Garmin watches are not known for their bells and whistles. In most of its GPS watches, practical sports and health features are the focus.
However, the company reoriented its strategy and brought out a new line of watches in the Vivoactive and Venu lineup. Packed with sharp, vivid screens and revamped UI the watches in these lineups tried to bridge the gap with other leading brands like Apple and Samsung. Music storage and streaming were added as well as other smartwatch features like contactless payments. One feature that was notably missing was the ability to take calls from the watch.
The question Can you take calls or send messages on a Garmin Watch has been asked by many diehard fans since the arrival of these new watches. The answer was a resounding no until the recent CES 2022 releases by the company.
Read on to find the smartwatch capabilities of a Garmin Watch.
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Can you answer phone calls and messages on a Garmin? (Vivoactive, Venu, Fenix)
Best Answer: No Garmin watch can take calls or send texts except for Garmin Venu 2 Plus. The watch comes with a built-in speaker and microphone, and there is a dedicated button to end incoming calls. The watch is also the first to feature voice assistant compatibility.
Other watches like Garmin Vivoactive 4/4S offered quick replies to texts, a feature only limited to Android users, but no other Garmin came close enough. Most Premium Garmin watches display the name or the phone number of the caller.
Here is a table that would help you to figure out outsmarts of popular Garmin Watches.
| Garmin Watch | Make Calls | Send Texts | Garmin Pay (Contactless Payment) | Music Storage | Offline Spotify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garmin Vivoactive 4/4S | No | Text Response/Reject Phone Call With Text (Android Only) | Yes | Up to 500 songs | Yes |
| Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music | No | Text Response/Reject Phone Call With Text (Android Only) | Yes | up to 500 songs | Yes |
| Garmin Venu, 2/2S | No | Text Response/Reject Phone Call With Text (Android Only) | Yes | up to 650 songs | Yes |
| Garmin Venu 2 Plus | Yes | Yes | Yes | up to 650 songs | Yes |
| Garmin Venu SQ | No | No | No | No | No |
| Garmin Fenix 7 | No | TEXT RESPONSE/REJECT PHONE CALL WITH TEXT (ANDROID ONLY) | Yes | up to 2,000 songs | Yes |
| Garmin Forerunner 245 Music | No | TEXT RESPONSE/REJECT PHONE CALL WITH TEXT (ANDROID ONLY) | No | up to 500 songs | Yes |
How can you answer phone calls and messages from the Garmin Venu 2 Plus?
As the Garmin Venu 2 Plus doesn’t come with LTE connectivity so it cannot make calls or send texts unless the following prerequisites are met.
- Your smartphone should also have the latest version of the Garmin Connect app installed on it.
- The Garmin Venu 2 watch needs to be paired with your smartphone via Bluetooth.
- Your connected Smartphone should be in close range.
Assuming that you have all of the above, you can now take/make calls from your smartwatch.
The incoming calls and messages can be previewed on the Venu 2 Plus watch, and if you are using an android phone, you can reject the call with quick replies a feature that can also be found in Vivoactive 4 and 3 Music. Keep in mind that you cannot text on Garmin Vivoactive 4 or other Garmin watches, but rather send the caller a message from scores of customized replies that you can tailor on the Garmin Connect app.
Related Post: 8 Best Standalone Watches that can make calls without Phone
Do Garmin Watches have LTE?
A few like Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE and Vivoactive 3 Music LTE come with cellular connectivity. However, it is nowhere near Apple or Samsung watch in functionality.
For all practical purposes, this feature is limited to safety. Garmin 4G LTE watches allow users to send their real-time location through the LiveTrack feature, whereas another one dubbed incident detection sends a message to the pre-set contacts in case of an accident.
Conclusion:
The texting and calling feature is new to Garmin watches, and it is slowly catching up. The feature is limited to only a single watch until now: Garmin Venu 2 Plus, but it will soon be a part of other premium models as well.
The texting and calling feature is still not on par with connectivity kings like Apple and Samsung, and won’t be in coming years. It all depends on how much importance Garmin gives to lifestyle features in the near future.
In the meantime, if you need to take calls or send texts from your Garmin watch, Venu 2 Plus is the only option that you have.