I'm currently testing the new Garmin Forerunner 955, and while its native running power, daily training readiness and race day tools are all welcome additions, my favorite feature so far is the morning report that greets you when you wake.
It's essentially a more advanced version of the report provided by the Garmin Lily (a women's watch released last year). Each time you wake, the Lily presents you with a little greeting and weather report, daily step goal, menstrual cycle stage (if enabled), and body battery score. Put together, it gives you a quick overview of your forthcoming day, helping you psyche yourself up for any challenges and plan how to spend your time.
It was a handy tool, and for the Forerunner 255 and 955, Garmin has expanded it hugely, turning it into a fully customizable report. Now, in addition to the basics offered by the Lily, you can also see training readiness (which helps you plan your daily workouts and adjust their intensity if necessary), recent workouts, sleep score, heart rate variability, and calendar activities. Not interested in all of those? You can tweak your report to your heart's content in the Garmin Connect app.
There's just one problem: once you've dismissed the report, it's gone for good. There's no way to recover it and check it again if you've accidentally hit the cancel button while bleary-eyed first thing in the morning. One errant button press – finito.
Good morn... oops
Just in case, I tried hunting through the watch's glances to see if it's possible to review the report again later in the day, but it appears not. It seems like it would sit naturally alongside options like the Health Snapshot, but it's nowhere to be found.
I could get the same information by going through each of the other glances one by one, but it's just not as convenient (and it doesn't give you the morning report's nice little affirmation that "it's going to be a great day").
Now that Garmin has begun rolling out some features from the Forerunner 955 to older watches (native running power is coming to the Fenix 7 and Epix very soon following a beta rollout) I'm hopeful that the morning report will soon start appearing on other watches as well. It's a very nice little tool, but really it needs a new glance so you can get your report back at any point if you accidentally close it before you've had your coffee.
- Best GPS watches: find your perfect running partner
