Stop Using Your Smartwatch Like a Dumb Stopwatch
Smartwatch hidden features are the lesser-known settings, shortcuts, and training tools that sit behind menus and transforms a basic wrist tracker into a tailored coaching device for navigation, recovery, and performance feedback across everyday workouts and long-distance adventures.
Most people buy a Garmin, Coros, or Suunto, start a run, and never touch the settings again. That is a waste. These devices ship with advanced Garmin training metrics, smarter navigation tools, and sports app customization options that stay buried unless you go digging. Like Garmin's higher-end models, the Forerunner 170’s buttons are fully customizable, and the default layout is not ideal for how many runners train. Suunto’s latest software updates add richer map context and community-built Sports Apps to Race 2 and Vertical 2 watches, but you have to pick layers and apps before heading out. If you want fitness tracking optimization instead of glorified step counting, you need to set the watch up for how you actually move.
Hidden Shortcuts and Data Fields: Turn Your Garmin Into a One-Press Coach
The first feature to master is shortcut remapping. On the Forerunner 70, you can reassign long-press button actions by holding the Up button, then going to Watch Settings > System > Shortcuts, and assigning new functions to different buttons. That means you can put Do Not Disturb or Silent Mode on the Down button instead of digging through the controls menu while annoyed mid-run. On the Forerunner 170, the same menu lets you map combos like Start + Up to lock the touchscreen in rain or to pull up contactless payment for a post-run coffee.
This is where most users blow it: they leave defaults untouched and then complain the watch is fiddly. Remapping buttons and stripping down data screens gives you fast access to only the fields you care about, instead of scrolling through cluttered pages while your interval ticks away. You are not stuck with the factory setup; you are stuck if you tolerate it.
Quick Workouts and Training Readiness: Let the Watch Do the Planning
The Forerunner 70’s Quick Workouts feature is one of the most underrated smartwatch hidden features. Instead of building a session from scratch, you choose a time and intensity, and the watch generates the workout using your current fitness data. It even factors in your Training Readiness score, so a 45-minute moderate session can look different from one day to the next depending on how recovered you are.
On the Forerunner 170, this sits on top of an even richer software stack. The watch includes full Training Status, Training Readiness, wrist-based running power, running dynamics, and cycling power-meter support—features that used to be reserved for pricier models. That is Garmin training metrics done right: they shape the workout you do today instead of becoming numbers you glance at once and ignore. Combined with lifestyle logging for meditation, reading, and other activities feeding into your wellness picture, you get fitness tracking optimization that respects your whole day, not just your long run.
Navigation Hacks: Breadcrumb Trails and Richer Maps for Trail Confidence
Navigation is where enabling the right features makes the difference between confident exploration and stressful guesswork. On the Forerunner 70 and 170, the Record Only mode creates a breadcrumb trail of everywhere you have been without the battery cost of full turn-by-turn navigation. These models do not have full onboard color mapping, but they still let you retrace your exact path if you get turned around by following the recorded trail back.
The trick is knowing when to use what. If you are on an unfamiliar route, keep navigation aids and features like Find My Phone enabled so your watch can ping your connected phone even if it is on silent. On familiar loops, you can turn off Always-On GPS to save battery, because constant high-precision tracking on routes you know is overkill and drains the watch faster. Meanwhile, Suunto’s latest updates add hill shading and city maps in the app plus richer map labels, contour lines, street labels, and points of interest on Race 2 and Vertical 2, alongside much larger route storage. If you do not pick the right map layers before a run, you are training blind on hardware built for detail.
Community Sports Apps and Battery Habits: Keep Your Watch Evolving
Suunto’s Open SuuntoPlus platform quietly solves a problem every long-term user faces: watches age faster than their firmware. More than 40 community-built Sports Apps are now available, alongside over 250 partner integrations in one growing ecosystem. Approved apps live in the Made by Suunto Community section of the SuuntoPlus Store and run directly on compatible watches. Because the community builds these apps, the watch can evolve faster than any firmware cycle, adding tools for ultra-running pacing, climbing intervals, altitude adaptation, and exploration.
But none of this matters if your watch dies early. On familiar routes, it is wise to turn off Always-On GPS so easy workouts do not drain the battery. Treat your battery like your training block: avoid unnecessary full charge cycles, and cap charging instead of topping to 100% every time. Combined with thoughtful sports app customization and smart use of navigation features, you end up with a device that grows with your fitness, not one that resists it.
Conclusion: Configure Once, Benefit Every Workout
If your smartwatch feels underwhelming, the problem is not the hardware—it is the setup. Button shortcuts, Quick Workouts tied to Training Readiness, breadcrumb navigation, Suunto’s richer maps and Sports Apps, and better battery habits all share one theme: they reward a bit of configuration with months of smoother training. The real hidden feature is the discipline to spend thirty minutes in the menus so you can spend the next thousand miles focused on the run, not the watch.
