Inactivity Reminder: Apple/Samsung/Garmin – Who Did It Right?
Spoiler: Initially I was wrong!
Have you seen these meme pictures like the two below?
I see them relatively often in the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch communities. To be fair – this situation happened to me regularly as well. This always made me smile and was a base for in-family jokes. Until I switched to Garmin.
Both the Apple Watch and the Galaxy Watch consider 10 or so steps as a good enough activity for an hour. Moreover, I am not sure about the Apple Watch, but the Galaxy Watch allows you to configure a time frame when it will remind you to be “active” and when not.
Garmin is different!
First, I have not found any configuration for an activity reminder (it is called “Move Alert”) timeframe – as long as my watch is not in sleep mode, I should better be active.
Second, to clear the inactivity state, it is not enough to go to a restroom (unless you live in a caste and your toilet is several hundred meters away); you must “go for a short walk (at least a couple of minutes) to reset the move alert.” (This explanation is copied from the user manual of my Venu 3). Or, according to another Garmin article, “up to 200 continuous steps”.
Garmin watches extend this idea with a “Move Bar” which becomes longer with every 15 minutes of inactivity on top of an inactive hour. And you can see it on many Garmin and third-party watch faces. So, you can visually see how long you were inactive directly on the watch face.
I like the fun that people (me included!) have from Apple and Galaxy “activity” logic, all jokes and memes based on this.
But seriously speaking, I think that Garmin implementation is way more correct and more beneficial for the users’ health!
Again, as with many other health features – it is not enough to know if the feature is offered by a watch; it is very important to know how the feature is implemented.
After using Garmin for few month I found that I ignore Garmrin inactivity reminders. Completely. There are two reasons for that:
- The bar is too high – Garmin want to me to really go to a walk, this far to much for a busy day.
- Garmin wants me to be that active all the time when I do not sleep – from 6:00 in the morning till 22:00 in the evening – unrealistic and unreasonable push.
