Recently, Garmin’s Connect IQ store, their third-party app store, has faced criticism from its user base due to a surge of “low-effort” apps and watch faces flooding the platform. Users have taken to forums like Reddit and Garmin’s own community boards to express frustration over developers spamming the store with nearly identical apps, cluttering the platform, and making it difficult for high-quality apps to stand out, especially because the platform has a limited search capability.

User Feedback on the Situation

A user on Garmin’s forum summed it up perfectly by saying that: “The Connect IQ store is now a weekly subject of discussion on r/Garmin” where Garmin enthusiasts vent their frustrations over spam and clutter. Many believe that Garmin should step in and introduce better moderation to prevent such developers from dominating the platform.

Some have suggested that Garmin introduce tools for users to “vote down” or flag spam-like apps. This could help highlight genuinely valuable apps while relegating spammy ones to the background. Additionally, there’s been a call for better filters to help users more easily find compatible apps for their devices.

New Payment Feature and Its Impact

Just last month, Garmin introduced the ability for developers to accept payments directly within the Connect IQ store. While this enhances the user experience for purchasing apps, it has also contributed to the problem by incentivizing developers to upload more apps, each with a price tag attached.

Garmin’s Response: A Hosting Solution, Not a Curated Storefront

Garmin representative, username Brandon.ConnectIQ, responded to these concerns, explaining that the Connect IQ store operates more like YouTube in terms of content moderation [versus an Apple Store]. This hands-off approach allows developers to cast a wide net by producing many similar apps, as long as they adhere to the rules.

We treat our store as a hosting solution rather than a curated storefront. YouTube is the best analogy I can think of—there’s a whole lot of trash videos out there, but presumably as long as you don’t violate YouTube’s terms of service, they allow them and rely on their algorithms to serve up content to users. We operate in a similar manner.

However, Garmin is aware of the user dissatisfaction and has hinted at internal discussions around implementing better content filtering and moderation. One of the ideas floated includes client-side filtering, allowing users to sort apps more efficiently.

The Path Forward

While Garmin’s Connect IQ store has potential, it faces challenges in balancing openness with quality control. The introduction of more sophisticated moderation tools, community-driven feedback systems, and better filtering could help clean up the store and enhance the user experience.