Garmin has started rolling out ECG app availability to users in both the United Kingdom and Switzerland, joining the US, European Union, Canada, Australia, and numerous other countries. The UK had really been the last remaining ‘big’ western market hole in Garmin’s ECG strategy.
Thankfully, this time they made it available for all Garmin watches that contain the right Garmin Elevate Gen5 optical HR sensor. Whereas, back in January, they fumbled the rollout to the EU by only initially enabling it for Fenix 8 users, despite all other countries having it on the Fenix 7 Pro. Regardless of whether or not later enablement was previously planned, it was a communications own-goal that only angered users. Thankfully, Garmin relented (planned or otherwise) and enabled it for all EU users with compatible hardware.
As a quick reminder about ECG, the watch requires basically two things:
A) The correct Garmin ELEVATE Gen5 optical HR sensor
B) Being in a country with the Garmin ECG app enabled (on your watch)
Currently supported watches are:
– Garmin D2 Mach Pro
– Garmin Enduro 3
– Garmin Epix Pro
– Garmin Fenix 7 Pro
– Garmin Fenix 8
– Garmin Quatix 7 Pro
– Garmin Tactix 7 AMOLED
– Garmin Tactix 8
– Garmin Venu 3
– Garmin Venu 2 Plus (limited countries only, old sensor)
Again, remember these are basically the watches that have the Garmin Elevate Gen5 optical HR sensor in them.
Countries certify Garmin’s ECG implementation based on the software side of the equation (in concert with the hardware piece). It’s known as ‘Software as a Medical Device’ (SaaMD), and allows entities like the FDA to basically certify a portion of the device (in this case, doing an ECG), rather than certifying the entire device (such as general heart rate monitoring, or sleep tracking). From a technical standpoint, it’s actually much easier to get an accurate ECG trace than it is to be super-accurate on optical HR tracking in the middle of a messy hill interval session.
In any case, here’s my previous guide on getting started, which only takes a few minutes to walk through the little wizard indicating you know how to perform an ECG, and that most critically, this will not detect heart attacks.
(Note: If you’re on one of the betas, you can’t enable ECG. This is a long-standing safety practice of Garmin, which more recently also applies to dive features too.)
Once the app on the watch performs the ECG, it’ll detect if there are signs of Afib or not. At this point Garmin does not passively detect Afib, which I’d assume will be the next thing that Garmin will aim to get certification on. For most of these tech companies (e.g., Apple, Google, Fitbit, etc…), it’s the act/process of doing their first certification that takes the longest. Once they’ve gotten familiar with the process (which in the case of ECG approval is years, including large-scale studies), then they can usually move much faster with subsequent SaaMD features. More on that approval process here.
With that, thanks for reading (and again, here’s that guide)!
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They also get the brand new Fenix 8 Pro… I’m kind of envious…. ,-)
Haha…yeah, I was just on a roll with all those other Pro models, why not add one more?
(That said, as I’ve argued before, I think Garmin naming the next Fenix as ‘Fenix 8 Pro’ would only perpetuate a silly Garmin-ism that absolutely hurts sales, probably significantly. Nobody outside of watch geeks understands the tick-tock naming nature of Garmin’s Pro, then not Pro, then Pro, then not Pro, maybe Plus…naming scheme. Thus, they’d wait for a Fenix 9 instead of understanding that a supposed Fenix 8 Pro would actually be the next upgrade/model. Sigh…here’s to hoping Garmin finally ditches that scheme this time around.)
‘Tactix 8 PRO’ too? You’re on a roll with the Pro variants in this one Ray 😆
Venu 3 Pro here we come baby!
I‘m in between regarding Pro-Models or not… on the one hand, it’s nice to have a small upgrade of the existing Hardware with less of a price increase as with a new model. On the other hand, well, what you wrote. Also, it’s somehow frustrating to buy a new model and next year already comes a Pro Version…
I heard rumors of Venu 3 Pro Tactical Solar Plus
…with MicroLED.
Thanks for the heads up! Might have missed it in my haste to set it up but doesn’t work if you’re in the beta program.
Just a heads up: If you take a single reading, you will be forced to use two-factor authentication on your Garmin account forever.
Wow, that sucks. Thanks for the heads up.
Can I subscribe to the newsletter please
Love all the in-depth content
Any word on a new Venu variant?
Great news at last.
Do you think this will go to the FR965? Not sure if it has the right Sensor.
It won’t. FR965 uses the Elevate V4 sensor. ECG needs the V5.
thanks Alex
No, it does not require the V5 sensor. Venu 2 Plus has the V4 sensor and ECG – although it is the only V4 watch with ECG so far (because some elements are required that are in all V5 watches but not in the other V4 ones).
The Venu 2 Plus has the extra wire leed, which enables it. Meaning, specific extra hardware.
But even in that case, it’s not part of the UK rollout, because my understanding is the UK certification side was with the new sensor package+app here.
Yes, I have a Venu 2 Plus as well as the Epix Pro. The ECG facility was prompted by Connect for the Epix, but not for the Venu. It doesn’t work on the Epix Pro anyway, so there’s that.
sounds like a scam to me, i can’t find anywhere where they actually certify the device
i suspect the whole thing has come about because of pressure from manufacturers to sell devices
Hi DC Rainmaker long time follower first caller. Should we be concerned about recent news about RFK Jr wanting to collected data from our fitness trackers? link to cbsnews.com
In reading that article, I don’t see anything at this point (yet, obviously a massive yet), that concerns me in terms of forcing companies to hand over data. Of course, there’s been plenty of chatter about that in recent years in relation to women’s health data…so…given things of late, the world’s their oyster. Sigh.
But in terms of this particular item, I don’t see anything in that which is specifically calling for forcing companies hands.
It doesn’t work on my Epix Pro. I get the app prompting me to set it up, follow the instructions, get to the point where the watch tells me to grip the metal face ring with my thimb and forefinger and… nothing. Eventually the setup times out and tells me it’s failed. Thanks, Garmin. I was looking forward to this functionality. Back to the Kardia, then.
Again not in India!! Anyways, i activated the ECG on my epix pro Gen 2 through Swift GPS Spoofing on Iphone and active Garmin account with that spoofed location in the US. Working completely fine. My honest opinion about ECG on smartwatches? Its useless! Specially for fit people under 30 or 40 or may be more older group. I feel like Its Just a marketing gimmick.
Any word from Garmin on plans on role out of ECG for brazil ?
No, Garmin typically won’t say anything about pending medical certification status in any way/shape/form.