Garmin ActiveCaptain
This app is not recommended for non-Garmin chartplotter owners and is not intended to be a standalone navigational app. The included basemap is not useable without purchasing additional charts/maps.
- OneChart™ lets you access all your Garmin unit pre-load and accessory card charts and maps from your mobile device and purchase new ones
- Receive smart notifications¹, such as calls and texts, on your chartplotter display when paired with the app
- Connect to fellow boaters with the ActiveCaptain community for up-to-date feedback on marinas and other points of interest
- Make, save and transfer routes and waypoints between the app and chartplotter
- Easily upload and download the latest Garmin Quickdraw Contours content from the community
- Download software updates and notifications from the app to your Garmin devices
- View and control your chartplotter from your smartphone or tablet
¹See compatibility matrix - https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/573254#devices
Category : Maps & Navigation
Reviews (25)
Really disappointing. Flaky connection to plotter + extremely unreliable sync. No auto guidance with regular charts (send us more money and you can have upgraded charts that will allow auto guidance in the app). Turns out buying a plotter and charts with a 1-year-old boat doesn't mean you can register the charts to your account and use all features. Again, send us more money and you can buy new charts (that you already bought once). It's a racket to get people to pay for the same product twice.
Use it to Navigate on long trips even in bad weather it works great. I love the sonar and clearview. It is one of the better purchase I made for fishing and navigation
Worked well until I had to change get a new phone. It wouldn't give me any charts after that, even after purchasing another chart update (via the damn app) that I didnt need. Socks now
Very convenient and works great. Never had a problem with transferring updates.
Need help. I had this app on another phone which had been broken. I had downloaded one of the maps which gave me incredible detail of ocean floor..I could see bottom structure. I downloaded this app on my new phone, but I am unable to get the detail I had paid for. Can you explain to me how to get all the detail back to my new phone please.
Not user friendly. Makes it very difficult to import and export gpx files. The program dosent save your symbology, and when exporting it saves the name as the comments not the site name. Also can't lock the program so anyone who gets your phone can access your sites. Limitation on the number of points is also a major downside.
Made me update. Now crashes all the time. Wasn't the most advanced app, but least it worked. Why would you break it?
The app is amazing. It's great to be able to sit at home and plan out my next fishing trip relaxing on the couch. And to plot my journey then send it to my garmin as soon as it powers on with no cords. Amazing
Awesome to be able to see charts of new water, and send it your charts for others to use as well..active captain is amazing
You used to be able to edit your community content (anchorage/marina reviews) in here without buying the $200/year charts but they removed that functionality. I already pay for charts with Navionics (which got acquired by Garmin and shows the same community content but not as easily editable) so it doesn't make sense to pay more to freely contribute to their content base. Uninstalling.
It's OK. Seems finicky with version downloads. You have an update so you download it, it connects to device, then no update needed, then you disconnect and it says you have an update. So frustrating. I bought Garmin because I consider them more of a software company than any of the other brands. Had to reset the app on the phone for the download to take. Then it says I need to insert an activecaptain card (which I had inserted and was using all along), but it wouldn't recognize it. It wouldn't recognize the updated software version from the device until I inserted a card, which basically means I had to format and re-transfer my maps (over an hour). These loops of errors are SOOO frustrating. I'll give it 2 stars for at least not bricking my device and because it at least has a way to proceed, although extremely time consuming and frustrating. So after syncing and transferring the maps, it still doesn't recognize the newer software on the device. I guess I'll have to live with the app constantly telling me I have new software to download. Buggy and annoying. I was thinking about getting a Garmin watch, but no way after this. Fitbit isn't nearly as buggy.
This app is really easy to use. I've used it to update the software on my plotter and radar and to update the charts in both my plotters. The app is very intuitive and let's you know when updates are available. It also updates the information from Active Captain and transfers it to my primary plotter. Now I can see all the map icons with the latest data. Great for keeping you out of trouble.
The app features are nice. But it's worthless to me if I can't sync it with my Garmin GPSMAP 942XS. Every time I get back on my boat, it says it can't sync because there is no suitable SD card loaded into the GPS. But there is! After spending 15 minutes on the phone with Garmin resetting everything from scratch, it works great. That is until the next time I get out to my boat and here we go again. This app is way too buggy.
i love Garmin products and they have an excellent customer support as far as my experience goes, but as far as the app, cant download maps sometimes it will connect to my chart plotter sometimes it wont. never once have gotten smart notifications even though it indicates device is paired. i want to purchase the G3 ultra maps and transfer it to my device but im scared it won't transfer or even download to the phone itself for that matter. please resolve this issue. keep up the good work!
Update from previous review, it's awesome again, the maps download fast and have so much detail. I was very excited to use this app with my new Garmin chart plotter. However I have not been able to download the maps that I own onto the app even after being on hold with customer service for hours which is pretty frustrating. So for now all I can give is a 1 star. I hope you fix this soon.
It wont download map tiles on my android, it has been that way since I upgraded to G3 mapping. it worked great before that. I gave it a 2 because it did work before the upgrade and I liked it. I have spent about 5 hours on the phone and it's still not fixed and no estimated date of a fix. The techs on the phone seem to genuinely want to help but cant. uodate: my active captain now works as it should! I'd give it a 4 now. thanks Garmin.
Was expecting to be able to use my phone to mirror the screen like it shows on the YouTube videos as well as use the maps, or at least see the navigation on my phone. So far the only feature that works on my Note9 is GPS speed and I get text alerts I can't actually see the texts. All downloads of updates and maps fail both on data and wifi so I cant even use it like the website version! I should have gone with a different company I guess.
Provides updates and notifications properly. It's unable to bridge the usability of the GPS unit and ease the work in front of the GPS unit ahead of the trip. There is so much that can be done, but the videos and information is just bad. Additionally, the capabilities are limited when you could do so much with the App and GPS unit...
App has a bug...wont allow download of maps... error message reads "Active Captain closed because this app has a bug. Try updating this app after the developer provides a fix for this error" have emailed Garmin, no response
Viewing all of my charts in full detail on my phone instead of only while being in my boat is great! I can find fishing spots, boat launches, hazards, etc..The app transfers any waypoints/info I created the next time I turn on my Garmin and sync it with the phone app. Also any new Garmin software updates. Studying charts on the app whenever I want is a big timesaver. I feel confident & safe before I head out since I am already familiar with lakes depths, features, layout, and waypoints I added.
Currently giving this app 1 star because the last two updates have caused nothing but problems...problems to where its basically useless now for me. I download data, but when viewing the quadrant areas I downloaded, either the data (particularly depth contours) doesn't show, or on lakes the data does show, my Depth Shading settings don't show/work. Very disaapointed at this point in time becasue everything was working fine before the updates. Garmin support hasn't been able to solve so far.
Getting better and better with each new update. Great way to develop your way points and route and sync them to the chartplotter. Still clunky compared to Navionics. But Navionics cant sync to my Garmin chart plotters. I would like to see the measuring tool pan the map when it reaches the edge of a window.
You used to be able to use Active Captain as a standalone application that gave information on marinas and the like (like you can still do using a computer). The app functionality for this feature seems to have gone away, which was the only reason I was interested. I do not have a Garmin device on my boat so the current Active Captain app is worhtless.
worked perfectly 3 months ago now do not have access to charts. A reinstall resulted in failure to register charts. Endless loop of register..ok done..register..ok done. Where are my charts? same with active captain info. 80%...98% download complete and restarts..the never completing download loop. If isnt fixed will upgrade to a different plotter
Limits on number of devices to control / account, cant see chart without sync or purchasing. Terrible app design / menu navigation, no zoom in capability in helm view. Simrad app is terrible, but garmin is worse