring at your mirror. I use the Varia w the phone app and with Trekz bone conduction headphones. With my poor hearing I might not pick up on the phone signal otherwise. The Trekz 'phones do not block my ear canal. Yes I sometimes listen to media while riding, but the audio ring overrides and there on my Wahoo head unit is a graphic showing the relative position(s) of oncoming vehicles. Seeing that there is more than one car approaching is huge.

I ride alone on back country roads with no shoulders. Love this app and the Garmin Varia 515. With phone in back pocket and phone volume at loud I hear all the cars approaching from behind and have sufficient time to find my path along the white line. I don’t have any visual setup and the way app calls out car back sound, all clear sound, and high speed car approaching sound. I just wish I could train drivers to slow down when passing, swing wide around me, don’t pass me when oncoming cars are approaching from other direction. But alas, some people are just centered idiots!

I’ve used the app with the Varia back lamp 6 or 7 times and it works great. The screen seems to have everything I need to know when cars are coming and generally how quickly. I’ve adjusted the volume a few times and 80% seems to work well for hearing the warning but not being annoying. I use voice commands to switch between this and my Wahoo app to track my speed, etc. while in Wahoo I still get the audible warnings of approaching traffic.

App is very good for detecting vehicles, but the alerts could use improvement. Phone vibration alerts aren’t useful when the phone is mounted to my bike. Even the sound alert doesn’t work great in louder areas or in higher winds. It would be better if my watch vibrated or if the sound alert would go through earbuds to better hear it.

I can no longer use a helmet rear view mirror due to a spot of macular degeneration in my left eye and handlebar mirrors work poorly for a number of reasons. A friend has a Garmin radar unit and likes it. I thought I’d give it a try. Now I won’t ride without it. Varia connects effortlessly to my RV315. The interface is simple to use and easy to see in all conditions. Varia is as important for safety as wearing a bike helmet as far as I’m concerned.

I only used it one time so far and it definitely works. I love that I can listen to my music and run a couple apps in the background. By running this app to let me know that cars are coming behind me by sound and visual. It definitely helps Keeping me safe . And I use an iPhone 14 Pro Max it works great and only took five minutes to set up.

This is the best app of 2025, and every single year into the future. Not only can this program/device/application notify users of possible accidents, or getting hit— it can also notify other gps units in cars. A true life saver. This program has one “best of” for the next decade. It also pairs well with a bicycle gps unit (“lights off” feature). -Austin

Having been hit by a car in 2018, I was all over the RTL510, combined with the Cycliq cameras. Although it made my seat post busy looking, and heavier. When Garmin came out with the 715, I immediately bought it. Love it! Battery last a long time and the app works great! I have it set up to record only when the radar detects an approaching vehicle. Worth every penny!

Love the Varia. Not just useful to know when and how fast a car is approaching but also those cyclists coming up fast behind you. WISH it had a watch app to tap your wrist with haptic feedback. Sound alerts become annoying quickly and I’m not constantly gazing at my computer.

Love the automatic on and off feature. A little quirky but works close to 100% of the time. The “take a clip” and “photo” feature is awesome. The Varia app software is steadily improving which is good to see. I’d say the unit & software is a 4.75 at this point. Garmin support is a big 10+. So overall I give it a 5+ rating.

It would be great if it had Apple Watch support. At least send the alerts to the watch. The haptic tap on the wrist would suffice. Instead I am now searching for bone conduction headphones so I can hear the tones and still hear what’s going on around me - you should never wear headphones while riding….

We bought the RTL510 and learned that this app would not work with the 510. I was able to return the 510 and replaced it with the RTL515. We ride a tandem bicycle and the nice loud alert that the app emits draws our attention to the fact that we have a vehicle or vehicles approaching from the rear. The app works great with the RTL515. It connected immediately with no hassle.

Nice and simple app that works seamlessly with the RTL515. Loud, clear alerts when traffic is behind and after it passes and all is clear. I like that it also displays battery life of the radar light (but wish it showed percentage instead of just battery icon).

Have one for my bike and my wife’s bike. The Varia gives us both mor confidence when riding and it brings our safety to the forefront. The app works well and the unit does as well. It holds a good charge and I love how it begins flashing when a car is approaching. It gives great visibility to the approaching cars.

The only feature I’m missing is having the notification of a car be a vibration on my Apple Watch instead of a beep. There are a couple situations I’ve been where I just can’t hear the beeps - the watch would be such an easy fix.

I love this device, but if it worked with Apple Watch / Smart watch, that would be even better. I don’t always carry my iPhone with me when I cycle, but I always have my Apple Watch

This app is pretty basic for the Varia RTL515, it does NOT tell you which mode the light is in (solid, peloton, daylight flash, night time flash mode or stand by mode).

To know that a vehicle is coming behind you is comforting. I am 82 years old and Electric vehicles don’t always make enough noise for me to hear so this helps me keep safe. Thanks

I love my Varia. Not only is it a great rear light but the radar is awesome. The Varia ap works great but i also pair it with my Edge and it alerts me and shows me how far the cars are. This is great for any road riding but specially in cities.

I am biased as I have been using Garmins since the 1990s. This Varia App is a great addition to transmit a better sound than from the Edge computer on my handlebars. Thank you.

I absolutely consider my Varia a riding necessity. It takes the stress out of my rides and I don’t have to keep looking to see if a vehicle is approaching from the rear.

Good app to simply sync the Varia and look out for cars, as well as device manuals.

My rides take on some well traveled roads and the Varia consistently alerts me to approaching traffic. Love it.

Pairs easily with my iPhone. The haptic feed back is not noticeable unfortunately with my handle bar mount. I IF it could be paired with an Apple Watch it would be even better!! Hopefully that is coming soon Garmin. Definitely provides peace of mind while riding.

1e Utilisation et j’en suis Très heureux de mon achat

Never had a problem… it works great!

It was hard to check behind specially when riding in a group. I used this with the phone for a few days before I paired this to my Garmin computer. Helpful and I consider this as an essential tool for a safe road ride.

Très efficace le varia.j’aimerais tout simplement avoir des sons différents plusieurs choix. Et pourquoi pas une application pour Apple Watch quand on va faire que des commissions. Merci !

Ride quality and peace of mind much improved. Thank you Garmin!

I’ve just begun using Varia radar / taillight . A few close calls prompted my decision to purchase. This product is as advertised and near flawless. I’m now aware of approaching cars , the number of , their approach time and when it is clear . Very pleased with this purchase. Highly recommend.

I like the device and app works as advertised. I would love to control the light via the app or have the light off while radar is on or vice versa.

Permet de rouler en restant plus vigilant sur la route devant nous. C’est un accessoire qui amène un plus grand plaisir à pédaler et avec une facilité d’utilisation et puis précision radar déconcertante. Tout comme mon casque, je ne sortirai jamais sans mon Varia RTL 150.

Excellent produit, je l’ai jumelé avec mon iPhone et une montre Fenix 5X Plus et tout fonctionne très bien sans problème. Facile d’installation et très facile a utiliser. Bravo pour ce produit. Good job!

My only issue is it hasn’t charged properly on two occasions. This has been frustrating as I subsequently went on linnet rides and it died. If this was consistent I would have no issues.

I’ve only had it for one day- the 715. According to everything I can read I have it all set up normally- my Wahoo Bolt connects to it just fine, but doesn’t show the radar LEDs anywhere. The radar alerts are ‘on’ in the settings. Something to figure out. Setting up this app, however, seems even worse. The connection to the thing’s wifi to view videos is horrible, even when the phone is touching the device. I couldn’t get anything to play, just loads until it crashes. Not convinced it actually recorded anything because I have 50 2-second videos from a 1 hr ride (and I can’t view any of them). Keeps making an alert noise on my phone when it’s disconnected or connected, which wouldn’t be annoying if it were going on/off incessantly. Fix your software.

I have been using Varia for close to eight months, and up to the latest update I was very pleased with the app and the Garmin radar device. Reason for only giving it three stars is that with the latest update they no longer give you the option of tracking other cyclists. So when my spouse falls behind, I have to constantly check my six rather than having the app/radar do the job for me. Previous version had that option, a feature that allowed the users to remain better aware of their surroundings. Please fix this.

I love this app and my Varia since I got post move to Washington state. It picks up cars very well and allows me to ride more freely. However when it comes to accessing videos it leaves much to be desired 1- forces you to download videos on your cellular network which could be subject to a lawsuit since I can be charged more money due to bandwidth and the connection is much slower. My house is in a bad AT&T cell service and cannot stream or download data well when I’m off WiFi and connected to the Varia 2- allow for desktop connectivity for better viewing and manipulation of Harmon Varia stored data. Why don’t you provide more transparent and lean access to this cloud of data? It shouldn’t only be stored on tbe device. Anyways thank you garmin for creating a device that makes me feel a lot safer but please please improve the UI and connectivity so I can access and download all videos more easily if needed Thank you Abe

The audio component of the app is a nice complement to the single chime alert of the Varia RTL515 from the Garmin itself. However, the app’s “car approaching” double chime is identical to its “all clear” double chime. Though there also is a different, lower pitch “all clear” chime it doesn’t always chime. Moreover, the “all clear” double chime doesn’t always chime, either. This means I consistently have to look at the Garmin itself to determine whether or not the road actually is clear. A couple of simple programming modifications could easily make this a 5-star app.

Recently paired with my new RTL 515. I use Varia app on an old phone which I have converted to a bike computer. I use Varia because it does not use GPS and hence consumes less battery. Mostly use it with phone screen off. Compared to Ride With GPS the alert sounds for Varia need improvement, the car coming sound versus the clear sound are not intuitive. Please give option to use Ride with GPS app alert sound. Also, it seems Ride with GPS alerts when a car is farther out than the Varia app.

Most recent software really downgraded. Used to run in the background no problem and duck your audio to play the car alert. The app now is only in background maybe 50% of the time and no longer supports reducing media sound just for the alert. Much less functional. Would also be great it if played an all clear tone, the way my wahoo head unit does when cars aren’t detected anymore. The rapidly approaching vehicle alert sounds too similar to the normal alert.

I bought a couple of Garmin Varia units for my and my wife’s bike and have been happy with the accuracy of it and the sound alerts are nice (though I can’t make use of that in combination with the direct-connect capability of the Sena Pi headsets my wife and I use). But recently I decided it would be cool to use an older iPad mini I had lying around to mount to my handlebar and use the Varia app simultaneously with Google Maps, but no luck, because the Varia app doesn’t support split view. Come on! Garmin, please fix this ASAP.

On February 18th the app updated and it now overpowers my music so that I can barely hear it any time the app is on. If I turn the volume up, I can hear the music, but the traffic notification sounds are unacceptably loud. Not sure if there is any way to adjust the volume of the notifications, but it should not take control of my iPhone sound level. Haven’t used the radar on my last two rides because of this software update. 😢

The app is quite… barebones. You can’t get a live look at the camera from what I can tell. At least the radar seems to work. There’s quite a lot of bad here though. Clips take forever to view on the phone, to the point it’s faster to just take the SD card out of the radar and put it into a computer instead. I can’t get to the camera settings at all, with the app saying the iPhone can’t join the Varia WiFi network. That really makes the mounting cumbersome because you have no idea whether the video it takes will be useful prior to it actually recording an incident. All around I expected this to be way better for a Garmin product, and especially one that costs so much.

Often where I ride, I bounce between bike lanes on the road and bike paths that run along the road and it would be great to be able to have a single tap MUTE to silence all the alerts of approaching traffic when I’m not actually on the road. It’s currently a bit tedious/dangerous to navigate into the settings menu to turn them off while riding.

With the latest update, the “all clear” sound is now the same double chime tones as the “new car detected”. There is no longer a difference between the sounds so it constantly sounds like there are new threats immediately detected after a tracked car passes. These sounds need to be different again so we can differentiate between “threat detected” and “threat clear” without looking down at the computer.

It would be really nice if this app could show speed distance, etc. It’s pretty obvious that Garmin is trying to push me to buy a separate cycling computer, but a lot of people want to ride with their phones for connectivity… until then 3 stars. Great hardware, mediocre app.

I love the Varia and would not ride without it. But the app is causing screen burn in on my iPhone 12 mini. The white lines remain visible on my screen even with the brightness turned down for the ride. Maybe a gray color would help alleviate the problem.

The radar and the head unit display are great but the camera and its phone app are horrible. The radar on my wahoo works flawlessly. But the wonky connection to download photos and the random “failed to delete” are infuriating.

Downloading videos is nearly impossible using the app. Videos don’t load and they do not download. Connecting to the wifi network is also buggy. The radar function works.

I can’t hear the sounds as well as I’d like. If you allowed us to choose our own sound files, we could select better tones.

Incredible hardware, but for $400 for a product there are terrible connection issues. There has to be a better way to view footage. Takes hours to comb through footage and that's only when it's connected. Good luck.

Terrible connection issues. There has to be a better way to view footage. Takes hours to comb through footage and that’s only when it’s connected. Good luck 👎🏻

I use my Varia with a Wahoo Roam, and it’s fantastic in every way. I can then upload video using a usb c cable to my computer. But then there’s the app. The app is so slow it’s useless. Good thing you won’t need it, if you have a computer and a compatible gps.

Needs to link to Apple Watch so I can use my BT headphones without taking my phone. My watch and Wahoo Bolt are all I need.

The app is phenomenal it works as it is supposed to. I used it for one day on my phone and I know I have an image burned into my screen.

Ever since the update when the radar detects a vehicle, it lower the volume to give an alert. The volume stays lowered for 2 to 10 minutes until shooting back up to regular levels.

If you're running low on power and want to just use the radar function of your Varia light, the app disconnects from the Bluetooth pairing and is useless. It really should connect to the radar network not the light network. Would be a good app if that was fixed

The warning sounds are too quiet on my iPhone 6S. I don’t hear them when riding. I do hear them when stopped at the roadside when there is no wind noise. But they are still quiet, and my phone speaker volume is turned up to max. Garmin should allow you to use alert tones from your device. I have a number available that are much much louder than the one supplied with the app.