Garmin InReach Messenger User Experience from CO

[Foreman05]

Hey all just wanted to give a quick update. My wife got me a messenger for Christmas and finally it is elk season. I used this on the expedition plan so I could text unlimited and it worked flawlessly.

My brother has a mini 2 and we shared the same results with the messenger sometimes yielding faster messages and weather.

I know some including myself were concerned on where to put this thing being it does not lend itself to attaching like the mini to bags. I will say it rode most of the time in my marsupial gear small zipper pouch and sometimes zipped up in the top of my mystery ranch bear creek bag. Zero issues with the antenna covered in these locations and zero issues sending and receiving through my tent. The grippy bottom was awesome as soon as I got in the mountains, I tossed it on the dash and for the most part it stayed there.

Just thought I’d let y’all know if you were on the fence or wondering where to stick this little guy.

 

[FuddRucker]

So would you ultimately recommend it or is there any functionality you feel you're missing compared to your brothers mini 2? Black Friday sales are going, so I'm trying to make a call on these.

 

[Foreman05]

I think what it comes down to after we compared them is, the messenger has a bigger battery, real world estimates between the two of us if he was at 65 I’d be at 85, these are estimates mine you just off our rando trail conversations.

I liked that I could just toss mine anywhere except upside down and it was firing off messages. He often positioned his mini 2 with the antenna up ish tho it seemed to work fine laying on the dash.

The mini 2 might be easier to navigate the menus but I didn’t have a problem.

The only nod I would give the mini is you can backtrack with it via its screen. You can backtrack with the messenger but you will need your phone.

If full navigational redundancy is a must I’d push you to the mini 2, if that doesn’t matter to you like it doesn’t matter to me (I have a gps watch too) the messenger is a no brainer, better battery, sits wherever you toss it with its rubber bottom and it’s cheaper. I do like that the mini 2 comes in orange.

Oh forgot to mention it can also charge your phone! Seems like an easy sell

Best of luck, let me know if you have any more questions

 

[doc holiday13]

@Foreman05

Can you do map downloads with messenger? While I'll probably have most of my maps downloaded in OnX, its always nice to have the ability to download new maps for just in case scenario

 

[Foreman05]

I don’t think you can use it as a navigation tool other than map back on your route I think.
I also think you can view your routes later on a computer.