I love the Apple Watch’s new offline mapping tools, but these won’t replace my Garmin
watchOS 11, the next free software update for Apple Watch users, won’t officially be released until September. However, there are plenty of new features to talk about in more detail, such as the new offline maps and route creation features.
Finally, you can now create custom circular routes for city walks, hikes, runs and other activities using your iPhone, Mac or iPad and sync them to your Apple Watch for use. Even if your watch is offline or away from your phone, the card is still heavily used, which is huge for watchOS 11.
Previously, maps had to be run through your best iPhone even when that phone was offline, unless you had an LTE or Internet Watch as part of your cell phone plan. However, you can now create a return route and it will be synced to your watch for your own use, even when you’re offline.
One of the few things that sets the Apple Watch Ultra 2 apart from the rest of the best running watch crowd is its lack of GPS features, especially offline maps and turn-by-turn directions. When I used my Garmin Epix Pro for long-distance training, I created a course in Garmin Connect – a circular route that met the distance goal I needed to meet that week – synced it to my watch as a GPX file, and then went outside to to start my training.
Garmin Connect makes all this very easy and even has a machine learning powered route creation tool to create circular routes of a certain distance. Just choose where you want to take the loop (North, South, East or West) and Garmin will do all the legwork for you.
Once the route was all synced to my watch, I followed the arrow on my watch, which beeped at me every time I needed to hang right or left, and I could swipe up to see my speed and training data by pressing the button to push. a button.
Once the route was all synced to my watch, I followed the arrow on my watch, which beeped at me every time I needed to hang right or left, and I could swipe up to see my speed and training data by pressing the button to push. a button.
Unfortunately, Apple’s circular routes don’t tie directly into your Workout app, which makes the feature fall completely flat for me. I don’t think I’m an edge case if I want to start a workout in the Workout app, like running or walking, and see where I’m going with a single swipe or press of a button. These two workouts, especially walking, should have built-in mapping functionality.
Of course you can view an overview of your route once you get there rounded, but to see where you go during the day, you’ll need to quit the Workout app and open the Maps app, switching between the two whenever you need stats or directions. As someone who regularly walks, runs, and uses features like Back to Start on the best Garmin watches, it seems crazy to me to have a clear separation between Maps and Workout. Why would you want to follow step-by-step walking directions when you’re not walking?
While the features released on watchOS 11 are currently in beta, it’s unlikely they’ll change in any meaningful way as we get closer to release. We only test for bugs and glitches. That’s why we’re hoping Apple makes a change to more closely link Maps and Workouts on the Apple Watch 10 and later next year in watchOS 12. Otherwise, it’s going to be hard for me to justify replacing my Garmin Epix Pro with an Apple Watch. length of time outside of testing.