Garmin inReach Messenger

I got this for some backcountry hunting trips. It is really nice to put my Fiancée's mind at ease when I'm trekking deep into bear country most of the time in the dark. Super easy to use and the added benefit of purchasing SAR Insurance at a reasonable rate make this a no brainer. Definitely worth the extra few ounces.

Excellent with easy to use features. Acquires GPS satellites quickly! I always have communication with a message satellite, even in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico! At this price, can't be beat. It works!

I have used a Garmin 66i on many occasions in the backcountry. While the inReach messenger doesn't have all the same capabilities as that unit it gets the job done. If you are on a budget but need an inreach this is the tool for your toolbox. The antenna is impressively strong and I haven't had any connectivity issues with my phone. The garmin apps are well made making this a great product. Lightweight and fits nicely in a binoharness if you carry one of those around.

Was great from a safety, messenger and tracking perspective. Would be great to be able to load GPX to show the pathing. Similar to the Garmin forerunner 945 I use and my support crew can track.

Bought a few months ago. Few times that I used it was spot on to get the message out.

Living in Wyoming cell service is an issue, especially in the mountains. My Wife has Multiple Sclerosis, so keeping in contact with her is imperative. InReach provides us with the ability to keep in contact if she starts having issues. InReach gives both of us a peace of mind when I am away, she knows I am safe and I know everything is good with her.

Great insurance. The interface with mobile phone through the Messenger app is convenient, although my first trip I forgot my phone and the auto generated check-in texts are really nice. They feature a hyper text link to a detailed map with exact coordinates so friends and family know exactly where you can be found.

I bought this as my first satellite communicator after getting tired of not being able to update my family on solo hikes/camping as a female. I tried it with my family before I went on my 4 day backpacking adventure (with 3 friends). Not knowing how these things worked, it was easy to figure out. The cool part was that I was still able to send/receive messages with my cell phone being OFF and it would still send them updates of my location tracking. Texting was not super easy on the device since it's just one long line of letters to scroll left or right on so it took some time. But, it isn't exactly meant to be used as a cell phone to consistently send messages back and forth. No complaints with it at all. It did take a little while to send messages sometimes depending on where I was (tree cover vs open sky). My friends and I all had communicators and we hiked our own hike, so we weren't always together. We kept each other informed of dangers on the trail or what to look out for. Since messages weren't sending quickly, a helpful hint to anyone using a satellite communicator would be to timestamp any message that is sent. The longest was a 8min delay, but again, open sky is key. One annoying thing was that it didn't come with a lanyard, clip, or anything to attach it to your pack and I didn't want to buy accessories. I ended up finding some thin cord to fish through the spot it's supposed to go and attached it to a twisty tie to keep on my pack. Overall, love the thing. Highly recommend.

This product does the basics and is a great product for emergencies or just checking in with your contacts back home. A great feature is contacting inreach to inreach. That has proven extremely helpful. The only frustrating thing is the app can glitch sometimes but you don’t necessarily need your phone. You can load texts or type them out via the device (can be difficult).

Once I figured out how to set this gadget up it was easy to use and very dependable but good grief!! setup instructions are woefully insufficient I learned from a friend of mine that I could type in texts on my phone and they would go through my Inreach. Never was that mentioned in the instructions. Everyone says this is difficult to set up. It's not that difficult if they would just tell you how to do it