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Garmin wearables now offer Strava's Beacon tracking feature

By Lulu Chang November 11, 2016

Beacon

Your fitness tracker already keeps tabs on the health benefits of your long run or your remote hike, but now, it can also keep tabs on your safety. Now that Garmin has brought Strava’s safety features into its collection of wearables, the benefits of wearing a fitness tracker are twofold — not only are you able to see how many calories you’ve burned, but your friends and family will also be able to “see” you. Or at least, know where you are in case of an emergency.

Over the summer, Strava unveiled a new safety feature, known as Beacon, which allows users to choose up to three contacts to receive a text message whenever they begin activity. A unique URL found in the text allows emergency contacts to track users in a map in real time, so even if a runner is alone miles away, he or she can rest assured that someone is watching.

And now, Beacon has made its way to Garmin fitness trackers, notably the Edge 520, Edge 820, Edge 1000, Edge Explore 820, Forerunner 230, Forerunner 235, Forerunner 630, Forerunner 735XT, and Fenix 3.

In order to function, Beacon syncs directly with Garmin’s LiveTrack feature, and allows any three emergency contacts to monitor the Garmin wearer’s progress. Contacts can also see how much battery is remaining on the wearer’s device. And even if you don’t have a Strava account of your own, you can still take advantage of Beacon’s functionality (at least, from the emergency contact side).

Strava is known for its tracking abilities, and already sells anonymized tracking data to planning groups and government agencies responsible for improving biking, walking, and running tracks across the United States. Of course, if that sounds a bit creepy to you, Strava allows you to opt out of that particular kind of tracking.

So the next time you go on a run with your Garmin device, let someone know where you’re going by way of Beacon.

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Health & Fitness

Strava extends its popular Beacon safety feature to the Apple Watch

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Unexpected injuries, chance encounters with wildlife, or even getting lost can turn a short workout into a daylong ordeal. Strava users with an Apple Watch are now a little bit safer when exercising outside thanks to Strava and its newly expanded Beacon safety feature. Available now, Strava has rolled out Beacon to the Apple Watch, allowing owners to use the feature on their wearable instead of their iPhone.

Strava introduced Beacon, its first safety feature, a few years back after a survey revealed users were interested in a tracking feature. Beacon tracking allows friends and family to monitor an athlete location without having to log into Strava or install the Strava app. If someone is late returning home, a loved one can check Beacon to see if the athlete is still on track or needs assistance. Likewise, the person out exercising can run, bike or hike knowing that a friend or family member is watching them from afar and monitoring their progress.

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There have been failures like the Google Glass and Snap Spectacles, and hopeful attempts like Oppo's Air Glass and Apple's secretive project, but the Razer Anzu smart glasses take a different spin on the wearable device by designing them for indoors. While they come with polarized sunglass lenses, their clear lenses are more useful with their blue light filter, which protects your eyes from screen glare to prevent discomfort even after hours of playing video games or working from home. The smart glasses, which also have a built-in omnidirectional microphone and speakers, may also be more comfortable to wear for an extended period of time compared to headsets and headphones. You'll enjoy smooth, stutter-free sound with the Razer Anzu's low latency audio with a 60ms Bluetooth connection.

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These screen protectors will all fit the 40mm or 44mm models of the Galaxy Watch 4. If you've got a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, these won't fit.
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