Freediver on Garmin: the complete watch app guide

Contents

• Home screen and workouts
  • Get the app
  • The buttons
  • The home screen
  • Recording a free session
  • Guided workouts
  • Pressed the wrong button? Go back
  • Save or discard
• Link your Freediver account
• Settings
• Send a session to the Freediver app
• Coming soon

Home screen and workouts

Get the app

Install Freediver from the Connect IQ Store — in the Connect IQ app on your phone or in Garmin Express on a computer. After the next sync it shows up in the watch's app list: press START on the watch face, scroll to Freediver and press START again.

The buttons

Wet touchscreens can't be trusted, so the app ignores touch entirely and works from the physical buttons. In the pictures below, the button to press is ringed in orange.

• START (top right) — choose, start, and open the stop menu during a session.
• BACK · LAP (bottom right) — go back in menus. During a session it never leaves the app: it works like DOWN.
• UP (middle left) — browse up. During a session it is undo. Hold it for the settings on the home screen.
• DOWN (bottom left) — browse down. During a guided workout it is next.

The home screen

The app opens on a card with the workout it suggests for now. The chip at the top says when it is planned, below it the workout name and the discipline, and at the bottom your pool length and dive start/end depths. The dots on the right show where you are in the list.

• UP / DOWN browse the cards: your planned workouts in date order, then Free swim last.
• START starts the card on screen.
• Hold UP opens the settings.
• BACK closes the app.

A workout you already recorded today shows done. With nothing planned for the next week the card reads No plans · 7 days, and without a linked account Free swim is the only card. After a session the bottom line shows what happened to it: Saved · 3 dives, Discarded or NOT SAVED.

Recording a free session

Choose Free swim and press START. From now on you don't touch the watch: push off and it starts the dive, come up and it starts the surface time.

• One long buzz — dive started.
• Two short buzzes — dive ended.

In STA there is no depth to go by, so you mark the hold yourself: DOWN starts it, DOWN again ends it.

If you see No Dive Dynamics at the bottom, the motion sensors couldn't start. Dives and times are still recorded.

Guided workouts

Start a planned workout from its card and the watch leads you through it: what's next, how long you have left to rest, which rep you are on. Dives are still detected on their own — you only press a button to move on.

Before the first static hold

When the plan opens with a static hold the watch first asks how long you want to prepare (0:00–20:00, default 2:00). UP/DOWN change it, START accepts, BACK returns home.

Resting

Between reps the big number counts down to your next start. The bottom line tells you what comes next. Ten seconds before zero you feel a short tap, at zero a long buzz.

Still recovering when it hits zero? The caption changes to GO and the time counts up in orange, so you see how much you overran.

Starting a rep

Just push off — the watch starts the dive by itself. Or press DOWN (or LAP) for NEXT: the rep starts right away and your push-off doesn't start a second one. When the watch waits for you it shows PUSH OFF.

Static holds

A timed hold counts down under HOLD. A hold to contractions counts up under CONTRACTIONS until you press DOWN.

Workout done

After the last rep the watch shows the workout name, total time and number of dives. Choose Save, Discard or Resume to keep swimming. On the Descent G1 there is no room for Resume — press BACK instead.

Pressed the wrong button? Go back

• Wrong NEXT in a guided workout — press UP. You are back in the rest you left, with its countdown where it was.
• False start — the watch started a dive while you were breathing up with the wrist under water? Press UP. The dive disappears, your surface time keeps running, and your real push-off starts a fresh dive.
• Feel it — two short taps mean something was undone. One tap means there was nothing left to undo.
• Pressed START by accident — the stop menu opens on Resume, and BACK resumes too. The recording never stopped.
• Chose Discard by mistake — the watch asks Discard session? and suggests Cancel.
• Workout done too early — choose Resume (on the G1: BACK) and keep going.

A timed static hold that already ran to its end can't be undone. BACK never closes the app mid-session.

Save or discard

When you finish, press START and choose Save. One long buzz confirms the save; three short ones mean it failed. You land on the home screen with the result on the bottom line. The session goes to Garmin Connect with your next sync, as an activity called Freediver.

Link your Freediver account

Linking brings the workouts you plan in the Freediver app onto your watch. Without it the app still records free sessions — you just won't see your plans. Keep your phone near the watch with Garmin Connect running.

To unlink, open Account again and choose Disconnect, or remove the watch on the web in Settings → Apps & devices. A link lasts one year.

Settings

Hold UP on the home screen. UP/DOWN move, START chooses, BACK goes back.

• Sync now — fetches your latest plans. Under it you see when it last worked (Synced 8:12) or Sync failed. The app also syncs every time it starts with the phone nearby. Shown only when you are linked.
• Free swim — discipline for sessions without a plan: DYN, DYNB, DNF or STA.
• Watch — which wrist and which way the face points while you swim: left or right, face up or face down.
• Pool — 25 m, 50 m, 25 yd or Custom (10–100 m in 0.5 m steps).
• Dive start — how deep the watch has to go before a dive counts (0.3–1.0 m, default 0.5 m).
• Dive end — how shallow it has to come back to end the dive (0.2–0.5 m, default 0.3 m). Always shallower than Dive start.
• Dive Dynamics — records the watch's motion sensors during the session. Leave it on — see Coming soon.
• Account — link or unlink your Freediver account.

Tip: if the watch starts dives while you breathe up with the arm in the water, raise Dive start. If short dives are missed, lower it.

The same settings are on your phone: Garmin Connect → your watch → Connect IQ apps → Freediver → Settings. A change made there during a session applies from the next START.

Send a session to the Freediver app

For now a saved session reaches the Freediver app as a file you upload. It takes a minute on a computer.

What gets imported today: your dive times. The Freediver app matches them against the workout you planned, so you see what you did next to what you meant to do.

Coming soon