From The Verge: It was only a matter of time. Garmin announced today it’s launching Garmin Connect Plus, a premium tier to its app that adds AI-powered insights and a few other expanded features. Existing and new Garmin users will be able to opt in to a free 30-day trial and then choose between a $6.99 monthly or $69.99 annual subscription. All existing health data and features, however, will remain free.
“Developing a premium tier enables us to extend our investment in the Garmin Connect platform, both in terms of features that carry additional cost to provide and also in scaling out our engineering teams to build and maintain these features,” says Garmin spokesperson Natalie Miller.
AI is the big addition to Connect Plus. The feature, dubbed Active Intelligence, will roll out as a beta and purportedly delivers “personalized insights and suggestions” based on your health and activity data. Over time, the insights and goals are supposed to become more personalized to the individual user.
That’s about all the information Garmin has provided thus far about the AI-powered side of things, but it’s on trend for fitness apps and wearable makers lately. Whoop was first to add an AI training coach in late 2023, while Strava also rolled out AI summaries for activities last year. Among bigger tech companies, Samsung added AI-powered insights while Google added AI-generated running workouts to its smartwatches last year. Oura also has added an AI wellness chatbot to its popular smart ring, as have several smaller wearable makers in the past two years. Garmin and Apple have thus far been the two major holdouts for wearable AI features, and with today’s announcement, that leaves just Apple.
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