GoWild, an outdoors activity tracking and social media platform, announces the launch of its new Garmin Connect IQ™ app. Through this integration, GoWild’s community members will have the ability to track and share robust digital stories, ranging from automated archery shot counts, miles hiked on hunts, scouting points of interest, and biometric data collected during any of these activities by using Connect IQ-enabled Garmin devices. Archers can track progress with ease, and hunters can relive the exact moment when their heart rate spiked in the presence of the bull or buck of their dreams.
The GoWild Connect IQ app combines the two companies’ proprietary technology to capture over 25 points of data. Similar to the score keeping feature on the Garmin Xero™ A1i and A1 bow sights, a new archery shot detection algorithm widget allows Garmin Connect IQ-enabled smartwatches to automatically recognize when a shot is taken, without input from the shooter. The GoWild Connect IQ app tracks and imports individual group performance, total groups, photographs of each group, emotive ratings of the session and heart rate. Upon completion of the activity, shooters can upload summary photos from their sessions to their phone and then share with the GoWild community.
“The GoWild Connect IQ app allows a shooter to capture rich quantitative and qualitative data,” said GoWild Co-Founder and CEO, Brad Luttrell. “More importantly, it allows people to engage with and learn from an active community of archers. You can compare yourself to shooters who identify as your same skill level. And if users are tracking their progress through all of 2019, we’ll have some amazing analytics to share, such as total arrows shot, average yardage, average heart rate and how that compares to others.”
In addition to GoWild Connect IQ app, activity logs from a wide range of Garmin devices can be shared on GoWild’s platform (available for iPhone and Android). Community members can relive hunts, seeing peak moments in their outdoor recreation. The GoWild integration anchors your phone or DSLR’s photos to your map, allowing you to see exactly where you were when a photo was taken (maps are anonymized and do not share actual locations, only distance traveled). It allows you to feel your heartbeat through the phone and relive those exhilarating moments from the field.
“The GoWild Connect IQ app represents a new step forward in connecting the outdoor community. We are proud to work with GoWild to give outdoor enthusiasts the ability to enhance their outdoor experience,” said Nick Kral, senior product manager at Garmin. “The app provides users the ability to showcase their outdoor passion to other outdoor enthusiasts in unique ways, whether it be from the hours spent practicing archery to scouting in preparation for a hunt. In addition, this system offers individuals a never-before-seen view of their own outdoor skills through data point capture, giving users an opportunity to make technique improvements.”
GoWild Connect IQ app’s scouting integration allows hunters to save points of interest, such as animal beds, game trails, trail cameras, or tree stands to their private map, even across multiple scouts. An upcoming version of GoWild app will allow the navigation to those points, as well as the ability to see them on a private map.
Upon collecting enough comparative archery data, GoWild will launch an updated app, which will make technique or gear recommendations to community members based on how other shooters with similar skill sets perform. GoWild and Garmin have an additional 12 integrations planned to increase user experience on the GoWild platform.
The GoWild Connect IQ app is compatible with Connect IQ enabled smartwatches, including the f?nix® 5X, f?nix 5 Plus series, and tactix® Charlie. GoWild users with non-Connect IQ devices can still import data to the GoWild eco-system through Garmin Connect.