How to Use Garmin Vivoactive 3? – Expert Guide

In an era where technology has been evolving at a rapid rate and everything is becoming smarter day by day, why should watches lag behind?

Well, we did see many modern watches that packed an immense amount of smart features, but there are hardly a few that could properly integrate sport and fitness tracking stuff inside their watch.

Garmin, however, set the bars up high in that regard when they released the Vivoactive 3.

Now, if you have picked yourself one and are wondering how to use Garmin Vivoactive 3, you just came to the right place.

We are going to offer you a complete guide, and we will also describe the new features that the watch is offering. With that being said, let us get right into it.

Related Guide: Garmin Vivoactive 3 vs. Apple Watch

What Is New for the Garmin Vivoactive 3?

The smartwatch manufacturer Garmin has released a plethora of smartwatches recently.

Among all of them, Vivoactive 3 is the one that got the most attention. Now, you would want to know what are the things that are actually new for this watch. Well, these are the changes that it has:

Design

This particular watch is the only one in the Garmin lineup that has a round design. All the other ones that Garmin is offering comes in a boxy, square shape.

That means it will look more like a classy watch and less like a watch that is trying to be smart.

Besides that, there are no hideous buttons sticking on the front anymore. Instead, it implements only one round button on the side for all the functions.

Features

Apart from the design, Vivoactive 3 comes with plenty of new features as well. They are:

That is a lot of new features. Well, it did not catch all this attention for a small reason.

The improvements that the watch is bringing to the table might just make the high-end watch manufacturers sweat a bit.

Related Guide: Garmin Vivoactive 3 vs Forerunner 45

How to Use the Garmin Vivoactive 3

Now that you know about all the new features that the watch has, you would want to know how to use it.

Well, here are the steps for executing different functions of the watch:

Reboot or Restarting the Watch

To restart or reboot the watch, you will have to first locate the power button that is located on the side of the watch. Press and hold it for about 15 seconds.

After that, you will see the animation of the watch shutting down. Once it has shut down, you will have to press and hold the button again, and then it will start back up.

Reset the Settings

There might be instances in which you might want to set the watch back to its factory settings.

In that case, you should first tap the screen. When it is on the home screen, press and hold the screen.

After holding the screen for a while, a menu should pop up. Navigate your way through the settings, then system, and you will find an option named “RESTORE DEFAULTS” there.

Tap on that and confirm your selection. The watch will then reboot and will have factory settings.

Set Favorite Activity Profile

When you first boot up the device, an option for setting the activity should pop up.

It will have an array of activities, or there would be a quick list of all the preferred activity profiles.

While being on that popup, you will be able to select all your favorite activities.

However, the popup will only show up once automatically. If you want to change them or remove some favorite activities, you need to press the button on the side, and it will show you all the activities that you have selected.

Then you should tap on the three dots, which will let you manage those activities. You can remove or add more.

Adjust the Control Menu Icons

For changing the control menu icons that are in the always-on display, you must press and hold the button that is located on the side. Then you should be able to see the shortcut of app icons.

There would be music control, Garmin pay, power off, stopwatch, waypoint, and many more on that list. That layout will enable you to customize, remove, or reorder them.

Modify the Activity Tracker

The watch will allow you to have a rundown of the activity that you carried out at the end of the day. You can view it by tapping the widgets or by swiping the screen up.

Apart from just the ones that are set by default, you will also be able to modify the activity that you want the watch to track.

For that, you need to first press and hold the screen while being on the home screen.

After that, the menu will pop up, and it will allow you to navigate your way through the settings.

There you will find a setting named “ACTIVITY TRACKING.” From that menu, you will be able to:

Customize the Widgets

To customize the home screen widgets, you need to first press and hold the home screen and make the menu pop up.

Then you should navigate through the WIDGETS menu. Once you are there, you will be able to scroll through the widgets, and by tapping one of them, you can get to its settings.

Adjust the Waypoints

For setting up the waypoint navigation function, you will first have to press and hold the side button.

Then the controls menu will pop up. From that, you must select the Waypoint icon.

Then should press the save button. And then, you can see the current coordinates on the watch.

After saving multiple coordinates like that, you should be able to navigate to them.

For that, you need to go through the saved location list and tap on the one that you want to navigate to. After tapping, the watch should show you the waypoints to the location.

Conclusion

In this article, we have mostly gone through the intricate functions of the watch.

However, if you want to know about the basic ones, we would recommend you to download the user manual. The manual in PDF format can be found here.

With that, we would like to conclude our take on how to use Garmin Vivoactive 3 here by wishing you good luck and hoping that you can get the most out of the watch to stay fit.