Customer reviews from Garmin
Garmin - inReach Messenger 1.08" GPS with Built-In Bluetooth - Black
Average customer rating
4.3
(255 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 255 reviews
5 Stars
160
4 Stars
50
3 Stars
20
2 Stars
15
1 Star
10
Customer Reviews for Garmin - inReach Messenger 1.08" GPS with Built-In Bluetooth - Black
Customer Rating
5
Perfect for off grid adventures
on July 27, 2026
Posted by: High country adventure
Picked this up for a 12 day backcountry trip so family could follow our progress and for emergency contact. Worked better than expected.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
3
Messaging worked, not GPS/location
on July 22, 2026
Posted by: Tim22
Messaging worked fine with my iPhone but I could never get the location/GPS feature to show my wife my location along the trip route.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
5
Works perfectly!
on July 13, 2026
Posted by: outofcellrange75
Just used the inReach Messenger last weekend camping in a remote place in Colorado without cell service. The inReach worked perfectly connecting to family back home. Very portable and excellent battery life. Highly recommend the inReach for basic communication via my mobile device.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
1
Unpaired quickly from the app, not useful.
on July 8, 2026
Posted by: DrDC
Unpaired as soon as I needed it. I bought it for my daughter who was going on an expedition and wanted to be able to see her location. But by the time she went in the device was unpaired and didn't do what I needed it to do.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
2
Difficult to use
on July 8, 2026
Posted by: jbuck49
Few usable directions on use. Difficult to use. Expensive monthly fee.... Great battery life. I DON'T recommend!
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
5
Great Service
on July 4, 2026
Posted by: Clonts
I bought the Garmin GPS Inreach Messenger on June 12,2026 for my husband's 71st birthday. We live in Colorado and sometimes hike out of cell phone reach. He needed help getting the App on his phone set up, so he called the number given. Someone immediately answered in English, explained what to-do. Called him back after 5 minutes to ensure everything worked. We have not used yet but was extremely happy with service.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
4
Good
on June 27, 2026
Posted by: jwjbs
This is a good tool to get help if you having nothing else. I use it in conjunction with my Garmin Fenix 8. My plan is to use it if I happen to get stranded on a hike or bike ride. The only thing that doesn't work well is the messenger app when tied to the watch. The watch does not recognize any of my contacts. But overall certainly works better than the Fenix 8 pro sattelite service.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
4
Very good unit but user interface is clunky.
on June 25, 2026
Posted by: zilla
I bought this to replace my SPOTX which died after many years of use. The SPOT is MUCH more user friendly. One webpage for all user interaction. Map, tracking, billing etc etc. While the Garmin actually seems to work better as it has a better say system, it is clunkier to get around in. SPOT assigns a unique number to you unit that is used for texting etc. Garmin does not. You have to go through a user portal for texting or respond within ten minutes of receiving a text. I have 2 apps installed om my phone and one on my wife's. also 3 apps on my desktop. It doesn't have to be this hard. It took me over a week to get everything figured out. Now that I am "on board" it works well.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin