Garmin Smartphone Link App Reviews

Havent had much luck with this app really hard to input addresses or locations interface an UI is really bad

This is an ok app It does what Ive wanted for a long time to send location to the Nubia. Unfortunately it wont connect with at all

This app used to work pretty well. Some minor mishaps, but overall, very functional. Before the update, I had purchased LiveTraffic (which is now free with the latest app release) and it was working ok. Now my Garmin will only use the FM traffic and not the LiveTraffic, even though all other live services are connected. Im going to assume its a bug with this new app because LiveTraffic was functioning fine before. Hope Garmin resolves this soon.

This app needs alot of improvements. Especially when finding a location. Will not take addresses. It needs a better map on it. There is more. Just no time to keep going.

Connects well, Im only using weather add-on. One thing which would be a nice improvement (are you listening Garmin?) would be the ability to TURN OFF small craft warnings. Unless you are using the BMW Nav V on a boat, there is no need to get constant "small craft advisory" warnings when Im 50 miles from the ocean! So slow to update data to the GPS and unreliable coverages.

The Garmin smartphone app struggled with the Live features after my update to iOS 10.2 with erratic functionality. Live traffic being the most important feature. I have the nuvi 3597, purchased to use the BT live features, especially HD Traffic. The Jan 4 app update claims the 3597 is supported. The message I get when attempting to connect via BT on my iPhone 7+ is that the nuvi 3597 device is NOT supported by iOS. Garmin needs to fix its app. Right now, iOS 10.2 says the nuvi 3597 is incompatible with a Bluetooth connection.

I have been unable to get a clean solid connection between 6+ and nuvi2589 When you select data only and do not want the 2589 answering the phone it disconnects or becomes too unstable to maintain connection. I wrote this up to support but no solution offered. But if you BT connect without the app the connection is solid. Hey Garmin I dont want my GPS to answer the phone.

Latest update made the app pretty worthless! Please fix ASAP! App was useful with a few glitches such as searching some businesses and places would not show.

Got this to communicate between the Garmin and my iPhone. It was able to connect somewhat easily to the phone over several tries, and once I saved an address/name on the phone app, I could send it to my "saved" list on the Garmin. Im impressed.

After latest upgrade of this app Live traffic no longer works.

Be able to open addresses from text messages in smartlink the way you can with maps. Its a minor pain to copy from a message then go to s-l ap and paste in order to send to nav unit. This ap serves it purpose for what it is intended for. To simply send locations from your phone to your nav device via b-t. Very handy IMO

iPhone 6S no longer connects to the nuvi2597LMT.

This was a total waste of time and money.

The one star rating is because there appears to be no way to edit or delete individual saved places in the app, apart from a delete all option. Seriously? Does Garmin expect that information will never change? Dont bother with the FAQ option, as it takes you to Garmins web site where all searches for deleting or editing saved places fail. Frustrating!

The bluetooth connection is not reliable with my iPhone 7. Photo live cameras havent been updated. Slow transfer of information from the phone to my Driveluxe.

Now my smart iPhone is turn onto the screen all the time on my GPS. With the New update, didnt have this with the old Smartlink now I have to disconnect my Bluetooth so my GPS will talk, the old Smartlink worked a lot better before the upgrade, its garbage, Garmin is going downhill I have 4 Garmins but I dont think Im getting any more Garmin you need to check your updates before you send them out to make sure that they work right again its garbage

Doesnt stay connected have to disconnect Bluetooth and repair with unit, when it works it works good but only works 10% of the time

Last week, called Garmin customer service and complained that traffic was not connecting with my nuvi 2699lmthd. Today updated the gps with the latest map and updated the iOS app. Looks like the gps app menu was updated and everything is working. It was up for 15 minutes and no Bluetooth disconnects.

1/19/17: Finally, live traffic issues now fixed. Need to manually launch and/or force close and re-open app if it doesnt connect automatically or you walk away from car and return while gps is on. Also sometimes helps to launch the app and click on live traffic to pull in the data. Seems to be quicker than letting it do it on its own in the background. Not perfect but now much better with bug fixes. Thanks Garmin! 1/16/17: Updated to latest version and its still garbage. Minor update but love traffic still not working on Drive Smart series. Waits for traffic data and only works sporadically. Quality control is taking a nose dive! Atrocious Garmin 1/7/17: THEY BROKE LIVE TRAFFIC WOTH LATEST UPDATE. They made live traffic a free service now but its worse than ever. Doesnt pull on traffic or display traffic on DriveSmart series hardly at all now. No wonder its free. Should have left it. Its even worse than it was. Dont they test these updates properly? What a mess Garmin. UPDATE 7/29/16: Working better with the DriveSmart series. Occasionally you have to disable Bluetooth in the gps and then re-enable if you have issues. UPDATE 1/22/16: This app is good when it works but usually after several times of use, it fails to automatically reconnect to the GPS and you have to turn Bluetooth services off on your nüvi and then turn them back on which is extremely frustrating. Occasionally, you even have to repair it with the phone and this is happened on multiple iPhones Ive used. Also, the map quality on the app itself is atrocious. It only shows major routes and you have to zoom way into even see anything. They need to update the resolution map quality to be more in line with Google maps or Apple Maps. UPDATE 9/16/15: A mess after iOS 9! Garmin has not updated the app and now its horrible. Blank white tabs that are unreadable. Also crashing on voice entry when searching. Please fix asap!! Garmin says a fix is in works but may be too little too late. Needs work but traffic is the most valuable feature and provides better coverage than the FM traffic receiver on the unit

Give Garmin credit. They fixed the bug and now LiveTraffic is working flawlessly with my nuvi 3597. Update on 12/8 Very disappointing. New version definitely has a bug that means Live Traffic from app shows up on phone but it no longer works with nuvi 3597. Please fix this asap. Update on 10/23 Paired this with my 3597 for a 2500 mile road trip and it worked very well. Traffic service is key feature for me. Much better than HD traffic. As someone else noted the big weakness is searching for locations. Used it on an extensive drive. It connected fine and remained connected the entire 2 hour trip. Traffic worked very well. Update: No connection problems between my iPhone 6 and my nuvi 2598. Did an extended drive and it maintained connection. Traffic is much better than the HD traffic included with my nuvi. Update: this new version works flawlessly with iOS 9.2 on my iPhone 6. I like the new graphics and the traffic works very well. Update: Fixed for iOS 9 This works fine on my iPhone 6 paired with my nuvi 2598. All the graphics are restored and the program functions fine. Update: Im still happy with how this app functions. The traffic is significantly better than the HD traffic provided by the unit. This alone makes the app worth using. In addition I like having access to all my iOS contacts. This program comes in handy sometimes when traffic info on nuvi is spotty. Although not as complete as google it does show traffic on non highway roads.