Image: Garmin
Regular readers know I love my Garmin watches: I always have a Garmin on one wrist with the latest smartwatch on the other. For years I have been visiting the Garmin Connect IQ Store on my watches and phones to find apps like Starbucks, loads of free watch faces, and full-featured data fields to enhance my Garmin experience.
The wearables maker announced that developers can now charge customers for content — including watch faces and apps — on the storefront. Garmin’s 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 view which content is compatible with your watch. For example, the Disney Grogu watch face does not show up for the Garmin Enduro 2 with a MIP display, but it does show up for the Quatix 7 Pro with an AMOLED display. The current Disney watch faces include the Grogu Star Wars one with six poses, a Tony Stark watch face, and Mickey/Minnie Mouse analog faces.
I’ve wanted to control my old GoPro with a Garmin watch for years and now there is finally an official GoPro camera control app available from the store. The GoPro app provides the capability to capture videos and still images from your GoPro mounted on your head, chest, or bike right from your wrist. Unfortunately, there is not yet a GoPro control app for Garmin bike computers.
Screenshot by Matthew Miller/ZDNET
It’s worth noting a speed bump I encountered during my Connect IQ Store experience.
To demonstrate the buying experience and check out the newly added content, I attempted 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.
I discovered, however, that going to the Connect IQ Store on a web browser allowed me to use a credit card — via the Garmin Pay for e-commerce option — to make my purchase. Someone at Garmin needs to re-evaluate the decision to use the name Garmin Pay for two different payment methods (Garmin Pay for e-commerce supports more cards than Garmin Pay for contactless payments) as this is likely to confuse other customers too.
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It will be interesting to see what developers come up with for content now that they can make money through Garmin. With Connect IQ supported on smartwatches, bike computers, and outdoor handhelds, a huge potential market is available to developers.
I hope that Garmin also expands support for Garmin Pay so those of us left out of this payment option can easily purchase content for an optimal ecosystem experience.