Garmin's new feature ruins one of the best reasons to own its smartwatches

One of Garmin’s biggest selling points is battery life, with many of its watches lasting well over a week between charges. That’s part of what made the company’s recent feature drop so appealing. It introduced all-day fall detection, new running tools, and hands-free voice commands using the “OK Garmin” hotword. Unfortunately, that last addition is now giving some owners an unpleasant surprise, with battery life estimates dropping dramatically after enabling it.

Over the course of the past month, complaints have been piling up on Garmin’s support forums, particularly among Fenix 8 and Forerunner 970 owners (via Gadgets & Wearables). Some users report losing 35% to 50% of their previously estimated battery runtime, with some Forerunner 970 owners reporting drops from 15 days to nine. Disabling “OK Garmin” immediately restored the original estimate.

The situation appears equally frustrating for Fenix 8 owners. Several users in a separate forum thread report their estimates dropping by half, with some recovering the lost days after switching off voice activation. Others also had to disable the separate Phone Assistant wake-word setting.

Interestingly, Garmin acknowledges in its documentation that enabling these settings reduces battery life, although it doesn’t specify by how much. The additional power consumption makes sense since the watch must continuously listen for its wake phrase. However, losing several days of estimated runtime is a substantial compromise for a feature some owners might rarely use.

How to restore your Garmin’s battery life

If your watch has been draining faster since the update, head to Settings > System > Voice and disable “OK Garmin.” You can also turn off the Phone Assistant wake word if necessary.

Fortunately, this doesn’t disable voice commands altogether. You can still activate them manually using the watch’s controls.

Remember that these figures are primarily battery estimates, not independently verified real-world runtimes. Some post-update battery complaints may also be due to unrelated causes. Still, sacrificing potentially half your battery life to avoid pressing a button seems like a tough sell.