Garmin Connect 5.31 contains settings to share a rider’s location with Waze, Google’s driving app. The big question is who gets to see it.
- The strings in the app are “Share Location with Waze”, “Share your rides with Waze” and “Waze Location Sharing”, along with a consent screen and setup pages.
- Waze already lets drivers share a trip live with chosen contacts through Share your drive. Recipients open a link and follow the journey on the Waze map.
- Waze also shows moving council vehicles to nearby drivers through its moving vehicle feed. Today it supports only snowploughs and bin lorries, and the icons don’t change anyone’s route.
- Waze added a motorcycle mode in July 2026, with routes and hazard warnings for riders. It still doesn’t navigate bike lanes, so this is about riders being seen rather than routed.
- Edge 1060 can already start a ride from a location shared from Apple Maps, so Garmin is opening its bike computers to outside map apps.
Three ways it could work
- Riders shown to nearby drivers. Garmin sends your position to Waze, and nearby drivers see a cyclist icon, as they already see snowploughs. This is the new one, and it would explain why Garmin needs a dedicated Waze link rather than a better LiveTrack.
- LiveTrack inside Waze. Your chosen contacts follow you in Waze rather than through a LiveTrack link, so whoever is collecting you can drive straight to you.
- A simple handoff. Garmin Connect passes your location into Waze, so someone can navigate to it without any wider visibility.
The consent screen fits all three, because Garmin needs your permission to send your position to Google/Waze for any of them.
What it means for riders
LiveTrack and Strava Beacon only reach people you invite, and they have to open your link. Waze is already on the phones of your support driver and the drivers sharing the road, and it is free for them. The best case is a free road-awareness platform for cyclists, where Garmin and Wahoo riders see each other’s groups and drivers see them all.
It would pay off most on narrow lanes with blind bends, where a driver gets a warning before they can see you. Lights can’t do that, and radar warns you, not the driver. Group rides and sportives gain too, because one marker covers each bunch of riders. In town, drivers can usually see you already if they’re looking.
The hard part isn’t sending the position; it’s deciding which drivers get it, and when. Rural signal is patchy, a few seconds of lag puts you round the wrong bend, and only drivers running Waze would see you. Privacy matters too, because the first option would show your position to strangers. The snowplough model, an anonymous icon shown only to drivers nearby, is the one to hope for.
Nevertheless, the discovery of those three new strings in Garmin Connect could signal a navigation and safety feature that must be at least ‘quite interesting’. Let’s hope for more!
Quick answers
Will Waze drivers see me on their map?
Only if Garmin builds the first version and you switch it on. The code includes a consent step before any sharing starts.
Will it work without my phone?
Probably not, unless you have an LTE Garmin. LiveTrack sends your position through your phone’s data connection or a watch’s own LTE, and this would most likely work the same way.
Does Waze have a bike mode?
No. Waze is built for cars and, since July 2026, motorbikes, and it doesn’t navigate bike lanes. A Garmin link would put riders on drivers’ maps rather than route them.
Related: Garmin hub, Edge 1050 and 1040 gain Edge 1060 features and why Garmin Connect+ subscriptions are growing.
Source and original research by: the5krunner and Gadgets & Wearables.
Last Updated on 4 November 2026 by tfk the5krunner
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tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. See the gear tfk uses. ID
