BluePadel for Garmin — User Manual

Applies to BluePadel for Garmin Connect IQ, 1.2 and later. Last updated 16 May 2026.

BluePadel for Garmin runs natively on Connect IQ — the developer platform that powers third-party apps on Garmin watches. Same scoring engine as the Wear OS build, same two layouts, same two-tap End confirmation. The big difference is where your match data lands: every finished match writes a standard FIT activity file that syncs to Garmin Connect alongside your runs, rides, and other workouts.

01About this build

The Garmin build is a Monkey C app distributed through the official Connect IQ Store at apps.garmin.com. It works the same way Garmin's first-party activities do: launch from the watch's Activities menu, score through the match, end the session, and the activity uploads to Garmin Connect on your phone next time the watch syncs.

What's included:

• Full padel scoring engine (best of 1 / 3 / 5, four deuce modes, optional super-tiebreak final set).
• Mexicano format (race to 21, 5-point serve blocks, warmup point counts).
• Two match layouts: Half-and-half and Vertical stack.
• Two-tap End confirmation, Undo, tennis-ball serve indicator.
• Heart-rate, step, distance, and calorie recording via Garmin's native activity framework.
• FIT export to Garmin Connect.

What isn't:

• The five additional skins (Centrepoint, Concentric, Broadcast, Diagonal Mirror, Court Aerial) — Wear OS only for now.
• On-watch shot detection (forehand / backhand / smash classification) — Wear OS only.
• Phone Companion app — the Garmin build uses Garmin Connect as its companion.

02Supported watches

BluePadel runs on Garmin watches that support Connect IQ 4 or newer and have a colour touch-or-button display. Approximate model coverage:

40+ watches in total across the active Garmin range. Older watches (Connect IQ 3 and below, or monochrome displays like the original vívoactive) aren't supported because BluePadel uses the modern colour-rendering and touch APIs.

The Connect IQ Store will tell you definitively whether your specific watch is compatible — if BluePadel appears in your Apps tab in the Garmin Connect Mobile app, it'll install.

03Install from Connect IQ

1. Install the Garmin Connect app on your phone (iPhone or Android), if you don't already have it. Pair your watch through the app's standard onboarding flow.
2. In Garmin Connect Mobile, tap the More tab → Connect IQ Store. Or open apps.garmin.com in a browser.
3. Search for BluePadel. Tap the app, then tap Install. Pick which paired watch to install on if you have more than one.
4. Your watch syncs with Garmin Connect over Bluetooth and pulls down the app. This usually takes under a minute. You'll see "BluePadel installed" once it's done.
5. On the watch, press START from the watch face to open the activity picker. Scroll until you find BluePadel — it'll appear alongside Run, Ride, Walk, and so on.

04First run on the watch

The first time you open BluePadel after installation, the watch will prompt you to grant the same activity-recording permissions it asks Garmin's first-party activities for: heart rate, GPS (optional — padel is indoors so off by default), and step tracking. Approve them once and they stick.

You'll then land on the same New match → Format screen as the Wear OS build.

05Start a new match

Padel

Standard tennis-style scoring. Pick best-of and deuce mode on the next two screens.

Mexicano

Race to 21 points, serves switch every 5 points, warmup result counts as point 1. No deuce, no tiebreaks — just a points race.

Scroll with the UP / DOWN buttons (or the touch wheel on watches that have one), then press START to select.

06Choose the rules

Best of

Best of 1 / 3 / 5 sets. First to 6 games per set, win-by-2, tiebreak to 7 at 6–6.

Deuce mode

Super tiebreak final set

Toggle to play the deciding set as a single first-to-10 tiebreak instead of a full set. Defaults to on for Best of 3 and 5.

07Pick the first server

The Warmup screen asks "Who serves first?" — pick We serve or They serve. Serves alternate every completed game (Padel) or every 5-point block (Mexicano). The serving side is marked with a tennis-ball indicator on the live match screen.

08Score the match

The match screen uses one of two layouts (set in Settings → Match layout inside the app on the watch):

• Half-and-half — set scores up top, big Undo and End pills, Us / Them tap zones below.
• Vertical stack — full-width Us on top, Them on the bottom, score and pills in a central band.

Tap zones work on watches with touch support. Hardware buttons work on every supported watch (see next section).

09Garmin button mapping

Garmin's standard 5-button layout maps to BluePadel actions as follows:

On 2-button watches (some Vívoactive and Venu models), the mapping is reduced to:

On these watches, the touchscreen is the primary input — buttons are the fallback. Tap zones work the same as the Wear OS Half-and-half / Vertical stack layouts.

10Health and shots

BluePadel for Garmin runs as a standard Garmin activity, so all of Garmin's built-in workout recording applies:

• Heart rate — min, max, average over the match. Pulled from the watch's optical HR sensor (or a paired chest strap if connected).
• Calories — kcal estimate using Garmin's Firstbeat-tuned formulas, based on heart rate, age, sex, weight, and VO2 max.
• Steps + distance — from the accelerometer.
• Cadence — for the running phase of a padel match.
• Training effect — aerobic and anaerobic, computed by your watch's Firstbeat algorithms.
• Recovery time — minutes added to your recovery clock after the match.

Shot detection (forehand / backhand / smash classification) and rally segmentation are Wear OS only at this time. The Garmin build records the match scoring data but doesn't run the motion-classifier — that may land in a later release.

11Sync to Garmin Connect

When you tap End and confirm, BluePadel writes a standard FIT activity file with:

• Activity type: Padel (custom sport with default-padel fallback).
• Duration, start time, time zone.
• Heart rate stream and summary (min/max/avg).
• All other Garmin activity metrics (calories, steps, distance, cadence).
• BluePadel-specific developer fields embedded in the FIT: per-set scores, deuce mode, layout used, final winner.

The file uploads to Garmin Connect the next time your watch syncs — usually within 30 seconds of ending the match if Bluetooth is on, and otherwise when you next open the Garmin Connect app on your phone.

In Garmin Connect, the match appears in your activity list. Tap into it to see the standard activity dashboard with the BluePadel-specific score detail at the top. You can comment, like, and share the activity to Garmin Connect's social feed the same way as any other workout.

12Updates

Garmin Connect Mobile auto-updates Connect IQ apps when a new version ships, the same way it auto-updates watch firmware. To check or trigger manually: Connect IQ Store → My Apps → look for Update available next to BluePadel.

If you want to roll back to an older version (rare), uninstall the app and install the specific version from a developer beta link — Connect IQ doesn't support automatic rollback in production.

13Troubleshooting

The app isn't in my watch's activity list

Sync the watch with Garmin Connect Mobile after the install completes — Connect IQ apps appear in the activity picker on next sync. If it still doesn't show up: Garmin Connect → Devices → your watch → Activities & App Management, find BluePadel, and confirm it's enabled.

The match didn't upload to Garmin Connect

Open Garmin Connect Mobile and let it sync (pull down to refresh on the home screen). If the activity still doesn't appear, check Garmin Express on your computer if you also use that — sometimes Express has the new activity but the Mobile app hasn't caught up.

Heart rate shows 0

Confirm the wrist HR sensor is enabled on the watch (Settings → Sensors → Wrist Heart Rate). Tighten the watch strap — Garmin's optical HR needs firm contact. If you're using a chest strap, make sure it's paired and that its battery is OK.

The activity uploads but the BluePadel score detail is missing

Garmin Connect renders developer fields in a separate "Connect IQ" section near the top of the activity. Scroll up. On the desktop site (connect.garmin.com) it appears in the activity sidebar. If the section is missing entirely, the FIT file may not have written cleanly — open BluePadel on the watch and check the in-app history for the match; if it's there, contact us with the activity timestamp.

I want shot detection / the other five skins

Those are on the Wear OS roadmap and not yet ported to Connect IQ. The Monkey C runtime is more constrained than Android — implementing the motion classifier on Garmin is a separate project. Drop a note via the email at the bottom of this page if you'd like it prioritised.

I have both a Wear OS watch and a Garmin watch — can they share data?

Not directly. The Wear OS build syncs to your Android phone (BluePadel Companion); the Garmin build syncs to Garmin Connect. There's no current bridge between the two. If you want a unified history, the workaround is to export both into a third-party tracker that ingests FIT and JSON.

Where's my data?

The match record lives on the watch and in Garmin Connect (which is hosted by Garmin under their terms). BluePadel itself doesn't run any servers. Match data is included in the FIT activity file like any other Garmin workout — the same retention and sharing settings you've configured in Garmin Connect apply.

Need more help?

Email hello@bluepadel.co.za with your watch model, the Connect IQ Store version of BluePadel, and what's not working. Garmin's diagnostic export from Settings → System → About can help if the issue is sync-related — attach it if you have it.