Earthmate 4+

Garmin Explore is a bit clunky sometimes to view and review tracks or other information you might have synced across platforms, but it does serve some purpose and function. It works well enough to use the message system when paired with an InReach. Would love to see smartwatch integration. For example, I often mount the device to my motorcycle to take advantage of the minimal info on it’s screen and give it a good clear view of the sky. I would like to have the option to send an SOS/message via Phone/InReach by a smartwatch app if it were hard to get closer to the motorcycle in an accident to access either my phone, also mounted to the mounted to the motorcycle, or InReach. There are always task specific apps that excel, but Garmin’s range of apps add function to their devices.

I use this app on my phone for navigating backcountry snowmobiling. I always carry my inreach in my pack for emergency use only. I use Earthmate on my phone for navigating. The downloadable topo maps have saved me many times, and have also helped me find new rideable areas as well.

It seems many people have given negative reviews due to the inreach not linking up properly to their phone. I don’t usually ever mess with that. I keep it powered off in my pack. Using it for nav would be clumsy compared to using Earthmate. I save it incase my phone battery runs out or if I need to communicate while out of cell service for some reason.

My only complaint about it would be that it only saves a certain amount of tracks. I’m not sure if it’s time or total mileage, but after a while old tracks will disappear. That said it stand by my five star rating, just for the fact of how many times it has helped me either get out of trouble or find new areas to get into more trouble. (Haha)

The Bluetooth connection to the InReach device is dropped by the app, not the phone, very frequently. Typically a connection is maintained for less than 1 hour. Sometimes less than 15 minutes. Best workaround so far is to turn Bluetooth on the phone off and on periodically and before sending a text. The problem with this is that it sometimes results in duplicate messages being sent. That can get expensive. Also, turning Bluetooth off and on is a bad hack at best. I reported this problem to Garmin several times. Most recently 3 months ago. They almost seem to be taking it seriously this time, but no real progress. No useful suggestions from Garmin. I think this is a stop-ship bug. They seem to see it is a way to increase revenue by charging for duplicate messages. I have met many other InReach users experiencing the same problem. None had any good ideas for a work around. This problem has been consistent for me across two iPhones and several releases of iOS. I doubt it is any of user error, my phone or iOS.