Garmin just opened watch microphones to third-party apps

Garmin has just made Connect IQ apps a fair bit more useful. With the new Connect IQ 9.3 update, third-party apps can finally tap into the microphone and speaker on supported watches, instead of leaving all that hardware mainly to Garmin’s own features.

This opens up quite a few possibilities

Until now, having a microphone and speaker on a Garmin hasn’t meant that third-party developers could simply build whatever voice feature they wanted. Garmin itself has been making much more use of the hardware lately, including the recent rollout of hands-free “OK Garmin” voice controls across models such as the Fenix 8, Forerunner 970 and Venu 4.

Connect IQ apps now have another option. Garmin’s new Audio Capture API can feed recorded audio directly to an app, while the Output API lets apps play audio and control things such as playback position and volume. Garmin even includes support for noise reduction and echo cancellation during recording.

So what could developers actually do with it? Voice notes are an obvious one. You could also imagine spoken workout coaching, custom audio alerts, apps that accept voice input, or utilities that record a short message without requiring you to get your phone out.

Things get more interesting once online services enter the picture. In theory, an app could capture speech and hand it off to another service for transcription, interpretation or AI processing, opening the door to much more capable voice-based tools.

This also comes at an interesting time for Connect IQ itself. We recently covered the huge increase in Connect IQ app submissions, which has left Garmin dealing with unusually long approval queues. Giving developers access to more of the hardware could encourage apps that go beyond the usual watch faces and data fields.

There are some important limits

This doesn’t suddenly turn every Garmin into a tiny voice recorder running continuously in the background. Garmin’s documentation specifically shows an error if an app attempts to capture audio after it has been moved into the background, so recording needs to happen while the app is active.

Apps also need permission to use the microphone and speaker. So microphone access is not automatic, and users should be able to see when an app is asking for it.

Garmin lists a broad range of devices as supporting the new Audio module. This includes the Fenix 8 and Fenix 9 families, Forerunner 570 and 970, Venu 4, Venu X1, Approach S72 and several others.

There could be a downside if developers go overboard with always-listening ideas, although Garmin’s background restriction should keep that somewhat under control. We’ve already seen that Garmin’s own “OK Garmin” feature can have a noticeable impact on battery life, so developers will need to think carefully about how often their apps activate audio hardware.

For users, nothing changes immediately. The interesting part starts when developers get their hands on Connect IQ 9.3 and begin building around it, because Garmin watches have just become capable of a much wider range of third-party voice and audio apps than before.