Garmin Connect IQ 9.3: Watch Microphones Open to Third-Party Apps

Garmin’s newest watches have had microphones and speakers for a while, but until now that hardware was mainly used for Garmin’s own features. With Connect IQ 9.3, third-party apps can record and play audio on the Fenix 8, Fenix 9, Forerunner 570 and 970, Venu 4 and others. For athletes who coach themselves or log training on the run, that opens the door to voice notes and spoken coaching from apps Garmin didn’t build, with one limit that shapes everything: recording only works while the app is on screen.

What Happened

Gadgets & Wearables reports that the Connect IQ 9.3 SDK gives developers two new pieces:

• Audio capture, which feeds recorded audio directly to an app, with noise reduction and echo cancellation during recording
• Audio output, which lets apps play audio and control playback position and volume

The supported list covers the Fenix 8 and Fenix 9 families, Forerunner 570 and 970, Venu 4, Venu X1, Approach S72 and several other models.

Garmin’s Audio Capture documentation fills in the details. The module arrived at API Level 6.0.3 and requires the AudioInput permission. Noise reduction and echo cancellation come as a single filter, and apps call a function to check whether a given watch supports it. Apps receive encoded audio through a callback as it’s captured.

Why It Matters

The background limit is the key constraint. Garmin’s documentation includes a specific error for “The audio capture was attempted while the app was in the background,” and Gadgets & Wearables notes that recording needs to happen while the app is active. An app can’t quietly listen through a run. A runner would open it, speak, and close it, or keep it on screen for the whole session. Apps also have to ask for microphone and speaker permission, and users should be able to see those requests.

Within those limits, the article lists likely uses: voice notes, spoken workout coaching, custom audio alerts, voice-input apps, and short voice messages recorded without a phone. It also notes that developers could send captured speech to online transcription or AI services, which would let a training app turn a spoken post-run note into a logged entry.

Battery life is the other open question. Gadgets & Wearables points out that Garmin’s own “OK Garmin” hands-free voice controls have a noticeable battery cost, and third-party apps that use the microphone are likely to face the same trade-off. Stack Archive covered how Garmin’s voice controls reached its bike computers in the Edge 1060 vs Edge 1050 comparison.

What This Means for Garmin Users

The change follows another opening for outside developers, the Connect API’s free personal access tier. Apps won’t appear overnight, though. Gadgets & Wearables notes that a surge in Connect IQ submissions has already caused long approval queues, so audio apps built on 9.3 may take a while to reach the store. Owners of older or cheaper models should check the supported list before expecting these apps to work, since the hardware has to have a microphone and speaker in the first place.

Source: Gadgets & Wearables

Content created with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy.