Garmin BlueChart® Mobile App Reviews

Only downloaded to try active captain and it wont let me log on. Perhaps because I didnt buy a chart yet? No help in FAQ. Waste of electrons.

the cartography is excellent but there are no nav. functions. no data boxes, no speed, no heading or course. NO HEADING LINE. no GO TO function. just a boat icon on a chart. not really useful as a proper plotter. Use Navionics or INavx if you want an iPad chart plotter. this is simply a planning tool only. i think garmin dumbed this app down on purpose it could have been excellent with a navigation module. I got my money back. ( thanks Very much apple for the excellent service )

US Coastal lacks depths for major sections of chart. It refers to “Notes” which are not available so that major areas of navigation lack an depth, obstruction or other information necessary for navigation. Example, Astoria, OR, entrance to Columbia River. All areas of channel navigation lack any depth information or even channel marks. Large areas of white with no detail and Garmin Charts provide no detail, no GPS location for there areas rendering the chart useless and dangerous. Desdemona Sands covers 20% of Astoria Bay but has ZERO charting info for depths at high and load tide. Additionally make does not show tidal currents on the map as tide shifts. This is very useful information that Garmin does not show. NobelTec does show that information. Surprisingly poor product from Garmin. Do not purchase.

You cant use anything useful unless you purchase very expensive add ons.

Used great for years, the last update now causes it to crash and has made it very unreliable

For a $50 in app purchase and up to 1 GB of memory this app will give you detailed marine and navigational mapping for everything between the top of Alaska and the bottom of the Carribean - a great value. You only have to download the portions you need and other maps are available. The only down side is that the menu is highly restricitive compared to Garmin Marine nav system hardware. The vessel size is too large and not configurable, it doesnt project the vessel direction so you can see where the boat is headed one or two hours out, it doesnt provide any data while underway other than speed and heading (e.g. no distance or time remaining to your destination or intermediate way points). Therefore, it is more like a really good and compact chart book with the benefit of seeing where your vessel is on the map than a true navigatgional tool like a full feature Garmin hardware device.

This update has a bug fatal to all your waypoints and routes, or any other information stored on the app, if you use "a lot" of map tiles. So says Garmin after the fact. Of course its Apples fault, and it may well be, but some simple testing before sending out the update would have disclosed the problem. Sadly, this might be your first notice of the problem. But dont worry, Garmin is working on it.

lacks basic functions like average speed.

Just uploaded the new update and everything is back in business for me this is put me back as a happy sailer

Bug fix came out today. Loaded it. Loaded all North America tiles and Active Captain Markers. Every thing seems to be back to normal on my IPad Mini 2 with wifi/3G. GPS is working good. The new stuff that they have added like the free weather gribs, ect is nice. Have not tested the streaming data from the chartplotters wifi interface yet. In the bad version you could still wirelessly transfer waypoints and all that jazz to and from the chartplotter but the live chartplotter position and heading had gone away. Nice thing about the nice people at Garmin is I sent them an email, had a response the very next morning. It gets 5 stars again if the streaming data interface is fixed. Update 09/25/15,everything is fixed for me at least. Also just upgraded to 9.0.1 and allok. Back to 5 stars. Time to cross the Caribbean again.

From a 3 year active user. Well, that did not last long Premium Weather crashed again after using it for several weeks. Maybe since I stay up to date with IOS updates is the problems. DONT BUY and back TZ and Navionics. Finally, Oct 5th, after many and many different iterations of trying to get Premium Weather (a good feature) to restore I finally found the right combination. Garmin Bluechart was unusable for 3 months and if it did not have Premium Weather and the Captain I would definitely delete it from my Ipad and Iphone. Even after all the expense with this product. Without those two features its just not worth the frustration. Today Oct. 5th their support contacted me (a little very late) I will upgrade the score by one but remember, there is a risk with their updates and support. MOST FRUSTRATION EXPERIENCE. Upgraded the rating by 1. The charts work again after being unusable for several months with the latest update. Still cannot get the expensive Premium weather to load after having repurchased it several times and had to have Apple to refund monies. There customer support service should be disbanded and they should restart for all the good it is. Still recommend a DO NOT BUY, ITS EXPENSIVE AND THERE ARE PROBLEMS. Loaded the new version today. Premium Weather $29 version does not load after connection to App Store. Feedback Option does not work. Lost a lot of money on Garmin Bluechart Mobile. . Used to be a good navigation app with great view of moving thunderstorms. Now this app locks up and is totally unusable on both IPhone and IPad. A waste of money on charts purchases and in app purchases like weather. Had to go back to TZ and Navionics.

Worked as advertised for over a year until yesterday when I installed most recent update. My profile has been removed and I no longer have access to the maps I purchased. When I called garmin, they said it was an app issue and I had to contact Apple?

The level of detail shown before getting the app is false. It is only avail after downloading THEN PURCHASING $30 minimum detailed maps. What comes with app is useless.

This app worked great on my 5S and 6plus with iOS 8.<whatever>. Now with iOS 9.1, the app freezes on my 6plus when I start it up and move the chart with my finger. It seems to be getting stuck trying to make a data connection (which is ridiculous for a product designed to be used on a boat where there might be no Internet connection).

The app looks awesome but crashes when creating a route on the coastal region chart I purchased. This happens on my iPad Air and iPhone 6. Very disappointing when you buy a $1,300 chart plotter with these features and then pay for more charts in an app that doesnt work.

Running on an iPad 2 with iOS 9. Very unstable. Crashes and restarts for unknown reasons. Send feedback button in settings doesnt work. If you are looking at an active captain listing and try to copy a phone number or address it only highlights the item and if you click again it crashes. That being said I still depend on it. And love it conditionally! Id give it 4 stars if it was stable.

I am using this app on my iPad mini. Garmin has a home run with this app if they can fix the crashing issue. Almost every route I try to build it will crash and restart in the middle of it. After it crashes you are unable to go back and continue working on the same route. You need to start over. Hopefully I will be able to change this rating in the near future.

I have two issues to highlight among the user interface and features in this app, which is broadly good. First, this app is unreliable. For a navigation aid, thats inexcusable. I dont want to go into all the frustrating details, but if you try to actually use this offshore youll experience an alarming number of glitches, hangs and quits. Ok then. Nothing is perfect and I know enough not to treat this with my life... But the second issue is the greed that drives this product. I have a recently outdated map installed. My $50 map from 2014 is now considered such a threat to Garmins business model, that they put a message on screen informing me to get a new update AFTER EVERY BUTTON INTERACTION! I understand if the insist on the displaying a message once per session... Thats crude, but I get it. To be so brazen and show it repeatedly, dozens of times per session AND place all of those messages in your Notification Center is simply hostile. I also understand that they felt they could offer a weather feature I previously paid for, for free while creating another "Pro" subscription opportunity that I declined. I understand it, and I dislike it. I will not be spending another dime on this product. I advise you to consider the alternatives on the App Store and elsewhere. Read reviews, look at the ratings... customer respect is inherent in the application experience and the business model. Garmin needs to learn this.

Sorry I spent the money for this turkey. I cant believe a company like Garmin would go to market with a product that crashes with every other key stroke. Nice graphics,but I should have spent a few dollars more and bought the Navionics app that my son recommended. Come on Garmin, you can do better!

I have an iPad Air 2 running iOS 9.2. With BlueChart the only active app, it crashes as I try to build a route. It will let me build a little of it at a time. It’s done this about a dozen times. It’s never done this before, so I assume it is either the new version or the new iOS. Second problem is trying to export a route. Instructions say to go to “My Content” and email the data. Has anyone ever gotten this to work? When I select that option, the app appears to hang for awhile and then goes away. I’ve been using BlueCharts for the last 4 years (with good results). It is disappointing to experience these significant issues now. Since I’m complaining, here is what is missing in BlueCharts: - routing info like Navionics presents in their app - something I can use in real-time to see what I’m doing. I assume they don’t do it because they worry it will cut out their chart plotter business. - Easier method of sharing routes/waypoints - show a lead-line from the boat that depicts where the boat is headed or the COG Basically, I don’t think Garmin wants us to use the app for chart-plotting, they just want us to use it for chart planning. If so, then develop more robust import/export at least (and not only for Garmin plotters).