Garmin watches now work with Pokemon Sleep and get themed watch faces
Garmin recently released a few Pokémon Sleep watches for World Sleep Day. The characters in it even respond to your body’s battery during the day, becoming more sleepy as your energy levels decrease.
There is also something big going on here. Pokémon Sleep is now compatible with select Garmin smartwatches.
Garmin sleep data can now be synced with Pokémon Sleep
Pokémon Sleep is a mobile game built entirely around sleep tracking. You go to bed, the app records your sleep time and the next morning you find out which Pokémon appeared during the night based on your sleeping style.
So far the game has relied heavily on sleep tracking via a bedside smartphone or Pokémon GO Plus+ device. The Pokémon Company has now announced that the game is compatible with Garmin smartwatches.
A slightly unusual crossover. On the other hand you have Garmin’s sleep tracking tools. On the other hand you have a game where sleeping Pokémon appear depending on how well you slept. But when it comes to most people paying attention to their sleeping habits is probably doing the job.
Two Pokémon watch faces are now available
Alongside the integration announcement, Garmin released two themed watch faces in the Connect IQ store.
The first one is called Pokémon Sleep Snorlax and Friends. It features Snorlax and several familiar characters including Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle.
The second design is Pokémon Sleep I Picked You. That allows you to choose one Pokémon from a selection of forty-eight different characters.
Both watch faces respond to Garmin’s Body battery metrics. When your Body Battery is high it looks energetic and happy. As your energy drops you start to look drowsy. It is a visual system of the Body Battery number.
There is also a sleep time indicator built into the design. About ninety minutes before the sleep schedule is set on Garmin Connect the watch face switches to a dark night mode to indicate that it may be time to start going to bed.
A small but interesting crossover
At first glance this may look like Garmin is having a little fun with the release of themed watch faces. But the compatibility of Pokémon Sleep makes the announcement even more interesting.
Pokémon Sleep has built a respectable following since its launch and millions of players use it as a motivational tool to improve sleep habits. With the game now compatible with select Garmin smartwatches a large group of wearable users can now participate in that ecosystem as well.
For Garmin it’s another example of its health data connecting to external platforms.
Wearables used to operate in tightly closed systems. You tracked your workouts and sleep within one app and that was about it. Now those same metrics are beginning to flow into other services and experiences.
This time the destination turns out to be a game about sleepy Pokémon. And judging by the online reaction of many Garmin users they are very happy to see their watch turn into a little Pokémon friend of the day.
Source: Garmin
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The post Garmin watches now work with Pokemon Sleep and get themed watch faces appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.
