Using Your Garmin inReach Mini On Your Adventures 

Thanks for the tips. My question, I'm going on a backpacking trip and will be gone for 10 days to two weeks. How do you control battery life? Do you turn it on when sending a message and turn it off? What about the settings? I'm a first time user.

@@bobbydunlap8049 Hi! I only turn it on to send out those quick preset messages, and once it's sent I turn it off. I occasionally (maybe one a year, lol) will send a custom message. It lasts a long time if that's all you use it for. If you are using it for tracking at certain intervals here's a great link that shows the expected battery life: www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/inreachmini/EN-US/GUID-26D02F01-8090-4D52-B466-D93B670E898F.html. If you are worried about the battery life you could bring an Anker external power brick and charging cable (which I always have anyways for my camera/phone/headlamp recharging). Cheers!

@@AdventurePlusMe Thanks for responding. I have the safety package and don't plan on tracking at first. I would like my family to be able to check in on me. I like the idea about leaving bread crumbs. along to trail. Thanks again.

Thanks Magpie Collingwood! So glad you had the inReach with you! You make a good point. These can be super handy, not only while backpacking and spending time in the backcountry, but also while traveling. Cell service is not always guaranteed.

That’s a huge bummer!! Thanks for bringing this up! It looks like you can still use presets if you had an account prior to September 27, 2022, but anyone who has signed up for an account after that is stuck with the dumbed down “check in” feature instead of customizable presets :(

@@AdventurePlusMe ya - I signed up sometime in November 2022 for the first time, I can’t customize the 3 check-in messages, but I can customize the 10 preset messages that you can send without typing them out. But I only get 10 of the presets/month before it costs extra, while the check-in messages are unlimited, so it’d be nice to be able to customize those 3.

I'm glad this video was helpful!

Yaaaaay! So glad this was helpful! Cheers!

I don’t. I only have it on when I’m sending the preset message

I'm a diver as well and interested in the Mini for emergency and lost-at-sea scenarios What do you use the connection with the MK2i for?

Hi Peter davis, you are correct, I should have worded it as I don't get "unlimited" sending and receiving quick text messages. Thanks for pointing that out.

@@AdventurePlusMe That's O K, it is a great video . There is so much to learn with these things , I'm now trying to get my head around tracking and logging points. After using The InReach Mini for the first week , and got a bill for using SO many tracking and logging points . Still a great little toy ! support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=4FjxHHdUDl1YshLW1ae7DA

Thanks Follow Thomas!

Great video. Thanks for sharing. I'm "up to speed" on the messaging functions, but I am really weak on using the interface between the device, Earthmate app and Explorer website to use the map function for GPS navigation. Do you have any experience using this function?

So glad you found this helpful!! The inReach definitely wasn't the easiest to set up. But once I got it set up it's been a great tool for me.

@@AdventurePlusMe tell me about it! Definitely more to it than my other garmins, but I'm finally starting to settle in with it. Thanks again!

I’m not sure. Garmin support should be able to answer that question for you. There should be a way to contact them through their website to get that question answered before you decide to buy one

Hahaha, I’m glad this video was able to help! Some folks say the mini 2, which just came out, is easier to use, but I haven’t taken the plunge to buy that one yet.

Glad it was helpful!

Haha, glad it was helpful!

Awesome! I'm glad this video was helpful! Yeah, even though I love this device it was a little frustrating when I first started using it, trying to figure out how to set it up and how to get to the items I wanted.

Awesome!!

Correct, so while in the Garmin Earthmate App, at the bottom of the screen click on "Messages". Then at the top of the screen that now opens click the little icon for creating a new message. In this new screen that opens, click in the "To" box. Then, to the right of that click on the icon for adding your contact that you want to message. That'll open up another screen. At the bottom of that screen click the "Phone Contacts" button. From here you choose who you want to send a message to. You click on the name of the person you want to send the message to, it opens up their contact info, you click on "message" within their contact info. This brings you back to that screen where you can send them a message. Their name is now filled in in the "To" box. You then can click on the "Type Message" box below and start typing your message. When you're done typing your message, click "Send". Your phone and garmin inreach do need to be paired in order to do this. I've been thinking about creating a quick video on this process, perhaps now is a good time to start creating that, eh? Hopefully this was helpful. If you have more questions, or if something I said doesn't make sense, feel free to ask me to clarify. Cheers!

@@AdventurePlusMe Thanks! It is a bit confusing as the "pre canned" messages can only be sent from the device (not the app on the paired phone) and those are emails, right? But then typed out and sent messages are text messages and can be done either on the device or in the app on the paired phone. whew. I think I got it. :) But, is the only way to send an email is using the pre canned messages? Thanks!

The "pre canned" messages from the inReach can either go to email address and/or to phone numbers as texts. I've put both in there and they both work. As far as typed out messages go, I've only done it as texts to peoples phone numbers, but I think that also can work either way. But I would test that ahead of time and see. I have never typed out a message on the inReach itself, only on the app while paired with the inReach. I think it would be a pain trying to type a message out on the inReach mini, having to type in one letter at a time.

Awesome! You’ll have to let us know what you think after using it!

Hahahahahahaha!!! Yesssssssss! Thanks, Alie The Wolf! Enjoy! I love my inReach mini 😁

U can use the new Mini 2 for “navigating”, but it doesn’t have a real map, it’s just a track line, your location, and waypoints. Unfortunately, if you want real navigation you’d need to pair it with your phone, or, use the full size inReach or another actual GPS

@@AdventurePlusMe Thank you. I had impression old 2018 version mini could show an arrow to follow? It also had breadcrumb function I guess. Mini2 has improved gps sensitivity, battery life, usbC, explorer app, better resolution screen, easier interface.

The original mini does have a single arrow that points you in the direction of a waypoint, however you cannot input and follow a track line or anything like that. In my opinion, if you’re traveling any longer distances, this isn’t a great feature for standalone navigation.

I think that you can only send preset messages from the inReach itself, and then create on the fly custom texts from the phone app.

@@AdventurePlusMe thank you