Garmin Pin-Drop Navigation – How this useful feature works

Pin Drop navigation is an impromptu navigation to a GPS point.

This is subtly different from existing navigation features as the location ‘pin’ comes from Apple Maps thus opening up richer navigation possibilities courtesy of all the extra convenience and information gained from Apple Maps.

via: @Bene, ty

I thought Garmin had done this for a while but as it’s being added to beta firmware for the FR965 I guess it’s fairly new. @Bene pointed this out to me earlier in the week and I tried it out on the Edge 540 from Apple Maps.

Some More (Quick) Background.

Pins are effectively Points of Interest (POIs) which themselves are GPS points linked to ‘rich data’ describing the GPS point. You would usually encounter them as you plan your route or you might see one close to your route as you are riding along eg a coffee shop. Alternatively, you might have an emergency and need to find one a considerable distance from your route eg a bike shop or an impromptu piece of cake (and coffee).

Pins are a useful method for identifying and sharing an impromptu POI.

If you own a Garmin you might previously have panned and scrolled around its map screen, dropped a pin on the map, searched the POI list, and then navigated to it. Fine. That works. However despite its generally excellent maps, your Edge map might not have the place (POI) you’re looking for and, even if it has, finding it by using a Garmin isn’t always the easiest thing in the world because of the small screen size and, God forbid, a button-only Edge model.

Be honest. How often have you tried to find somewhere on a group ride and been too embarrassed to use your Garmin? You know it will take longer to find somewhere than your mate who is using their iPhone.

Now you have the best of both worlds. You can use Apple Maps to indirectly send a Pin to your Garmin via the Connect app.

An overview of how this works

Find a location on Apple Maps. Google Maps seems not to work in the sense that Connect does not appear as an option to share a PIN.

As the following images show, you press, hold and share the Pin location to the Garmin Connect app. Assuming that Connect is open and your Edge is linked to it, you can easily send the Pin to any compatible Garmin device. In my quick tests, the Edge 540 behaved slightly differently when receiving the Pin depending on whether a workout was active or if a navigation was active. Either way, I got stuck at the point shown in the last image. The only way I could initiate the navigation was from the ‘Navigation>Recent Finds’ menu option, several taps/clicks away. A blue area appeared on the screen which I suspect would let me start the navigation to the PIN however the button-only version wasn’t able to select it, maybe you have better luck with an 840?

Some differences on the Forerunner 965 (beta, 25 May 2024)

Having had problems with the 530 I updated to the FR965 beta and that works as I would expect either prompting you to open and start a navigation if no sport is active otherwise prompting you to navigate to the Pin from within the active sport. I didn’t test how it behaves if the active profile has no GPS or if the active profile has no default map screen, both of which could cause problems.

Similarities to the competition

This feature is nicely implemented on Karoo 3 and  Wahoo ELEMNT is similar to that.

The big difference between Garmin, Hammerhead and Wahoo is that the interaction with the bike computer is worse for me on the Garmin Edge

Garmin always seems to design things from the point of view of technical ease rather than the user’s look, feel and overall experience. They also don’t seem to test these features out properly on devices (540) before releasing them to the public to beta-test.

Take Out

This is a nice feature but not implemented as well as it could be on my Edge 540.

I find it interesting that the 3 main players have taken a similar approach and that each one accepts the reality that impromptu POI discovery is best done on a smartphone. It’s great that the companies accept this reality rather than trying to change it.