Title: Longtime Customer — You Lost Me
Orange Zones had been working perfectly well on my Apple Watch running watchOS 8. Then the Watch app disappeared without me removing it. When I tried to reinstall it, I discovered Orange Zones now requires watchOS 10, meaning I can no longer use a feature I’ve relied on for years.
What frustrates me most is that my existing setup worked. I didn’t need new features or a redesigned experience. An update simply made hardware that had been working with Orange Zones unusable.
I also own a Garmin that can broadcast heart rate, which would seem like an obvious solution. Unfortunately, despite numerous attempts, I have never been able to get the Garmin’s transmitted HR to connect reliably to Orange Zones on my iPhone. I’ve raised this issue with the developer in the past and received little interest, support, or help troubleshooting it, even though the functionality appears as though it should work.
That lack of support is ultimately what bothers me most. I was willing to troubleshoot the problem and find a solution that would allow me to continue using an app I enjoyed. Instead, I’m left with a subscription that remains active until July 2027, an Apple Watch that Orange Zones no longer supports, and a Garmin HR broadcasting solution that I can’t get working despite repeatedly trying to resolve it.
I’ve paid for and recommended this app for years. Longtime customers deserve better than having working functionality taken away while legitimate compatibility concerns go largely unaddressed.
Support older compatible versions, properly support external Bluetooth/Garmin heart-rate broadcasting, and—most importantly—listen to the customers who are trying to help you identify these problems.
Until then, I’m out. ✌️
Response from developer
Please reach out to us at support@pkfitness.com. If you Garmin watch supports the ability to broadcast as a Bluetooth heart rate monitor, open the Bluetooth settings in the Settings app on your iPhone and connect your Garmin as a sensor there. Once connected, open the Orange Zones app and the sensor should be automatically connected.
Great for OTF, kind of.
Response from developer
Thanks for your review. Based on your feedback and others, Orange Zones now supports a variety of industry standard zone model and even the ability to customize you own model. The latest version with this support is version 1.61.0. We have you will give this a try and let us know what you think. Since it's just been released, it may not be available in your territory yet. If you don't see version 1.61.0 as an option to update to, delete the app on your phone and watch and then re-install it from the App store. This should force an update to the 1.61.0 with custom zones support. Again, thank you for your review. support@pkfitness.com
