New Garmin Canned Messages Interface

We have recently given customers the ability to store “canned messages” on their drivers’ Garmin in the vehicle.

This allows them to choose from a list of commonly sent messages, rather than have to type each one out on the mini-keyboard on each Garmin.

Here’s how you do it:

Open the Garmin page:

Choose the Canned Messages tab and then create new messages, assign them to message groups, and assign those message groups to vehicles:

Create a message:

Assign it to a group of messages:

Then assign them to vehicles:

Then press “Sync Now” and your messages will be “pushed” to the appropriate vehicle’s Garmin.

To send one from your Garmin to dispatch, follow these steps:

Then up comes a list of “your” quick (canned) messages. Scroll through to select the one you want:

The Garmin will then prompt you if you want to send OR EDIT the canned message, so you can make small changes, such as add an amount, change a time, etc.

This definitely beats using the small on-screen keyboard to send free-form/ad-hoc messages:

And here’s the message, in “red” to indicate it’s new and un-read. Once you click on it, it turns back to white:

This will help our customers enable their drivers to communicate more effectively, and help avoid the potential for distracted texting on their Garmin.