OpenWaterSpots reads open-water swim activities from Strava. That's the universal hub — every major sportswatch ships with a Strava sync toggle, and once you flip it, every open-water swim your watch records flows: watch → vendor app → Strava → here. No manual exports, no per-swim taps. Below is the one-time setup for each major brand. After it's done you only need to revisit if you change watches.
One thing to know up front: we only import activities tagged Open Water Swim on your watch — not "Pool Swim" or generic "Swim". So when you start a workout on the watch, pick the open-water mode (every brand has one). Pool training stays in Strava and doesn't show up here, by design — OpenWaterSpots is an open-water platform, and pool data has no spot, no conditions, no community swim context.
Why Strava and not direct integration? Garmin, Apple, Suunto, Fitbit and Coros all have private APIs that require either a native mobile app or vendor-approved partner status — neither of which we have as a small open-source web project. Strava's OAuth API is public, free, and supports the swim activity types we need. Building four native integrations to skip Strava would cost months of work to save you a 30-second one-time settings toggle.
Garmin — Open the Garmin Connect app on your phone. Tap More (bottom-right) → Settings → Connected Apps (or "Partner Connections" on older versions) → Strava → Connect. You'll log into Strava once to authorise. Done. From now on every swim recorded on your Garmin watch (Forerunner, Fenix, Swim 2, vivoactive, Epix) auto-uploads to Strava within a few minutes of you syncing the watch to your phone.
Apple Watch — Apple doesn't have direct Strava sync. Install the Strava iOS app, sign in, then go to Profile (top-left avatar) → Settings → Applications, Services, and Devices → Health → Connect. Approve the Apple Health permissions Strava asks for (workouts must be allowed). Apple Watch swim workouts then appear in Strava within a few minutes of the workout ending. Note: only Pool Swim and Open Water Swim activity types sync — make sure you start the right workout type on the watch.
Suunto — Open the Suunto app. Tap Profile → Settings → Partner Services → Strava → toggle on. Authorize Strava. From then on every Suunto-recorded swim (Suunto 9, 7, Race, Vertical, Ocean) syncs across.
Fitbit — Open the Fitbit app. Tap Account (top right avatar) → scroll to Apps & Devices → Strava → connect. You may need to confirm via your Google account (Fitbit was acquired by Google). Once connected, Fitbit swim workouts (Charge 5/6, Versa, Sense, Inspire 3) sync to Strava.
Coros — Open the Coros app. Tap Profile → Settings → 3rd Party Apps → Strava → connect. All Coros watches (Pace, Apex, Vertix) push activities to Strava automatically.
Polar — Open the Polar Flow app or website. Go to Settings → Connect → Strava → connect. Activities flow over from any Polar watch (Vantage, Grit, Pacer, Ignite).
Last step — connect Strava to OpenWaterSpots. Once your watch is talking to Strava, sign in here, head to Profile → Edit, and click Connect Strava under "Connected accounts". Approve, then click Sync now. Every swim already in your Strava history shows up on your profile, with the same distance, duration, pace, and (for swims newer than May 2026) the satellite-imagery route line we decode from Strava's polyline.
After that, sync runs whenever you tap "Sync now" — typically after a swim, but the bell will also light up your activity even without a manual sync since likes / comments / follows on imported swims work the same as on phone-tracked ones. Strava remains the source of truth for your swim activities; we just relay them.