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Garmin's 'OK Garmin' Voice Feature Cuts Watch Battery Estimates by Up to 50%, Owners Report

Owners of Garmin's Fenix 8 and Forerunner 970 say enabling the 'OK Garmin' wake word has cut estimated battery runtime by 35% to 50%, according to Android Authority.

AI News Feed · 2026-10-20 04:41

The complaints have accumulated on Garmin's support forums over the past month, the report said, citing Gadgets & Wearables, and center mainly on the Fenix 8 and Forerunner 970. Owners who turned on the wake word describe the battery estimate shown on the watch dropping sharply within a short period of use. Some Forerunner 970 owners reported the estimate falling from 15 days to nine.

The feature was part of a recent Garmin software release that also added all-day fall detection and new running tools. Unlike those additions, the "OK Garmin" hotword keeps the watch listening for a spoken command, which owners say appears to account for the drop in estimated runtime.

According to the accounts cited in the report, turning off the wake word restores the earlier battery estimate almost immediately. Manual voice commands can still be used with the hotword disabled, so owners who switch it off lose the hands-free trigger rather than voice control itself.

Battery life has been one of Garmin's main advantages over competing smartwatches, with many of its models lasting well over a week between charges. The estimates affected by the feature are the watch's own projections of remaining runtime, which shift with usage patterns and enabled features.

The Android Authority report did not include a response from Garmin on the complaints or on whether a software change is planned. The company has not published guidance on the issue on its support pages, according to the report.