Quick answer:At the time of writing, only the Garmin Venu 2 Plus has the built-in speaker and microphone required to make and take calls completely on the wrist. While most Garmin watches allow you to answer calls, this merely accepts the call on your connected smartphone.
Garmin is widely regarded as making some of the most accurate fitness trackers around, but in terms of general smarts, its wearables lag behind the less sports-focused competition. One feature shared by many of thebest smartwatchesis the ability to make and take phone calls through your wearable’s speaker. This saves you the hassle of digging your phone out your pocket to talk, which is especially useful if you’re on a run or just can’t find your phone. Unfortunately, almost none of Garmin’s smartwatches offer this functionality with one recent exception: the Garmin Venu 2 Plus.
Can Garmin smartwatches answer calls?
At the time of writing, most Garmin smartwatches can answer calls, but that’s a little misleading. While almost all Garmin smartwatches let you accept a call from the watch, this simply instructs your smartphone to pick up, and you need to continue speaking there.
That’s a handy feature if you happen to be wearing call-friendly headphones connected to your phone at the time. If you don’t, it isn’t that helpful since you’ll still need to fish your handset out of your pocket. So, you can’t actually take a phone call from your wrist withmostGarmin models, like theGarmin Forerunner 255S Music.
Which Garmin smartwatches can make and take calls from the wrist?
The one exception to this is the Garmin Venu 2 Plus — the company’s first smartwatch to feature a built-in speaker and microphone, which allows you to make and answer calls from the wrist. A little bonus here is that you can use the mic to chat with a selection of virtual assistants: Google Assistant, Siri, or Bixby (no Alexa, sadly).
However, there are two crucial points to remember. The first is that the basic Garmin Venu 2 doesn’t have this feature — you can only make and receive calls using the Plus model. So make absolutely certain you’ve added the right one to your cart if you’re looking to buy. Secondly, because the Garmin Venu 2 Plus doesn’t have an LTE version, you’ll still need your phone to be in physical proximity. So, you can’t just leave your phone at home and expect your Venu 2 Pro to take its place.
How do I make calls with the Garmin Venu 2 Plus?
Taking or making a call on your Venu 2 Plus is pretty simple. Just do the following:
Answering a call from your Garmin Venu 2 Plus is even simpler: simply press the green on-screen button when an incoming call comes in. As long as you have your phone close by, you should be able to make and take calls with ease.
Are there any drawbacks to the Garmin Venu 2 Plus' on-wrist calling?
Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks. Firstly, calls made or received on your phone won’t appear in the watch’s own call list as the two are independent of each other. Also, if you want names to appear on your watch rather than just a number, you need to add them to the Garmin Connect app’s own contacts list. However, you’re able to only add up to 50 friends and family members.
Finally, if you have a pair of wireless headphones connected to the watch, your call won’t come through them unless they’re also paired with the smartphone. If they are, you have to accept the call via the headphones.
Will more Garmin smartwatches let you talk on the wrist in future?
It’s not something that can be applied to Garmin’s existing smartwatch line via a patch, unfortunately. Such functionality requires a built-in speaker and microphone, and only the Garmin Venu 2 Plus has that at the time of writing.
However, the future looks bright for the feature. Apost on the Garmin blog dated September 2022specifically mentions “select smartwatches” as coming with a built-in speaker and mic, so it seems pretty likely that more will follow in time. For now, those who want to take calls on their wearable will need to stump up for a Venu 2 Plus, or look beyond Garmin at the various other wearables that provide the ultimate hands-free experience.
Garmin Venu 2 Plus
The Venu 2 Plus is currently the only Garmin smartwatch that supports calling from the wrist. That’s because it has a microphone and speaker built in, which its stablemates lack.
