A selection of Garmin’s fitness trackers just got a little safer with the integration of Beacon – the safety feature from fitness app maker Strava.
Beacon, which was launched earlier this summer, offers a handful of features designed to keep runners, cyclists, hikers or anyone else out for exercise safe during their activities. Users can share their real-time data location with a select group of friends and family in case anything happens to them during a workout.
People who have certain Garmin fitness trackers – the Fenix, along with several Edge and Forerunner models – can get the feature directly into their tracker versus the once-standalone Beacon app on iOS or Android.
Beacon works with Garmin’s own location-tracker, LiveTrack, syncing so up to three contacts can check on the wearer during their workout (like map location and battery power) without having to have their own Strava account.
The company said Beacon was created based on feedback from the Strava community, citing the need for something beyond a Post-It left on a fridge by someone out exercising. After surveying the community on what type of features they would most like to see added to the app, safety came ranked highest.
The feature is available on Garmin’s Edge 520, Edge 820, Edge 1000, Edge Explore 920, Forerunner 230, Forerunner 235, Forerunner 630, Forerunner 735XT and Fenix 3.