Bushwalk Australia

Gday,

I looked into inreach pre-garmin and did not like it at the time as you couldn't initiate comms to it via an sms. You had to wait until the device sent you an sms and then you could reply. Is this still the case or have they addressed this issue?

Cheers

I have the inReach Mini and have only ever initiated messages from the inReach to other people who have then replied. As far as I know:

* You can not send an unsolicited SMS to an inReach, you have to be replying - given that every incoming and outgoing message is counted against your plan, this is probably good
* You can send an unsolicited message via MapShare if the inReach user has set it up to allow visitors to send messages through MapShare

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=o ... escontacts

This hasn't changed. You can send to an InReach by replying to an InReach-originated email or text, or you can send directly from another InReach, or from a web page with an optional password.

What's your use-case for which these methods are not sufficient?

Just someone needing to send me a message without having to log into a website. Ie "come home now". Also I could then forward my mobile sms to it via an app.

cnschulz wrote:Just someone needing to send me a message without having to log into a website. Ie "come home now". Also I could then forward my mobile sms to it via an app.

There have been a couple of times when someone might need to send me a message during a walk, so when I start off I send them a message "Starting now", so they can reply to that if they do need to contact me.

This works for any regular contacts, but not for other random people who might want to contact you while you are out there.

cnschulz wrote:Just someone needing to send me a message without having to log into a website.

The sender doesn't need to create an account or log in to the website. They click on a link that you have given them, which looks like this:
https://eur-share.inreach.garmin.com/sh ... R_USERNAME
Then they click on the "Message" button, type their message, and click "Send".

I usually send my share link and password to my close group of friends when heading off somewhere... they can track, and send messages via the web if necessary.

All of this is true. The use case is either forgetting to send that message (or it failing) or in my case as it was at the time, having 15 groups in the field using inreach receiving updates from me sitting in a 4wd somewhere in the bush with limited signal or possibly even just a sat phone.